Profiling vs Good Police Work

[TheeBadOne]

Police Find Gun, Crack, Marijuana in Blazer

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- Officers following a hunch overnight decided to follow a car, and when all was said and done, the car ended up upside down and the officers made a big find inside.

The car that police discovered had been reported stolen out of Raytown, Mo, and inside, they said, was a gun, along with sellable quantities of crack cocaine and marijuana.

They spotted the Chevy Blazer at around Third and Stewart and thought it looked suspicious, police said.

They followed it for a few blocks, then the driver of the Blazer took off.

"As we approached the vehicle, the driver took off at a high rate of speed. Approximately three to four minutes later, we found the vehicle in this alley ... upside down," said Detective Solomon Young, of the Kansas City, Kan., Police Department.

The driver of the Blazer was stuck inside the car, police said.

His injuries were very minor and he refused medical attention. He was taken to the hospital anyway.

http://www.kctv5.com/Global/story.asp?S=1494218&nav=1PuZIh6H
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Profiling or good Police work?

 

[444]

Both

 

[TheeBadOne]

Pointed out by someone else............

From another board:

It never ceaces to amaze me: a little old lady can call in a vehicle as "suspicious" and everything is ok. BUT a TRAINED-EXPERIENCED police officer CANNOT!

Good food for thought.

 

[critter]

Profiling IS good police work!

 

[Waitone]

Profiling is the accumulation of experience both individually and corporately.

Profiling is also common sense.

 

[Gordon Fink]

Don’t you get it? Everyone fits a profile.

~G. Fink

 

[benewton]

OK, I'll more or less accept the idea that a profile works, although only for this discussion.

So, if, as a LEO, you profile, then stop the person/vehicle, and you're right, fair enough, you get the "glory".

But, when you stop, and thus, by definition, harrass the innocent, just what price is it that you pay? How exactly is the pain/pressure felt by the innocent redressed?

And don't ever think that a simple "I'm sorry." does it.

While I do disagree with the current civil suit happy society, you've got to admit that there's no other way to even out the cost.

Still, I wish it were the actual LEO offenders, rather than the local taxpayers, who paid the price.

 

[treeprof]

I saw the black comic Darryl Hughley do a stand-up routine right after 9/11 during which he said that stopping him while he's driving around in a white neighborhood is profiling, but searching the Arab-looking men on his incoming flight was "dam* good police work".

 

[444]

He is a comic for a reason. The things that he says are meant to be laughed at.

 

[agricola]

Mere profiling is bad police work.

Stopping someone because there is grounds (broken rear light, excessive speed, erratic driving, no known keeper on the computer etc) to do so aside from "well he fits the profile of......" is, on the other hand, good police work.

 

[444]

I agree. This whole idea that profiling is bad comes from it's misuse, not by the technique itself. The idea that "we" shouldn't profile is ridiculous. Everyone does it, all the time. Anytime we look at someone, or at something, we get ideas about that person or thing; this is profiling. These first assumptions don't always turn out to be accurate, but we do it anyway and more often than not it proves to be correct. The times we are wrong, it is BIG news even if it was the only time we were wrong.
I am not a police officer, but I sometimes look at a car and think it is "suspicious". For example, I have been following behind someone and said to myself, this person is driving like they are intoxicated. There are also times when I am in that situation and say, I am sure this person is intoxicated. For example, they burn rubber, fishtailing wildly while leaving the parking lot of a bar while throwing beer cans out the window, while someone on the other side is vomiting.

 

[treeprof]

444 - Yes, I know. I thought it was a pretty humorous jab at the hypocrisy inherent in all the angst over profiling.

 

[Gordon Fink]

So let’s say I fit a profile (driving while looking like someone the cop thinks is a criminal). The cop pulls me over, but my papers are in order. He knows I must be a criminal, so he asks me for permission to search my vehicle. I refuse. Then what?

Meanwhile, somewhere across town, a real crime is occurring. The frantic victim has called the police, but the patrol officers are all tied up investigating people who fit a profile.

~G. Fink

 

[TheeBadOne]

so he asks me for permission to search my vehicle. I refuse. Then what?

So then nothing, you go along your merry way and the cop keeps looking.

 

[Gordon Fink]

What? Not even a Terry frisk?

~G. Fink

 

[TheeBadOne]

What? Not even a Terry frisk?

Well, if she's good looking you could always request one...

 

[Gordon Fink]

My point is this … If a black guy in a green car robs a bank, then you stop and investigate black guys driving green cars. If there is no specific crime or threat thereof to investigate, you leave people the hell alone.

Most of the “criminals†caught through profiling are drug offenders of one type or another. By tying up police resources in apprehending these mostly non-violent criminals and waisting even more time profiling (i.e., harassing) innocent citizens in the bargain, the cops can’t devote the time and energy needed to more effectively combat real crime (i.e., violence and theft).

~G. Fink

 

[Quartus]

My point is this … If a black guy in a green car robs a bank, then you stop and investigate black guys driving green cars. If there is no specific crime or threat thereof to investigate, you leave people the hell alone.

Can't argue with that.

 

[whitebear]

You know, in my humble opinion, profiling is just the way nature works. If you have to take the time to rationalize how you react in any given situation, to any given individual exhibiting any given behavior, then Darwin will be coming for you early.

Reactive behavior is based on learned profiles.

 

[pcf]

TheeBadOne,
I don't see how you came to the conclusion that the police were profiling. There really is no telling what the driver was doing to get the Police Officers attention or why the Police decided to follow the vehicle. For all we know they watched him sell crack out of his window, and were going to follow him until they were in an ideal location to pull him over. Maybe they saw a punched out lock or broken window on the car and decided to check it out. So could they have been profiling? Yes. But does this one boil down to profiling or good police work, neither, just a dumb criminal who got caught.

 

[p35]

An LEO can follow someone for no reason at all, and it sounds like that's what this one was doing. The problem arises when they make up a reason to pull the person over and start asking questions (my personal favorite is "license plate obscured by trailer ball hitch" as if that wasn't true of every pickup on the road). Can't see how this one was profiling, though.