| Most racial profiling studies today are based on the perceptions of the community members contacted whether it is by traffic stop, detention, or arrest. In each of these studies the individual contacted, if of a different ethnic background, often perceives the contact as one of a racial nature accusing the police officer of stopping him or her based solely on race. Very few studies ever involved the interview of police officers as to the contacts with individuals or the explore police officers narratives of experiences when interacting with residents in ethnically diverse neighborhoods while on patrol. The researcher will use a qualitative narrative inquiry approach to examine and understand, through student narratives, what experiences police officers have had when interacting with residents in an ethnically diverse neighborhood. The participants of this narrative inquiry will be a purposive sample of seven female and male police officers of different ethnic backgrounds from various law enforcement agencies located in the South Bay region of Southern California, an ethnically diverse community identified in the extant literature as a geographic location with marked racial and ethnic tensions between the community and law enforcement. |
