Showing true colours? Police perceptions on ethnicity as one of the main indicators shaping their daily
street-level decisions
Ethnic or racial profiling by law enforcement officials is a hot topic, not just in the US but also on the European continent. In response to the outcome of the reports of two NGO’s the discussions on the matter in the Netherlands have become rather heated. Whereas the Dutch reports and the discussions in line with American research and discourse tend to focus predominantly on proving the existence of ethnic profiling by examining the outcome of police-citizen interactions, the process leading up to these possible outcomes remains undisputed. In other words, the process leading up to an individual police officer’s decision to stop and further question or to search a citizen and the factors and circumstances that might influence this process, are taken for granted. The perception is that police officers base most of their decisions on ethnic prejudices regarding the criminal involvement of certain minority groups. It is exactly this underlying process that needs to be revealed and understood in order to have meaningful discussions on the alleged practice of ethnic profiling. In the underlying exploratory study we used a mixed methods approach. Based on 150 hours of qualitative observations during ride-alongs in three Dutch inner-city neighbourhoods combined with interviews with the ride-along police officers we aimed to uncover and provide insight into the decisionmaking processes of street-level police officers. The results of the study show that decisions are usually based on a multitude of factors and indicators coming together in a multicultural context. Other than citizens police officers filter these factors through the lens of their professional intuition which in itself is shaped by training and experience but also by categorization and stereotyping. Ethnical stereotypes do play a role in this process as well, but seem to be less influential than often suggested.