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3 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 296 (2001)
Law Enforcement by Stereotypes and Serendipity: Racial Profiling and Stops and Searches without Cause

handle is hein.journals/upjcl3 and id is 320 raw text is: ARTICLES LAW ENFORCEMENT BY STEREOTYPES AND SERENDIPITY: RACIAL PROFILING AND STOPS AND SEARCHES WITHOUT CAUSE David Rudovsky* I. INTRODUCTION On a summer evening in 1991, four young African-Americans were driving on 1-95, returning to Delaware from a church service in Philadelphia.' Although the driver had committed no traffic viola- tions, the car was stopped just south of the Philadelphia International Airport by police officers from Tinicum Township. The officers or- dered the occupants out of the vehicle and proceeded to subject them, and the vehicle, to an intrusive search that included the use of a narcotics trained-police dog.3 They were detained for almost an hour until the police were convinced that they were not transporting drugs.4 To justify the initial stop, an officer issued a warning re- garding an alleged obstruction of the car's windshield (a thin piece of string hanging from the rear view mirror, which could not have been observed by the officer before the stop).5 In response to a ques- tion from one of the occupants of the car as to why they had been stopped, the officer answered with surprising candor: because you are young, black and in a high drug-trafficking area, driving a nice car.6 David Rudovsky is a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is a founding partner in Kairys, Rudovsky, Epstein, Messing & Rau. I am grateful for the comments and suggestions provided by Seth Kreimer, Leonard Sosnov, Susan Herman, Paul Messing, Mi- chael Avery and the members of the Legal Studies Workshop at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Susan Marcus provided excellent research assistance and David Rush was a re- sourceful Journal editor. And a word of gratitude to my colleagues who have been litigating the issues covered in this Article, with special thanks to Stefan Presser, Alan Yatvin, and Reginald Shuford. Finally, by way of disclosure, I am counsel on some of the cases discussed in this arti- cle. Wilson v. Tinicum Township, No. Civ. A. 92-6617, 1993 WL 280205, at *2 (E.D. Pa.July 20, 1993) (Opinion on Class Action Certification). 2 Id. Id. 4 Ann Stewart, Black Motorists Sue Police for Stopping Them on Highway, GANNETr NEWS SERVICE, Nov. 19, 1992, available at 1992 WL 9397933. 5 See Wilson 1993 WL 280205, at *2. 6 Id. As to the officer's statement, see Wyoming v. Houghton, 526 U.S. 295, 298 (1999) 296

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