Racial Profiling Report

The Mustang Ridge Police Department is committed to respecting constitutional rights in the performance of our duties.  Our success is based on the respect we give to our communities, and the respective members of the community observe towards law enforcement.  To this end, we shall exercise our sworn duties, responsibilities, and obligations in a manner that does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, or religion.  Respect for diversity and equitable enforcement of the law is essential to our mission.

All enforcement actions shall be based on the standards of reasonable suspicion or probable cause as required by the Fourth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution and by statutory authority.  In all enforcement decisions, officers shall be able to articulate specific facts, circumstances, and conclusions that support the probable cause or reasonable suspicion for arrests, searches, seizures, and stops of individuals.  Officers shall not stop, detain, arrest, search, or attempt to search anyone based solely upon the person's race, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, age, cultural group, or any other identifiable group.

All departmental orders are informed and guided by this commitment.  No policy limits non-enforcement contacts between officers and the public.

Our policy aims to provide general guidance on removing the presence of bias in law enforcement actions, identify key contexts in which bias may influence these actions, and emphasize the importance of the constitutional guidelines within which we operate.

Racial profiling defined:  A law-enforcement initiated action based on an individual’s race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than on the individual’s behavior or on information identifying the individual as having engaged in criminal activity.

Officers are prohibited from engaging in bias-based profiling or stopping, detaining, searching, arresting, or taking any enforcement action including seizure or forfeiture activities, against any person based solely on the person’s race, ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, age, cultural group, or any other identifiable group.  These characteristics, however, may form part of reasonable suspicion or probable cause when officers are seeking a suspect with one or more of these attributes. 

Transgender, Intersex, Gender Nonconforming (TIGN)

The Mustang Ridge Police Department recognizes the rights of all persons and treats all persons with dignity and respect due to every individual as a human being. Personnel will act, speak, and conduct themselves in a professional manner, recognizing our obligation to safeguard life and property and to maintain a courteous, professional attitude in all contacts with the public.  Personnel will not exhibit any bias or prejudice and they will not discriminate against an individual or group of  Transgender, Intersex, Gender Nonconforming (TIGN) individuals.  Department personnel shall take all necessary precautions to ensure the safety of TIGN individuals who are arrested and detained.

Inappropriate or disrespectful interactions with TIGN individuals can interfere with the ability to provide police assistance.  A pattern of this kind of conduct can generate a climate of fear or apprehension in which TIGN individuals are afraid or are too uncomfortable to report a crime, limiting the department in its ability to provide a safe community.