There are two sets of racial profiling. One active and one
passive. In this case as you may have surmised, I will talk about active
racial profiling. So let's get started.
Defined: Active racial profiling is the type that has caused
controversy. Here police and other statisticians take crime data and
overlay it with community data in combination with that community’s racial and
ethnic makeup. The goal is to get an idea of where in the community a
crime is going to occur and by which group of people of a given racial or
ethnic background. In short, who in the community with a given skin color
is likely to commit a crime and where. Other data is thus factored in to
try and achieve success in predicting where the crimes might occur.
Usage: This data is then given to police so that
they will send out more patrol cars to a given area where the crime is most
likely to occur. As such, the chances for illegal activity diminish.
Another application is when it comes to
such programs as stop and frisk. Police will target the given ethnic
group in a given area where those individuals are more likely to have drugs or
illegal weapons on their person. Standard police tactics of questioning
are applied so as to reduce the need to search an innocent bystander.
Continued use: Active racial profiling is
controversial because you are singling out a particular race and ethnicity in a
given community. Thus it has been maligned as overtly racist and brings
up bad memories when the police where harassing people of a given race rather
than protect them. As such, numerous laws have been passed to ensure that
such data is not exclusively reliant on racial profiling, but used in
combination with other prediction data on criminal acts to thwart crime.
Future: The United States is becoming more and more a police
like State which fears terrorism and strife more than anything. From this
fear (despite the negative feelings on the issue) racial profiling in the
active is here to stay. Unfortunately, the primary reason for this is due
to the rise of radical religions and cults that seek to do us all harm.
As such racial profiling helps to root out the smaller dangerous elements
in the communities at large in an effort to protect the community as a whole.
However, this form of profiling will be still combined with other forms
of data to get the most accurate picture of a terrorist or worst.
Conclusion: I do not doubt that active racial
profiling is here to stay. While politicians denounce it as evil because it is
politically expedient, it will simply be given a new name or be included in
other data gathering techniques to compensate. The result is a predictive
software to aid us in stopping crime and other forms of criminality. As a
libertarian though I am fearful of its misuse and misinterpretation. It
may lead to a more insecure society and more racial strife if applied wrong.
I like the idea of it being combined with other data so as to offset any
overtly racial connotations, but I still fear it as a whole. I want smaller
government, but this may allow the government to embrace tyranny. As such, so
long as this is not used for nefarious purposes (which I will go over in a
separate issue) then this technique will prove useful and thus I will support
it until a better ( and maybe more reliable) alternative
appears.
No comments:
Post a Comment