... activity they think is suspicious, they stop cars for traffic violations in the hope of discovering more serious criminality, and they engage in undercover operations in an effort to uncover crimes, like drug trafficking and prostitution, without complaining witnesses. Each of these police tactics involves the exercise of a substantial amount of discretion-the police decide who they consider suspicious, which cars to tail, what conduct warrants further investigation, and which neighborhoods need police enforcement. Unfortunately, that discretion is routinely exercised through racial ideologies. The practice of racial profiling ("the identification of potential criminal suspects on the basis of skin color or accent" pg. 481) is pervasive. One example of this that we talked about in class is "driving while black syndrome." Racial profiling is seemingly inconsistent with today's dominant law enforcement philosophy: community policing. But community policing is still a vague and elastic concept. At its best, community ...

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