Areas of Emphasis

The CPLE has six areas of emphasis that were created in response to the equity priorities that are shared by law enforcement across the country.  These areas of emphasis are:

Racial Profiling and Police Use of Force

While the definition of “racial profiling” may vary depending on one’s audience, most agree that the term refers to the suspicion of criminality or harassment of non-Whites by law enforcement for no reason other than race.  As Cleary defines the term, racial profiling happens “when a police officer stops, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone solely on the basis of the person’s race or ethnicity.”

Scholars and law enforcement officials have long debated what the appropriate metric for computing bias might be (Blank, Dabady, & Citro, 2004; Banks, 2003), yet there is not yet a consensual solution.  For example, few argue that police stops should be proportional to the Black population of an urban setting because this assumes a uniform rate of crime across race-likely a faulty assumption.  However, nearly every other “baseline” metric for how often a young Black male should be stopped (e.g. arrest rate, rate of conviction, etc.) is as likely to be biased as the stop rate itself. Thus, there is significant debate about what a reasonable baseline for comparison might be since the available baselines are either subject to bias themselves or unreasonable anchors.

This lack of basic information regarding race and its impact on policing is deeply troubling for anyone committed to equitable treatment in the criminal justice system.  In order to support law enforcement in its mission to provide public safety for all, the best social science must be employed to bring clarity to issues of racial equity in policing. The CPLE endeavors to do just that.

Immigration Policy Enforcement

It is often said that the United States is a “Nation of Immigrants.”  So, too, it is said that the United States is a “Nation of Laws.” How the U.S.-and other nations-resolves these two identities in the face of ever increasing immigration pressures will reflect the character of the nation.  And law enforcement will have an important role to play in shaping that reflection.

While some federal initiatives encourage municipal law enforcement to cross-deputize their officers-creating police officers and sheriffs who are also immigration agents-many are worried that such efforts will create more problems than they solve.  Specifically, local law enforcement have expressed concern that undocumented citizens will become reluctant to report serious crimes if they suspect that law enforcement will suspect them of being in the U.S. illegally-and that documented Latino citizens will similarly lose faith in police.  Community groups have also expressed alarm at the prospect of cross-deputization due to concerns that it would encourage racial profiling.

Supporters of cross-deputization have argued that immigration policy enforcement will not be possible without the help of local police. But what are the effects of these policies on communities and officers?  There is little empirical research addressing this issue at a time when there is great need for informed perspectives.  This and other immigration-related concerns form the heart of the CPLE Immigration Policy Enforcement Area of Emphasis.

Drug Policy Enforcement

Racial disparities in drug sentencing abound and are cause for concern. Crack cocaine and powder cocaine, for instance, are derived from the same drug and have the same pharmacological basis and biological effects.  The courts, however, treat individuals possessing these respective drugs in a drastically unequal manner.  Because crack cocaine is significantly cheaper and more accessible in the public domain to non-Whites than is powder cocaine, this creates disparities that are strikingly born out across racial lines.

While drug policy is not the purview of law enforcement, scholars and activists have long been concerned that racial disparities resulting from drug policy enforcement profoundly affect both law and police perceptions of race and criminality.  The consequences of drug policy, therefore, may have indirect and profound consequences on racial equity in law enforcement.  However, because previous researchers have not had access to law enforcement agencies, these hypotheses have been impossible to test.  Consequently, the CPLE has a commitment to understanding the role of drug policy enforcement on law enforcement.

Organizational Equity

What does an ideal law enforcement agencies look like?  How many women?  How many Whites?  Though this is not a serious question, law enforcement has long struggled to make itself a more complete reflection of the communities it serves.  Achieving that end, however, has been elusive.  Consequently, the wealth of research on gender and racial equity in recruitment, hiring, retention, training, and promotion must be applied to the realm of law enforcement.  So, too, must researchers come to a more thorough understanding of what the benefits of a more representative police force might be for various communities-as well as the potential costs of such diversification.

Youth Offenders

Every society has a special responsibility to protect and serve its most vulnerable citizens. Perhaps we feel this need most acutely when it comes to our children.  However, mounting evidence suggests that some children are not as well protected as others.  And race may be involved.

For instance, Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research (HACER) found that Hispanic/Latino juvenile offenders were overrepresented in the juvenile justice system by 227% in 1990 and 92% in 2000.  The United States Department of Justice published data about juvenile offenders in 2006 that further articulates the racial disparities among youth offenders.  According the Justice Department’s report, the number of Black juveniles arrested outnumbered the number of White juveniles arrested every year from 1980-2003.  In 2003, 186.4 white juveniles were arrested and 752.3 black juveniles were arrested (per 100,000 arrests).

Race is also implicated in whether or not youth are transferred into the adult court system.  For instance, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) found that between 1985-1995, African-American youth were significantly overrepresented in the number of youth transferred to adult courts.  This was particularly true with regard to drug offenses.  If our treatment of our most vulnerable citizens is our measure of virtue, then there is a clear imperative to understand the causes of these inequalities, and rectify them.

Community and Media Relations

If “perception is reality,” as the saying goes, then what is the role of media in policing equity?  While it may be the responsibility of professional journalists to inform the public of important equity-related issues, what is the responsibility of journalists when the issue is still not well understood even by the “experts?”

The role of media in the perception of law enforcement, race, and crime is further complicated by the ever-changing face of new media that both “de-professionalizes” journalism and democratizes it. What is the role of journalism in producing stereotypes about police?  Crime?  Criminals?  And how can new media best be engaged to produce equitable representations in the criminal justice arena?  Ongoing dialogues between media and law enforcement (as well as research projects) are core to CPLE’s mission of understand what produces racial inequality in law enforcement arenas.