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The concept of racial profiling first came about in lieu of a situation in 1998, in which two New Jersey state troopers shot two of four passengers in a van that was originally stopped for speeding on the New Jersey Turnpike (2). The van began to roll, and allegedly, the state troopers felt as if they were in imminent danger, so decided to open fire on the vehicle. The result was a split settlement amounting in approximately 12.95 million dollars courtesy of the New Jersey State Police Organization (2). Following this situation and case, the concept of racial profiling became a popular media topic, and began one of the most controversial issues surrounding police discretion.
When a police officer stops a law breaker for any infraction of the law, then he or she must have a reason for conducting a search. In perhaps all examples, an officer cannot cross the fourth amendment simply because of a persons" physical appearance, but must have reasonable doubt to do so. Consider the following situation, in which a family of Africa-americans were stopped in Maryland by state troopers. The state trooper wanted to conduct a search on them, and one of the victims, Robert Wilkins, states, "and when I pushed him as to why he thought we were suspicious, and why he thought he had a right to do this to us, he said, "Well, we're having a problem with rental cars and drugs," (1) A response like that does not seem satisfactory, as Wilkins and others felt, for they were sure that they were stopped solely because of their color. Wilkins filed a lawsuit against the Maryland State Police Department, and settled for roughly 95 thousand dollars (1). It is obvious that more individuals than the African-americans involved in the situation felt that it was because of racial profiling that they were pulled over. Following the case settlement, officers were ordered to keep a record of the races of every law-breaker they encounter (1).
