Race matters: A critical look at racial profiling, it's a matter for the courts

The disproportionate number of minority motorists stopped by the police gives rise to a host of salient questions which center on contemporary police practices. Research has shown that traffic stops are routinely used as a “pretext” to stop minority drivers. In this article, the authors argue that the current police practice of disproportionately stopping minority motorists was formally sanctioned by the Supreme Court in Whren v. United States (1996). The current thrust to examine police practices will do little to end racial profiling, and the underpinnings of this problem, in part, lie in judicial precedent. The authors present the notion that in order to minimize racial profiling, the court must carve out an objective test from the Whren decision that will guide police behavior in the pretextual stops of motorists. The article concludes with a template of what this objective test may look like.