HOW THE NYPD QUOTA SYSTEM REPRESENTS INSTITUTIONAL RACISM

Sociologists argue that the illegal quota system represents institutional racism in the NYPD because it is implicitly exercising the same practices used by the police decades ago during the time periods of slavery, emancipation and forced segregation. The quota system which results in the fact that black men are 7x more likely to be incarcerated is a clear representation of institutional racism (NPR 2020). In Crime and Punishment (2018), one officer was explicitly told by the Executive Officer and Commanding Officer that he has to stop 14-21 year old young Black and Latino men if he wants to meet his quota and keep his job. Golash-Boza (2018) describes that racial discrimination has become institutionalized because these acts of discrimination are occurring at every level of the system. The way the laws were written, the sentences, arrests and death penalty are all in favor of the white man. Golash-Boza (2018:38) explains that

An individual police officer, for example, may have prejudicial beliefs that blacks are more likely to be violent than whites. Based on this prejudice, the officer may be more likely to discriminate against blacks and more likely to use physical force against blacks. What do we call it though, when this happens over and over again?

This articulation of the system provides a framework for the differences between individual and institutional racism. Institutional racism in the criminal justice system is reflected through the racial profiling and racial disparities that exist in arrests, convictions and sentences. Even if superintendents do not explicitly vocalize the action of racial profiling and targeting minorities, they imply this ideology. Pedestrian stops due to furtive movement justifies the idea of racial profiling. As stated in the literature of various sociologists, the system cannot fix itself. Given that the force is an institution, prejudice beliefs and acts of discrimination are so embedded in the system that in order for the police department to change, an external influence such as the community needs to get involved.

References

Desmond, Matthew and Emirbayer, Mustafa. 2009. “What Is Racial Domination?” Du Bois Review. Social Science Research on Race 6, 335–55.

Golash-Boza, Tanya. 2018. “Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach.” Oxford University Press.

Maing, Stephen. 2018. “Crime and Punishment.” Hulu Documentary.

NPR. 2020. “American Policing." Throughline.