Racial Profiling | American Civil Liberties Union

Q: What is racial profiling?

“ Racial Profiling ” refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of characteristics they believe to be associated with crime.

Question 1

What is racial profiling?

Accepted Answer

“Racial Profiling” refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Criminal profiling, generally, as practiced by police, is the reliance on a group of characteristics they believe to be associated with crime.

Question 2

When does racial profiling occur?

Accepted Answer

Law enforcement practices fuel racial inequalities in many areas of the criminal legal system by associating people of color with crime, especially with traffic stops. This phenomenon is known as “driving while Black or Brown.”

Question 3

Who practices racial profiling?

Accepted Answer

Racial profiling can be practiced by local, state, and federal law enforcement officers. In recent years, the FBI has targeted Black people in a secret intelligence program concerning so-called “Black identity extremists” — an inflammatory term for a group that doesn’t even exist — and wrongly investigated and arrested multiple Asian American scientists based on the country they were born in. This practice echoes earlier, shameful government surveillance programs that sought to discredit civil rights and Black power activists who were critical to advancing racial equality — and it echoes modern-day spying that impacts immigrants and Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities.

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