After having the chance to drive thousands of miles all over the country, I have started to notice a trend of those who have been pulled over. Usually there is a correlation to time and age, in some cases even the vehicle.
For instance, the story below depicts a reader whose friend was pulled over constantly when he would drive a Volkswagen GTI. Although it can probably be refuted that his friend's change to a Chevrolet Malibu changed his particular driving habits, let's just leave that out of this argument.
In my experience it seems anything with a bright color and a large spoiler, think: Cobalt SS or Mitsubishi Evo, is usually on the side of the road with those oh-so-telling blues and twos flashing.
Is vehicle profiling an issue? If so, do you feel that you have been discriminated? Got a story, tell us down below...
Discuss, Spies...
Q: In Arizona, Mexican Americans are worried about racial profiling. Around the nation, police often 'vehicle profile.' I know a young man whose job puts him on the road at 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. Driving a Volkswagen GTI, he was constantly pulled over by police. After he switched to a four-door Chevy Malibu, police stops dropped to zero. Drive a red, sporty something and you are a target. Drive a dark-green Buick sedan, nothing. Shouldn't the vehicle you drive be unrelated to traffic stops?
— R.J. Mullay, Coopersburg
A: It should, R.J., at least in theory. But it would surprise me if police officers could divorce themselves so thoroughly from real-world experience as to achieve absolute objectivity in this application. (Objectivity is a challenge news reporters continually face, and work hard to maintain; see my blog for more on this Hummer of a topic, for which there's not enough room on this road). So I would think there's at least some truth to your charge, even if it springs from a subliminal tendency on the part of officers. Or maybe it's a matter of experience — cops get to the point where they can reasonably suspect at least some measure of trouble, based not on the color of the driver, but on the model (and to some extent the color and other features) of the car. It's not "driving while black," but "driving while your Porsche 911 Carerra is flaming-red metallic....
[Source: The Morning Call]
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