Bias-Based Profiling Policy
We are committed to a respect for constitutional rights in the performance of our duties. Our success is based on the respect we give to our communities, and the respect members of the community observe toward law enforcement. To this end, we shall exercise our sworn duties, responsibilities, and obligations in a manner that does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion. All people carry biases; in law enforcement, however, the failure to control our biases can lead to illegal arrests, searches, and detentions, thus thwarting the mission of our department. Most importantly, actions guided by bias destroy the trust and respect essential for our mission to succeed. We live and work in communities very diverse in population; respect for diversity and equitable enforcement of the law are essential to our mission.
All enforcement actions, particularly stops of individuals (for traffic and other purposes), investigative detentions, arrests, searches and seizures of persons or property, shall be based on the standards of reasonable suspicion or probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and statutory authority. In all enforcement decisions, officers shall be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances, and conclusions which support probable cause or reasonable suspicion for arrests, searches, seizures, and stops of individuals. Officers shall not stop, detain, arrest, search, or attempt to search anyone based solely upon the person's race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion. Officers shall base all such actions on a reasonable suspicion that the person or an occupant of a vehicle committed an offense.
All departmental orders are informed and guided by this directive. Nothing in this order limits non-enforcement contacts between officers and the public.
We are committed to a respect for constitutional rights in the performance of our duties. Our success is based on the respect we give to our communities, and the respect members of the community observe toward law enforcement. To this end, we shall exercise our sworn duties, responsibilities, and obligations in a manner that does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion. All people carry biases; in law enforcement, however, the failure to control our biases can lead to illegal arrests, searches, and detentions, thus thwarting the mission of our department. Most importantly, actions guided by bias destroy the trust and respect essential for our mission to succeed. We live and work in communities very diverse in population; respect for diversity and equitable enforcement of the law are essential to our mission.
All enforcement actions, particularly stops of individuals (for traffic and other purposes), investigative detentions, arrests, searches and seizures of persons or property, shall be based on the standards of reasonable suspicion or probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and statutory authority. In all enforcement decisions, officers shall be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances, and conclusions which support probable cause or reasonable suspicion for arrests, searches, seizures, and stops of individuals. Officers shall not stop, detain, arrest, search, or attempt to search anyone based solely upon the person's race, sex, sexual orientation, gender, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion. Officers shall base all such actions on a reasonable suspicion that the person or an occupant of a vehicle committed an offense.
All departmental orders are informed and guided by this directive. Nothing in this order limits non-enforcement contacts between officers and the public.
The purpose of this order is to provide general guidance to diminish the presence of bias in law enforcement actions, to identify key contexts in which bias may influence these actions, and emphasize the importance of the constitutional guidelines within which we operate.
Most of the following terms appear in this order. In any case, these terms appear in the larger public discourse about alleged biased enforcement behavior and in other orders. These definitions are intended to facilitate on-going discussion and analysis of our enforcement practices.
A. Bias: Prejudice or partiality which may be based on preconceived ideas, a person's upbringing, culture, experience, or education.
B. Biased policing: Stopping, detaining, searching, or attempting to search, or using force against a person based upon his or her race, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, age, cultural group, or any other identifiable group.
C. Ethnicity: A cluster of characteristics which may include race but also cultural characteristics or traits which are shared by a group with a common experience or history.
D. Gender: Unlike sex, a psychological classification based on cultural characteristics or traits.
E. Probable cause: Facts or apparent facts and circumstances within an officer's knowledge and of which the officer had reasonable, trustworthy information to lead a reasonable person to believe that an offense has been or is being committed, and that the suspect has committed it.
F. Race: A category of people of a particular decent, including Caucasian, African, Hispanic, Asian, or Native American descent. Being distinct from ethnicity, race only refers to physical characteristics sufficiently distinctive to a group of people under a classification.
G. Racial profiling: A law enforcement initiated action based on an individual’s race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the individual’s behavior or on information identifying the individual as having engaged in criminal activity.
H. Reasonable suspicion: Articulable, objective facts which lead an experienced officer to suspect that a person has committed, is committing, or may be about to commit a crime. A well-founded suspicion is based on the totality of the circumstances and does not exist unless it can be articulated. Reasonable suspicion supports a stop of a person. Courts require that stops based on reasonable suspicion be "objectively reasonable."
I. Sex: A biological classification, male or female, based on physical and genetic characteristics.
J. Stop: The detention of a subject for a brief period of time based on reasonable suspicion. A stop is investigative detention.
A. General Responsibilities
B. Supervisory Responsibilities
C. Disciplinary Consequences
D. Training
A. The department’s complaint process and its bias based profiling policy will be posted on the department’s website.
B. Complaints alleging incidents of bias based profiling will be fully investigated as described in Policy 2.3
C. Complainants will be notified of the results of the investigations when such investigation is completed
A. Any driver or pedestrian who feels that they have been stopped or searched based on racial, ethnic, or gender-based profiling my file a written complaint with the Lubbock Christian University Police Department. No person shall be discouraged, intimidated, or coerced from filing such a compliant, or discriminated against because they have filed such a complaint.
B. Any officer contacted by a person who wishes to file such a complaint shall refer that person to the Chief of Police. Additionally, the officer contacted should contact the Chief of Police via e-mail to notify the Chief of the impending complaint.
C. The Chief of Police shall, as soon as practicable, request names and contact numbers of any witnesses so that they may be contacted and written statements obtained from them.
D. The Chief of Police will locate any evidence including videotape, and thoroughly review the incident. Upon completion of the investigation, the Chief of Police shall then notify the parties involved of the results of the investigation.
A. The department will maintain all required records on traffic stops where a citation is issued or where an arrest is made subsequent to a traffic stop pursuant to state law.
B. The information collected above will be reported to the Board of Trustees annually.
C. The information will also be reported to TCOLE in the required format.