Reducing Ethnic Profiling in the European Union - Open Society ...

Intelligence-based Law EnforcementWhen law enforcement actions are based on specific and timely intelligence, they aremore likely to be objective and less likely to be based on stereotypes. The developmentand use of intelligence in targeting operations should both reduce ethnic profiling andincrease police effectiveness. Improving the quality and use of intelligence is mosteffective when combined with increased supervision and monitoring of officers’ useof their powers. Officers should be given daily briefings to ensure they have the mostup-to-date knowledge of available intelligence and local information on which to basetheir activities.There is considerable mystique and confusion around the notion of “intelligence.”In practice, most law enforcement intelligence comes from information andanalysis derived from a review of crimes and crime patterns, and information obtainedfrom individuals in local communities. New technologies are increasingly important tomany aspects of law enforcement, but this should not obscure the fact that policing, atits heart, depends on public cooperation. Local intelligence is generally derived fromregular law enforcement contacts with community residents, reporting by communitymembers, informants, and, more rarely, surveillance and under-cover operations.The role of intelligence is especially important—and especially complicated inrelation to ethnic profiling—in two areas: suspect descriptions and transnational criminalinvestigations. In both cases, there is a fine line between the legitimate use ofintelligence and outright ethnic profiling. A “suspect description” consists of personalinformation such as skin, hair, and eye color; height and weight; clothing and otherinformation that is derived from descriptions provided by the crime victim or witnesses.A good suspect description can be used by officers as the basis for stops and searches todetain the suspect. However, when law enforcement officers receive an overly generalsuspect description that features race or ethnicity but lacks more specific identifyingcharacteristics, they should not use that description as the basis for operations suchas stops and searches. By using an overly general suspect description, police are likelyto stop innocent persons who happen to share the same traits, and risk engaging inethnic profiling. Instead, they should seek further specific operational intelligence toguide their investigations.For example, following a series of brutal robberies committed by two “darkskinnedmen,” the Vienna police were ordered to stop all black Africans in pairs foridentity checks; only when this provoked an outcry did they refine the suspect descriptionto focus on black men, about 25 years old and 170 cm. tall, with slim builds, andwearing light down jackets. 187 The police use of an overly broad suspect description thatfocused exclusively on skin color is a clear example of ethnic profiling: many innocent104 STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING ETHNIC DISPROPORTIONALITY