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A publication of the Open Society Justice Initiative, June 2005 Contents Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe Foreword: Christopher Stone 1 Introduction Ethnic profiling, the inappropriate use by law Toward a Europe 6 enforcement of an individual's ethnic character- Without Ethnic Profiling James A. Goldston istics in identifying criminal suspects, is wide- Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe spread but under-researched in Europe. Justice Evidence of Ethnic Profiling 14 in Selected European Countries Initiatives examines profiling by police in Europe, Misti Duvall and explores the methods used in the United ID Checks and Police Raids: 26 Ethnic Profiling in Central Europe States and the United Kingdom to confront it. Iulius Rostas A Failure to Regulate: Data 32 Protection in the Police Sector in Europe FOREWORD Benjamin Hayes The Case for Monitoring 44 Ethnic Profiling in Europe Preparing a Fresh Assault Stephen Humphreys on Ethnic Profiling Monitoring and Measuring Ethnic Profiling Christopher Stone† Measuring and Understanding 53 st Minority Experiences of Stop In this first decade of the 21 century, efforts to end ethnic and Search in the UK profiling by police are entering a new stage: more global, more Joel Miller collaborative, and more practical than the campaigns of the Benchmarking and Analysis 59 late 1990s. This volume of Justice Initiatives provides both a for Ethnic Profiling Studies succinct summary of the lessons from the recent past and a John Lamberth guide for those who are now preparing fresh assaults against Policing Practice: Case Studies the invidious use of race and ethnicity as markers of suspicion. Confronting Ethnic Profiling 66 In the late 1990s, the campaign against “racial profiling” in the United States by police services in the United States enjoyed a swift and David Harris somewhat surprising political victory. Despite resistance from Voluntary Monitoring of Law 75 many police organizations, first President Clinton and then Enforcement in Michigan President Bush took up the cause on the side of civil liberties, Interview with Harry Dolan promising to end racial profiling. In June 1999, President Stop and Search: 82 Clinton committed his administration to “stop the morally the Leicestershire Experience Richard Keenan indefensible, deeply corrosive practice of racial profiling.” As he explained: “Racial profiling is, in fact, the opposite Ethnic Profiling, Policing, 88 and Suspect Communities: of good police work, where actions are based on hard facts, Lessons from Northern Ireland not stereotypes. It is wrong; it is destructive; and it must Mary O’Rawe stop.” Twenty months later, in a speech to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush similarly pledged “to end racial profiling.” Echoing Clinton’s words, he said simply, “It’s wrong and we will end it in America.” Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe For civil rights and civil liberties origin, and even religious affiliation as advocates, this was an extraordinary badges of suspicion. Yet even where political victory. In a decade when the police leadership voluntarily embraced U.S. prison population was expand- the movement to end profiling or ing at unprecedented rates and talk- where courts ordered that police put ing tough on crime was a prerequisite an end to these patterns and practices, for every political office, this pledge the hope among advocates that strong by two presidents raised hopes that policies, new training, and strict mon- dramatic changes in American polic- itoring could end racial profiling ing were just around the corner. proved overly optimistic. Even before In the United Kingdom, a parallel September 2001, the phenomenon of campaign against racial bias in British racial profiling was proving more policing achieved a similar, surprising complex and more resistant to reform victory. In language that continues than its adversaries had anticipated. to reverberate through British polic- For example, some police chiefs who ing, the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry had implemented all the best practices concluded in 1999 that “institutional still found themselves with data that racism” existed as “a corrosive disease” showed large racial disparities, sug- in the Metropolitan Police Service and gesting, among other things, that the in other police services “countrywide.” statistics compiled for advocacy pur- Actions soon followed. In both poses might not be best suited to serve countries, police agencies began to as performance indicators. strengthen written policies and moni- The underlying injustice of racial tor the race and ethnicity of people profiling remains as repugnant as ever. subjected to stops and searches. Both In countless interactions with civilians national governments pressed their every day, too many police presume that local police to eliminate racial profil- people with dark skin, foreign appear- ing and both put procedures in place ance, or a particular religious faith are to hold police agencies accountable likely to be criminals