Profiling Minorities A Study of Stop-and-Search Practices in Paris
Résumé
French residents of immigrant origin, particularly those of North African and sub-Saharan African background, have long complained that police single them out for unfair, discriminatory, and unnecessary identity checks. If these perceptions are true, it means that French police are engaged in “ethnic profiling.” That is, police officers are basing decisions about who may be suspicious on the basis of the color of their skin or their assumed ethnic identity rather than on the basis of their individual behavior. In 2007, the Open Society Justice Initiative launched a study to examine whether and to what extent law enforcement officers stop individuals based on their appearance. This study was conducted in collaboration with Fabien Jobard and René Lévy, researchers with the National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France. The study was carried out under the technical supervision of Lamberth Consulting. Examining five locations in and around the Gare du Nord and Châtelet-Les Halles rail stations, all important transit points in central Paris that are also the sites of heavy police activity, Profiling Minorities : A Study of Stop-and-Search Practices in Paris gathered data on police stops carried out by National Police and Customs officers, including information on the ethnicity, age, gender, clothing, and bags carried by the persons who were stopped. This study, which generated unique information on over 500 police stops, is the first to gather the quantitative data necessary to identify and detect patterns of ethnic profiling in France. The study confirmed that police stops and identity checks in Paris are principally based on the appearance of the person stopped, rather than on their behavior or actions. Persons perceived to be ethnic minorities were disproportionately stopped by the police. The results show that persons perceived to be “Black” (of sub-Saharan African or Caribbean origin) and “Arab” (of North African or Maghrebian origin) were stopped at proportionally much higher rates than persons perceived to be “White” (of Western European origin). Across the five observations sites, Blacks were overall six times more likely than Whites to be stopped by police ; the site-specific rates of disproportionality ranged from 3.3 to 11.5. Arabs were generally 7.6 times more likely than Whites to be stopped by the police, although again, the specific rate of disproportionality across the five locations ranged from 1.8 and 14.8. Follow-up interviews with the individuals who were stopped also suggest that these two groups regularly experience far more police stops than Whites. An equally important determinant of who was stopped by police for identity checks was the style of clothing worn by the stopped individuals. Although people wearing clothing typically associated with French youth culture (including “hip-hop,” “tecktonic,” “punk,” and “gothic” styles) made up only 10 percent of the population available to be stopped by police, they made up 47 percent of those who were actually stopped. The study revealed a strong relationship between the ethnicity of the person stopped, the style of clothing they were wearing, and their propensity to be stopped by police ; fully two-thirds of the individuals dressed in youth culture clothing were also classified as belonging to a minority ethnic group. It is likely that police consider both belonging to an ethnic minority group and wearing youth clothing to be closely tied to a propensity to commit crimes or infractions. Although persons from all ethnic backgrounds reported police behavior to be generally polite or neutral, those who were most targeted for police stops and identity checks — Blacks and Arabs — nevertheless expressed anger and frustration at what they believed was a pattern of police singling them out for stops and searches. The study used a methodology which compared the population available to be stopped by police (the benchmark population) with the population that is actually stopped by the police. Both the benchmark data and the stop data were categorized according to perceived ethnicity, age, gender, clothing, and the type of bag carried. In observing stops, monitors also recorded the outcome of the stop and, where possible, conducted brief interviews with individuals who had been stopped to find out how often they experienced identity checks, what they thought of the officers' behavior during the identity checks, and their emotional reaction to being stopped. Absent legitimate policing strategies that explain these stops in other than ethnic terms, the behavior of the French police documented in this study is highly consistent with ethnic profiling. In principle, ethnic profiling violates many French national nondiscrimination standards, including the police code of ethics. It also violates European human rights standards which prohibit distinctions on the basis of race or ethnicity when these have no objective or reasonable justification. The evidence of studies from other European countries and the United States suggests that ethnic profiling practices do not meet this threshold, as their harms significantly outweigh their benefits. In targeting certain persons because of what they look like and not because of what they have done, law enforcement officers justify and perpetuate ethnic and racial stereotypes. Unsatisfactory police-public contact creates a lack of trust in and unwillingness to cooperate with police, decreasing their effectiveness in preventing and detecting crime. The heightened police attention resulting from a reliance on stereotypes associating persons of particular ethnic, racial or national origins with criminality can lead to increased conflict with the police with consequences for both the safety of the public and of police officers. The negative impact of ethnic profiling in France has reverberated in a series of riots that have rocked France over the past two decades, most recently in 2005 and 2007. It is also felt in the smaller-scale, everyday altercations between police and immigrant origin youth and their families ; and in a broad loss of confidence in the French criminal justice system by the communities which are disproportionately targeted by police. French politicians have yet to recognize or take steps to address ethnic profiling by police in France. In order to address this form of discrimination and live up to the true essence of the French republican ideal of the equality of all citizens, ethnic profiling must first be recognized as a problem, and then promptly addressed. To that end, and based on the evidence contained in this report, the Justice Initiative makes the following recommendations.