Black or Blue: Racial Profiling and Representative Bureaucracy

Abstract

Are there conditions under which minority bureaucrats are less likely to provide active representation? The authors address this question by testing the link between passive and active representation for race in a police department and in the particular instance of racial profiling. Literature from three areas—racial profiling, representative bureaucracy, and police socialization—is brought together. The findings support the hypothesis that organizational socialization can hinder the link between passive and active representation. Furthermore, the authors find that the presence of black police officers is related to an increase in racial profiling in the division. This finding was unexpected and raises several important questions regarding active representation and race.

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

“…By contrast, poll workers are temporary workers who, at most, work only a few days a year, and many work only a few elections before they retire. 2 Because they are temporary workers, poll workers are not likely to be part of the organizational culture of election administrators and, unlike teachers and police officers, are less likely to have shared norms or conformity (Meyers and Vorsanger 2003;Wilkins and Williams 2008). This temporary status heightens agency problems and enhances the discretion of poll workers.…”

Does Minority Representation in Police Agencies Reduce Assaults on the Police?

“…As such, the current study investigates whether minority representation in local police departments in the United States is related to aggression against police officers. Using Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA, 2007a,b, 2008) data, 2000Census, and Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS, 2007 data, we explore whether the ratios of three minority groups (African Americans, Asians, and Hispanics) in police departments to minorities in their communities are associated with assaults against police officers. If, as some believe, improved minority representation results in better police-citizen relationships, then presumably those departments with greater minority representation will be less likely to experience assaults against their officers.…”

Organizational Socialization

“…Typical of this category are European socialization scholars, who examine cases in which organizational socialization could overcome differences among Eurocrats resulting from diverging national interests. This is also typical of scholars comparing the homogenizing effect of organizational socialization and the effect of 'representative bureaucracy', accounting for heterogeneity through the tendency of bureaucrats from different origins to 'press for the interests and desires of those whom he is presumed to represent' (e.g., an ethnic minority or men/women: Bradbury & Kellough, 2001, p. 158;Dolan, 2002;Wilkins & Williams, 2008). …”