By now, we’ve all heard the stories about a White woman calling the police on a Black man doing something benign.  Last spring, a woman in New York City called the police on a African-American bird watcher for asking her to leash her dog.   ‘BBQ Becky’ made national news two years ago when a white woman called the police on a group of black people who were barbecuing.

Yet the question hangs in the air: How do we prevent such racially motivated police calls from happening in the first place?

Recently, officials in San Francisco have passed the ‘CAREN’ (Caution Against Racially and Exploitative Non-Emergencies) Act in an attempt to curb the number of these discriminatory 911 calls.

The elephant in the room needs to be addressed. Yes, the act’s name is an obvious riff on the popular ‘Karen’ meme, which regards the stereotypical middle-aged White woman, who is often accused of making such calls. Some people have pointed out the hypocrisy of using a gendered and racial stereotype for a law that should be combating racism, not to mention the fact that people named Karen may take offense to the act’s name.

Although I do agree that the name of the act shouldn’t be based around a stereotype, at the same time name stereotypes are nothing new, such as “Lin-Lin,” the stereotype of the east Asian mom who pushes her kids to excel in school, often to extreme lengths. This, of course, does not excuse the fact that the act’s name is clearly based on a stereotype, but acting as if this is a new thing is a complete falsehood.

The act itself is exactly what one would expect. It stipulates that the victim of a racially motivated police call may sue the caller at least $250 and up to $10,000 in damages, on top of present charges for making a false report, along with attorney fees. The act also this applies to calls motivated by prejudices regarding religion, disability, and sexual orientation.

Truthfully, it came as a surprise to me that such unwarranted 911 calls weren’t already considered hate crimes. I would argue that having better hate crime legislation in place could act as an indicator of what biases are prevalent among certain groups. Although I’m not sure how I feel about stacking penalties on someone already being charged, law enforcement agencies should be doing a better job of tracking why hate crimes are committed.

Yet even if one questions the validity of stacking hate crime penalties on top of other penalties, I do think there should be a penalty specifically for prejudice based 911 calls. Clearly, it could act as a deterrent to making such calls. For example, imagine you are walking down the street and decide to sit down to read a book, but soon a group of people start blasting music a few yards from you. Perhaps they are disturbing the peace, enough to warrant a police call, but if a law were in place to make you think about exactly why you are calling the police and if your concerns warrant such a call, it may make you think twice. Of course, if someone is being victimized by a more serious crime and they call the police, it’s quite clearly an emergency and the reasons for the police call should not even be a question.

If a law such as the horribly named CAREN act were in place throughout the country, it could help prevent prejudice-based police calls. Even if the law ends up not working or making the situation worse, it will help us think of new solutions to combat discriminatory actions in this country.