Ethnic profiling as negotiating: traffic law enforcement in the Republic of Tatarstan (Russia)

Abstract

Complex and ambiguous relations between state officials and civilians in Russia in general, and in Tatarstan in particular, are best reflected by daily communications between traffic police officers and motorists and pedestrians. These short interactions bring up issues of violence and minority discrimination, bribing, and dominant political values. In this paper based on my field research, I explore the practice of ethnic profiling employed by police officers and analyze its effects. I focus on identity construction and its “quality measurement.” Unlike a standardized system of weights or “brute facts,” law enforcement involves the creation of identities, including selective and sanctioned usage of, and manipulation by, ethnic traits. I conclude that ethnic profiling exists in Tatarstan, but stems not from nationalist inspirations of the controlling agents, but rather as an effect of rational economic decision-making. I also argue that despite its haphazard nature, ethnic minorities in Tatarstan are able to interact with controlling agencies more effectively than the majority, partially due to their alleged ability to employ collective action and partially because of the specific ethnic policy of the Republic.

Keywords:

• Tatarstan
• ethnic profiling
• traffic police
• social fact
• law enforcement

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my academic supervisor, Vadim Volkov, who has shown me what social science is; to my parents and boyfriend, who have been both constraining and engendering (like proper social institutions); and to Albert, my friend, respondent, and a former traffic police officer, who died in 2014 from a heart attack. He was 43 years old.

Notes

1. The official site is: http://rus-rt.ru/.

2. In its “exclusive” meaning “profiling” is often used as a legal term. The original State of Connecticut Public Act enacted in 1999 defined profiling as “the detention, interdiction, or other disparate treatment of an individual solely on the basis of the racial or ethnic status of such individual” (Public Act No. 99-198). In its “inclusive” meaning “profiling” often appears in research papers (Tillyer and Engel 2013; Hurwitz and Peffley 2010; Miller 2007, etc.). Similar terms include “racial profiling” (Liederbach et al. 2007; Huwitz and Peffley 2010; Novak 2004; Novak and Chamlin 2012; etc.) and, less often, “religious profiling” (De Schutter and Ringelheim 2008).

3. Open Society Institute report on discriminatory practices of the police in Russia. Available online: http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/sites/default/files/metro_20060613.pdf.

4. Can be found at: https://lawandsocietyen.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/comparative-sociology-of-law/.

5. I should mention here the problems I met trying to get access to the field. Getting a formal letter allowing me to talk with and observe policemen on duty was in fact quite easy. I obtained it within a month or so. It was stamped and signed by the head of the Traffic Police, Republic of Tatarstan. After getting it, I began approaching different traffic police departments, first in St. Petersburg, then in Kazan, showing them the letter and asking for permission to talk with officers. In the course of the first four months I was only collecting refusals. I collected approximately 20. The reasons were different, ranging from a request to provide a certificate of a completed doctoral degree (which I did not have for I had just graduated from a higher education institute) to the impossibility of granting access to (mostly male) officers because of my gender and “improper dress-code.” In the latter case I asked what I should choose as my attire to be able to approach the officers. The answer was ironic – a full uniform of a police traffic officer, including a gun and a striped wand with which they wave down cars. Finally, I was able to get access to one traffic police department in St. Petersburg, and, consequently, in Kazan. After becoming informally acquainted with a few officers, I got access to other police departments, so in the end my research encompassed two police departments in St. Petersburg and three in Kazan.

6. “Universiade” is an international sport event, in which university athletes take part. It is organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name comes from a combination of two words: “Olympiad” (Olympic games) and “University.” In 2013 Kazan served as the host city for Universiade; safety measures took to prevent criminal activities during the event included the decision to suspend as many drivers' licenses as possible.

7. A few years ago in Tatarstan an interesting social experiment took place: drivers were supposed to report on officers collecting bribes and get the whole sum of the bribe as an award – from the Administration of the Traffic Police. There were a few cases widely discussed in mass media, and then support for the initiative apparently shrank.

8. There is another, very rare, form of interaction of a traffic police officer with a motorist or a pedestrian: the fabrication of an offense. It happens when the police officer is determined to impose an official sanction but for some reason cannot do it (for example, when the driver is innocent). In this case, according to my respondents, the police officer advises a motorist to officially pay a minimal bribe for some offense he or she did not commit. In an anecdotal story, the traffic police officers put an “overtaking prohibited” sign along the highway going through the large forest and used their own car to catch those who broke the requirements.

9. Can be found at: http://tatarstan.ru/rus/info.php?id=577559.