As I recall my experiences patrolling the streets of St. Louis, I find it hard to believe that people in law enforcement honestly believe and say that a racial divide and racial profiling don’t exist. From my experiences, an officer’s mind is divided. It is divided, first, between the police and the general public and, second, between the police and minorities.
Over the years, I saw that whenever a black or brown male lacked valid reasons for being in certain place or for driving certain vehicles at certain times of day, profiling was guaranteed. Officers assumed these men were criminals. Wearing certain clothes, listening to a specific kind of music and consorting with a specific type of person meant that they were up to no good.
Without a doubt, many good and godly people have had their lives adversely affected because only their clothes and location informed an officer’s judgment.
I regularly faced the dilemma of keeping quiet about this or reporting an offending officer’s actions to a supervisor. I never reported them because I knew that if someone found out that I had snitched, I would be a pariah, and that was a dangerous thing to be. If I were ever in trouble on the street with a suspect and needed help from other officers, I would not receive it. I would be alone.
White officers wouldn’t be the only people to shun me. Black officers would, as well.
The ultimate police commandment is to avoid getting another officer into trouble. If I brought suspicion and accusations onto any officer, it would sound the death knell for me if I made the wrong person within the department angry.
People wonder why I never reported any of the misdeeds that I witnessed to the Internal Affairs Division. I did not because it would not have worked. Internal Affairs, like any other division in a law enforcement agency, is made up of other police officers. The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was small enough that most officers knew each other. If I would have reported an incident, it was likely that the officer I was reporting would know about it before the day was over. He or she could then come up with a plan or story to make me out to be a liar, and no one would try to help me because I had broken the cardinal rule.
I can’t say that this is exactly how it is in the department today, but I imagine that things have not changed much since I left. I believe there are good officers on the department who don’t agree with all the things that they see their co-workers doing. These officers need a way to report the wrongdoings that they witness that keeps them from experiencing retaliation from other officers who hope to keep things as the status quo.
Fourth in a series.
Terrell Carter (www.terrellcarter.net) served as a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Officer for five years. He is the author of the forthcoming book “Walking the Blue Line: A Police Officer Turned Community Activist Provides Solutions to the Racial Divide.”
