On the Use of Racial Profiling as a Law EnforcementTool

The “End Racial Profiling Act of 2001” (ERPA) states that “nolaw enforcement agent or law enforcement agency shall engage in racial profiling” andmandates states to “collect detailed data on stops, searches, seizures, and arrests.” Wedevelop a stylized dynamic model of highway policing to study the long-run consequencesof ERPA. In the model, color-neutral police officers receive incentives to arrestcriminals, but face a per stop cost which increases when the racial mix of the interdicteddiffers from the racial composition of the population. Incarceration rates are definedto be racially “fair” if the racial composition of the prison and criminal populationis identical. The model predicts that the long-term racial composition of the prisonpopulation may not be fair and that ERPA may increase fairness. Ceteris paribus,however, ERPA may lower efficiency (the number of criminals in jail). Finally, wecharacterize and compare the incentive schemes for crime fighting that a governmentwould optimally set with and without ERPA.[...]