or at least worth if they failed. checking out. And the police actions Then, in less than a year, progress entailed in “checking out” these people slowed almost to a stop. Many civil lib- are rarely pleasant. Finding oneself the erties champions blame the Al Qaeda object of a selective police stop and attacks of September 2001 for weak- search is sometimes merely an embar- ening the political commitment to end rassing inconvenience, but more often racial profiling; but that is not the full a humiliating and upsetting experience, story. Certainly, following the attacks and occasionally a perilous encounter. in the United States and the March This is as true in Europe as it remains 2004 attacks in Madrid, police in the in the United States. Indeed, as James United States and Europe were given Goldston points out at the start of his tacit—and sometimes explicit—per- Introduction, this form of injustice may mission to rely on ethnicity, national be growing in Europe in particular. 2 Open Society Preparing a Fresh Assault on Racial Profiling How, then, can a fresh assault on 3. Monitor deployment of police and this injustice push beyond where the the volume of stops they make. Even initial efforts stalled only a few years with precise ambitions and appropri- ago, and how can Europeans in partic- ate benchmarks, merely monitoring ular make sense of this earlier experi- the numbers of stops and searches ence. The papers in this volume point is not enough. As Ben Hayes points the way, suggesting seven practical out, monitoring in England and principles that might guide the next, Wales “has not resulted in significant more global campaign. reductions in the numbers of stops 1. Be clear about the purpose and searches conducted or their dis- of reform. As Stephen Humphreys proportionate impact on non-whites.” writes, those who naively hoped that Joel Miller’s insightful contribution an assault on racial profiling could explains why that might be: when stop reverse the growth of the prison popu- and search numbers are compared lation, reduce the overrepresentation with the right benchmark—the demo- of racial and ethnic minorities inside graphics of the population on the those prisons, or end the war on streets—it appears that there is drugs have been sorely disappointed. little profiling going on: at least in that Indeed, the attack on racial profiling single location. As Miller writes: was politically successful precisely “When police stop and search activity because it did not aim to change the was compared with these street popu- arrest, prosecution, or incarceration of lations, disparities involving minori- actual offenders. Instead it took up the ties all but disappeared.” The deploy- cause of innocent people who, because ment of police to high crime areas, of their race or ethnicity, became particularly if those areas have dispro- caught in overly wide dragnets. Even portionate numbers of ethnic minori- within this narrow frame, an assault ties on the streets, can generate on racial profiling can challenge and disproportionate numbers of stops help reduce the biases that contribute without any individual officers relying to the over-incarceration of ethnic on stereotypes to guide their discre- minorities; but it is merely one of tion. To end the disproportionate many vectors by which multiple biases impact of stops in this context, police infect the administration of justice. commanders must reduce the volume 2. Build the right benchmarks of stops made by police in minority against which to judge police work. communities, a plausible step in light Monitoring of police stop and search of research showing that stop and activities has become much more search is not particularly effective sophisticated over the last decade. at reducing crime. As Joel Miller As John Lamberth describes, each sit- explains: “searches are most effective uation should be separately evaluated when used sparingly” and in combina- to understand what figure one should tion with intelligence that can guide use as the benchmark. police to a narrow group of suspect Justice Initiative 3 Ethnic Profiling by Police in Europe individuals. Illustrating this precise in the community, and especially point, Police Inspector Richard Keenan those who were critical of the police explains that he has succeeded in department. We wanted a cross-sec- Leicester because “stop and search is tion of leaders involved and this in used sparingly and within defined itself generated a lot of excitement, parameters, in the context of actual as it had not been done before.” intelligence.” 6. Extend monitoring into the rest 4. Monitor what happens inside each of the criminal justice system. stop. Racial profiling can continue to Institutional racism and biased poison a police encounter during assumptions about what criminals the stop itself. An aggressive approach look like are not confined to the police. by police officers can itself begin a cycle In her contribution, Mary O’Rawe of escalation that ends with the civilian describes an innovative effort in arrested for conduct during the stop.

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