In a patrol car, a pair of officers receive a call from the dispatcher about a shooting in Brownsville that took place. The officers make way into Brownsville, Brooklyn at 4 A.M. When they arrive they notice a dead body and 2 witnesses. The officers call the ambulance and question the witnesses while it arrives. Both witnesses saw that the suspect is a black male, around the ages of 30 in which he was wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. The officers on their radio’s report to the other officers to be on the look out for such suspect. A few blocks away an officer notices a man walking down the street, and is described to fit the description of the suspect. The officer thinks briefly about the man fitting the illustration of the suspect and begins to questions himself. The officer believes that if the man is the suspect he must have a gun on him. He then introduces other possibilities such as an average New Yorker coming out of a bar after a good beer with his buddies, or a man just wanting to walk at 4 A.M. for pleasure. If the Police Officer doesn’t approach the man he would be abandoning his shield and going against his oath, that wouldn’t be a choice. The Officer knows that if the man is the suspect he has a gun on him. The Officer chooses the politically incorrect way and approaches the man aggressively, since Officer safety is paramount.

The Officer tells the man to lean up against the wall so he could be searched after telling him that he fits the description of a suspect involved in shooting someone. The embarrassed man begins to feel persecuted and tells the white Officer that he is racially profiling him. The Officer begins to frisk the man but finds no firearm on him, the man is detained and showed to the two witnesses. Both witnesses tell the Officer that the man is not the suspect. The Officer apologizes to the man in which he lets him free. The man grows a hatred to the police because he was mistreated. From an outside perspective the man was ill-treated, however, from an Officer’s point of view, the need to mistreat is essential because of the nature of their job. From an outside perspective, if the police told the man that he fits the description of a recent murderer, the man will think that it is just another reason for a “250” and that he is being stopped and frisked because the NYPD seeks numbers.

Anyone in the mans position would be upset especially with the way he was treated by the Officer, however, because law enforcement is solely based on suspicions, all suspicions must be investigated even if an individual is innocent. Most individuals who are stopped and frisked are often found innocent and a handful are found carrying an illegal firearm. There should be no relationship between stop and frisk and arrest records being utilized to deter and measure the stop and frisk policy. A Police Officer’s job is to protect and serve, as well as entailing the need to have suspicions of individuals; either innocent or guilty. If a Police Officer didn’t suspect and investigate he/she would be doing his/her job.

The stop and frisk policy is not only used in New York, rather, in other states as well. The U.S. Supreme court ruled that police have the right to search anyone who is about to commit a crime or already has committed the crime. New Yorkers refer to the “250” as a racist policy and believes that the chances of being in a “250” are solely based on an individuals skin color. The stop, question, and possible frisk policy doesn’t always have to end with an Officer frisking a suspect, the media only exaggerates it, just like the stop and kiss program which the Onion News (a satire organization) created. An Officer tells the suspect to shut his mouth and that he/she will kiss the suspect after reasonable cause for searching him/her. After the Police Academy, Officers are deployed into impact zones (high crime areas) in which they are demanded to keep crime at low levels. Stopping and frisking in these impact zones begins the argument of minorities being stopped and frisked. If there are people residing in impact zones they must be stopped and frisked, if the minorities live in impact zones they will be stopped and frisked to lower crime.

Police Officers go where the descriptions of suspects lead them. The dispatcher announces to the Officers on the radio that a white male has committed a robbery, the male is found to be wearing purple shirt, blue jeans, and orange socks. The Officer will not go up to a black male to stop, question, and frisk him because he fits the white males description. The police are not racially profiling individuals, they are just doing their jobs. Law enforcement is mostly based upon suspicions.