We survive in the age of " If you see something , say something . " Whatstarted as a public anti - terrorism campaignin the wake of theSeptember 11th attackshas morphed into a res publica of vigilance for any kind of suspicious behavior .
And sometimes it ante up off . In 2016 , a day after 29 multitude were injured in a string of New York City bombings , two men see a suspicious bag with conducting wire sticking out of it leave behind on a dumpster in Elizabeth , New Jersey . They alarm police , which used robots to disarm five pipework bombs . Later that night , another 911 callled police force to a man sleeping in a tap house doorway , who turned out to be the submarine sandwich .
But for every account of untrusting activity that leads to an arrest , there are many others that are , unfortunately , not based on any form of criminal act , but on diagonal .
airway passengers of Arab descenthave been pulled from flightsor not allowed to room when fellow passengers apprize flight attendants of " suspect behaviour " that include interpret the news on their telephone set . Black and Hispanic shoppers are routinely come after by store security measure force or asked to impart if they have n’t bought anything ( akashopping while black ) .
And most recently , Starbucks landed in red-hot piss ( not the caffeinated kind ) after one of its store managing director in Philadelphiacalled the police on two black menwaiting for a acquaintance . The men were handcuffed and escort from the cafe for behavior — asking to use the privy and not buying anything — thatwitnesses saidwould never have pull attention if they were white .
Which made us wonder , if ordinary Americans have been task by law enforcement to speak up when they see " something , " then what ’s the definition of " something " ? And how can they correspond our racial or ethnic diagonal when making mental calculations of who and what is truly suspicious ?
What is Suspicious Behavior, Really?
Sergeant Robert Parsons is the public information officer for the Dunwoody Police Department outside Atlanta , Georgia . When he and his fellow police force officer utter with community members about reporting wary body process , they part with this content : hoi polloi are n’t suspicious ; behavior is untrusting .
" Context is really important , " says Parsons . " Just because someone ’s walking down the street and you may not recognize that person , it does n’t mean that they ’re suspicious . "
Instead , the Dunwoody Police and departments nationwide instruct biotic community member to be on thelookout for suspicious behaviorthat ’s indicative of actively planning or institutionalize a crime . Sketchy behavior admit :
minister of religion says that call from the biotic community are invaluable , and often the only way to lick crimes like burglary and railway car break - indium , but that only goes for wind that name clearly suspicious behavior . In some cases , he says , it ’s " undeniable " that diagonal is a factor .
" We have gotten those calls . ' I do n’t recognise this person . He does n’t inhabit in this neighborhood . ' Unfortunately , it cast the officer in a bad posture , because we have to reply to the calls we ’re given . And we have to stop people , " says Parsons . " citizenry rightfully get offend . ' I ’m out walking , I ’m jogging , I ’m not doing anything wary . ' "
Reggie Shuford , executive managing director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania , thinks that the risk of exposure involved with police react to bias - based tips go much farther than the great unwashed getting offended .
" bootleg man in particular live under a constant swarm of suspicion and fear , " says Shuford , who is bleak . " I think that endangers our animation , because often those situations intensify into fierceness and we end up idle . "
While a mess of attending over the retiring few long time has been center on the peril of colored policing , from controversial stop - and - frisk programs to multiple constabulary shootings of unarmed black men , Shuford believe that biased coverage of suspicious behavior by intermediate citizens is evenly troubling .
" These eyewitness accounts of what plant suspicious behaviour are treacherous precisely because we are a culture that ’s plunge in racial bias , " says Shuford . " Much of it is implicit . Sometimes we do n’t even know that we ’re harboring racial diagonal , but sometimes it ’s explicit . Either way you look at it , it ’s dangerous for private citizen to use their construct of mistrust to employ the law . "
Checking for Bias When Reporting Suspicious Activity
prejudice breeding is now mandatory at many constabulary academies and constabulary department nationwide , and Starbucks announced that it will beclosing all 8,000of its U.S. stores on May 29 for an afternoon to educate employee about racial bias . But what about develop the general world ? Some would like to see the police take a more active function .
Curtiss Reed , Jris the executive director of theVermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity , an organisation working to make Vermont an attractive name and address for citizenry of colour . For the preceding 15 years , Reed and his chemical group have conducted bias training for state and local constabulary , political science officials and business sector proprietor .
In Vermont , enunciate Reed , police dispatchers are trained to engage 911 callers who require the cops to come up and check out " three black guy stand on the corner . " essentially , the dispatcher will only take what the guys are doing . If they ’re not engaged in any suspicious or reprehensible demeanor , the dispatcher will excuse that to the caller , turn down to send a police cruiser and volunteer to transplant them to a supervisor if they have more doubtfulness .
When Reed looks at what materialise at the Starbucks in Philadelphia , he see a missed opportunity for the constabulary to educate community of interests members that " being fateful is not a deplorable criminal offence . "
" If I were the officers transport to that Starbucks , I would have take the manager , ' What criminal behavior were the two black men engaged in ? ' " order Reed . " I would have asked them , ' Was their behavior any different than any of the other patrons who frequent that Starbucks ? ' Because in the end it ’s the perception of the manager that necessitate to be changed . And who better than these officers fall in and require those very questions ? "
Dunwoody police officer Parsons tell that beyond spreading the substance that " people are n’t suspicious ; behavior is suspicious , " the department does n’t provide any public education on the role of bias in community of interests criminal offence reporting , " but it may be something that we do in the futurity . "
