For example, officers assigned to prevent the sale of illegal drugs may identify someone at an airport who pays for a ticket with cash, looks nervous, has only carry-on bags, and who rushes out of the airport as fitting a drug courier profile of someone who might be carrying drugs. In such cases, officers have justified detaining a citizen because he or she fit the profile, even though there is no evidence that this specific person was involved in anything illegal. Racial profiling means that police stop suspects because of their race. There is substantial evidence that police stop people of color because, based on race alone, such persons fit a profile of persons believed to be involved in criminal conduct. The War on Drug has resulted in an increase in the number of African Americans and Hispanic persons who are stopped by police when their only offense appears to be Driving While Black.
Race alone is an impermissible basis to stop or arrest anyone.
Thus the arrest or stop of black or Hispanic people is often combined with the alleged commission of a minor traffic offense. This might be a defective tail light, a license plate that is inadequately affixed, or some other extremely minor traffic offense. Thus the officer says she has stopped the individual, not because of his race, but because the officer has probable cause to believe that a traffic regulation has been violated. Others, more skeptical of police motivation, refer to such traffic stops as pretextual because the pretext is the traffic violation, while the real motive is to look for evidence of other crimes, particularly drug or gang related crimes. These stops are also referred to as Badger stops.