NC State University News ServicesCampus Bax 7504Raleigh, NC 27695-7504(919) 515-3470[email protected]www.ncsu.edu/news
NEWS TIP
Media Contacts:Dr. Matthew T. Zingraff, 919/513-1837 or [email protected]
Kevin Potter, NC State News Services, 919/515-3470 or [email protected]
Nov. 28, 2000
Racial Profiling Expert Available to Discuss New Jersey Situation
Records released this week about traffic stops by state troopers in New Jersey indicate the magnitude of the racial profiling problem there, says Dr. Matt Zingraff, professor of sociology at North Carolina State University. But, he adds, people should not assume that racial profiling is an institutional policy among law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Zingraff -- who, with a $472,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice, is conducting a 20-month study of North Carolina Highway Patrol traffic stops -- is available to comment on racial profiling in general and the New Jersey situation specifically.
The New Jersey policy in the mid-1980s to stop drivers based on their skin color -- while unlawful -- was implemented as a part of the state's concerted effort to tackle drug smuggling, he says. Elsewhere, Zingraff explains, statistics show that racial profiling is less likely to be an institutional policy, although some individual officers may use racial bias when making traffic stops.
"Because there was the targeted activity in New Jersey, that's not a reason to wholesale indict law enforcement officials across the nation of doing the same thing, while there may be some racist and unlawful behavior by individual officers," said Zingraff, who is associate dean for research in NC State's College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Zingraff urges both sides of the debate to wait for researchers to thoroughly study the complex situation before deciding if it is or is not a nationwide problem. "Eventually people are going to get tired of the extremes and want to move on, and that would be a mistake too," he said.
-- potter --
RSS