Racial Profiling in Reno Nevada

Thumbnail Image

Authors

Bale, Steven C.

Issue Date

2014

Type

Dissertation

Language

Keywords

race based policing , racial profiling , search and seizure , traffic stops

Research Projects

Organizational Units

Journal Issue

Alternative Title

Abstract

In the early 1990s, the topic of racial profiling by law enforcement agencies started to emerge into the arena of public scrutiny. After the State of Nevada did a study in 2001, which was claimed to be faulty, the City of Reno, Nevada and the Reno Police Department decided to initiate a study of various activities of the Reno Police in order to determine if racial profiling was really taking place. That study encompassed an evaluation of a major tourist based week-long activity, Hot August Nights, for 2003 and 2004. Hot August Nights is an annual event drawing people from all over the United States, celebrating classic cars and the accompanying culture of the 1950s. The study also included winter and summer traffic studies in 2004. Thereafter, data was obtained relating to traffic stops and arrests that pertain to the different environments defined above. This dissertation studies the traffic stops and arrests and compares them to the base demographic data, ensuring that both stop/arrest data and base demographic data were related to the same geographic area and comparable time periods. The special event demographic data and the traffic demographic data are based on information gathered by a research team. The rest of the data comes from the Reno Police Department official records. This dissertation also considers the behavior of Reno Nevada city police officers subsequent to traffic stops. There are two primary areas of focus in this dissertation: (1) an analysis of whether there is a wide spread pattern of racially biased policing by the officers of the Reno Nevada Police Department, either in their traffic stops or in the arrests made during the city's largest special event of each year, and (2) an analysis of post-stop behaviors, including stop duration, search rates, vehicle occupants made to exit their vehicles, and vehicle occupants that are ultimately handcuffed. Racial profiling continues to be a controversial issue not only in traffic stops but also in all other duties performed by police officers. There have been a variety of studies performed in numerous states relating to accusations of racial profiling. Some suggest that one of the primary reasons behind racial profiling is the assumption that certain races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, genders, or age groups may be more prominently involved in criminal behavior.

Description

Citation

Publisher

License

In Copyright(All Rights Reserved)

Journal

Volume

Issue

PubMed ID

DOI

ISSN

EISSN