By
Brooke Wonders
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Survey shows state residents also disapprove of racial profiling
Three-quarters of Arizonans, regardless of race, say the common police practice of racial profiling is wrong.
Yet one out of every four "people of color in Arizona" believe they have been stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity, according to a Northern Arizona University survey released last week.
The results showed 42 percent of white and 60 percent of "colored" - all non-white races - Arizonans say racial profiling is a wide-spread practice.
Gordon Abra, a UA sociology graduate student, said he thought the survey numbers looked believable.
"If anything, they overstate the positive feelings citizens have toward the police - people who are most likely to be upset with the police, those who are currently incarcerated, are the least likely to be included in this survey," Abra said. "Couple that with the fact that minorities are over-represented in the prison population and the differences in feelings about the police are probably also understated."
The Grand Canyon State Survey is a bi-annual poll sponsored by NAU's Social Research Laboratory and focuses on relevant and current issues affecting the state.
"The number of court cases that have come up recently are evidence of the importance of this issue statewide," said Kristi Hagen, operations manager at the center. "The results of the poll are sent to groups with a vested interest in the topic - the racial profiling results were sent to the Attorney General, the Coconino County court system and to the NAACP."
The survey questioned a random sample of 505 Arizonans, and found that though racial profiling was a problem, most Arizonans - 74 percent - still had a favorable opinion of the local police, and 70 percent had a favorable opinion of state police.
There are racial differences in attitudes, however. While 78 percent of whites hold a favorable opinion of local police, only 56 percent of people of color think similarly.
Abra, who is Caucasian, drew a hypothetical example.
"Consider the likelihood that I would be pulled over driving through South Tucson simply because I'm white - it's highly unlikely, even if a crime had been committed in the area by a white.
"The experiences of minorities with respect to the criminal justice system are not the same as the experiences of whites, and I think the survey reflects this," Abra said.
Further information regarding this survey can be found at www.nau.edu/~srl.
