Final answer:
Police street checks or carding is a practice where police stop individuals without specific evidence of an offence, which has been tied to racial profiling, particularly affecting Black and Hispanic communities. Studies and protests have illustrated the community's perception of these tactics as racially biased, contributing to systemic racism within the justice system.
Step-by-step explanation:
Police Street Checks/Carding and Racial Profiling
Police street checks, often referred to as carding, involve officers stopping individuals in public places to ask for information without evidence of any specific offence. This practice has become a contentious issue due to its relationship with biased policing and racial profiling. Racial profiling occurs when law enforcement officials use an individual's race or ethnicity as a basis for suspecting them of criminal activity. Often, this leads to a disproportionate number of minority individuals being subjected to these street checks.
Research has found clear patterns where Black and Hispanic people are more likely than White people to be pulled over for routine traffic stops, especially under policies such as the 'War on Drugs.' Sociologist Frances Heussenstamm's experiment on correlation between traffic stops and race-based bumper stickers, and studies like Grogger and Ridgeway's 'Testing for Racial Profiling in Traffic Stops From Behind a Veil of Darkness' highlight systemic issues within these practices. Protests, such as those against New York's 'Stop and Frisk' policy, illustrate the community's perception of these checks as acts of racial profiling.
Data shows that local police target minority-inhabited neighborhoods more frequently, which results in higher arrest and prosecution rates among these communities. This discriminatory practice is not only damaging to the relationship between the community and the police but also contributes to the broader issue of systemic racism within the criminal justice system.