In recent years there have been a number of incidents that have received broadcast, online, and social media attention. These events have involved white citizens calling police to request the investigation of “suspicious” members of racial and ethnic minority groups. While it is not clear this phenomenon is a new issue confronting policing, it is certainly an issue garnering appreciable attention, with video of many incidents quickly going viral on various social media platforms. The majority of these events have not resulted in any criminal charges against the minority citizens, though some jurisdictions have begun to discuss the of creation of sanctions that could be levied against callers.

Public safety personnel, including communications operators, patrol officers, and supervisors, are placed in difficult positions when receiving and handling calls for service that might be based in bias. While video of high-profile incidents often makes it readily apparent that the targeted citizen is doing nothing wrong, that might be difficult to determine based on the information conveyed in a phone call.

Clients are encouraged to examine what processes and protocols they have in place to help personnel determine whether a call for service might be motivated by bias. This could include training communications personnel how to ask questions suggestive of bias on the part of callers, alternative call response (i.e., dispatching a patrol supervisor), or steps to notify officers of the nature of the request for service. While a physical response might still be necessary, if officers are aware of the nature of a call they might be able to both prevent a social media controversy and avoid causing undue harm to the targets of the bias.

SRIC is considering several changes to commentary language in light of this concern. Those proposals have been posted to the CALEA Forum under SRIC. Please review and comment.

Additional Reading:
What can be done about "Profiling by Proxy?"