Tension Between Police Officers And The Minority Groups

The relationships between police and racial minorities present some of the more difficult problems in policing throughout the world. Such relationships can be pleasant, but they often are challenging. For example, minorities may be deprived of police safety and other services to which they are permitted to. More specifically, police may refrain from addressing criminal behavior like domestic violence within a particular minority group because they believe that members of that group typically take part in such behavior.

Policing is a very difficult, complex and dynamic field of endeavor that is always evolves as hard lessons teach us what we need to know about what works and what don’t work. There are three different Era’s in America’s policing: The Political Era, The Reform Era, and The Community Problem Solving Era. A lot has changed in the way that policing works over the years in the United States.

The brutality of the police force has been a long worldwide problem, but especially between the years of 2012-2016. Black people are being unjustly beaten and shot in plain sight for doing nothing while being unarmed. Journal of African American Studies “Blacks are viewed as deserving of harsh treatment in the criminal justice system” (482). “Black males with more “Afrocentric” features may receive longer sentences than blacks with less Afrocentric features like lighter skin and straighter hair”(482). Nowadays it is important to know about the police force. It’s important to know our rights as citizens and be careful around cops. Not everybody is good, but not everybody is bad also. In The New York Amsterdam News 21 people were killed by Chicago police in 2008. Entire families were being attacked. They believe it’s because of their skin color and how they are different. The year of racism started off with the world seeing the police murder of Oscar Grant. “The media have pushed people away from hearing the issue of police brutality, and it has fallen off of the radar screen.”(2) “You can’t give in. They will try to make an example out of you, try to break your spirit!”(2) African Americans say do not trust the cops with anything. “They will ruin you.”(2)

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

The example you provided stating "many minorities come from countries where police are much different than in Canada, they may be corrupt, and against hiring women and minorities" could be an explanation as to why minorities may not want to apply with an agency. If they were mistreated, or had a bad experience with the police in their country, it may be difficult for them to trust our policing style even though it may be much different. With that being said I believe our government has taken positive steps with integrating minorities into our society and giving a sense of protection with The Charter and Rights of Freedoms. In regard to police administration, I think police agencies are also taking positive steps by advertising the want and

highlighting the tensions between police and minority communities (Holmes and Smith, 2008). First, in 1963, police used police dogs and high-powered water hoses against civil rights protestors in Birmingham, Alabama (NAACP, 2005). The usage of such violent and outrageous tactics by the police became the center of national attention that sparked major public outcry. Then, on March 7, 1965, during what is now known as Bloody Sunday, Alabama State Troopers attacked non-violent protestors and civil rights advocates with both tear gas and batons, which led to the hospitalization of over 50 people (Holmes and Smith, 2008). These events were key in signaling that a police reform was once again necessary across law enforcement agencies in the United

Police brutality among minorities is an ongoing problem that has existed in the United States for generations. As our society grows, the effects of police brutality become a bigger concern. The men and women we should be looking up to for protection shouldn’t be the ones people are most fearful of. Some officers take their power to a new extreme, even when the situation doesn’t call for it. Sometimes they abuse their given powers to physically and mentally harm individuals, causing massive protests and riots among the nation. The American Dream was meant for freedom and for everyone to be treated equally, not for people to be abused and persecuted against for having a different color skin. The racial profiling of minority groups has led civilians to distrust police officers, therefore, living in constant fear.

Police Officers are here to protect us and to make sure that we are safe. Police officers that go into a community where the majority of the community is blacks or other minorities they need to understand that they may not be liked right away, especially if they are a white cop. They need to first earn the trust of the citizens in that community. They need to be friendly and get to know their surroundings first. Another thing the uncertainties in communities is what the police officer may or may not do for everyone to get to know and build the trust with the officers that will be protecting them. They feel as if it is just better to not talk to them then to not talk to them at all because they are afraid of being profiled or saying something

This paper will ask several questions and hopefully answer most of those questions. Questions like is the criminal justice system bias against the poor and is the criminal justice system bias against minorities. We then explore some of the possible solutions to the problems that could cause biases. We then look at a study done on several communities where relations between police and the public had repaired their relationship.

Ferguson, Missouri is a city approximately 20 miles north of St Louis, MO. Part of St. Louis County, MO, Ferguson’s police department is composed of only two percent black officers despite the city’s demographic at 65 percent black (The Washington Post, 2014). With an overwhelming statistic such as this, civilian-officer tensions are, unfortunately, unavoidable. Worse still, it would seem that these tensions are a result of racial conflicts. For at least the past decade, incidents of racial tensions have surfaced between the civilian and law enforcement communities (Ross as cited in Lowery, Leonnig, & Berman, 2014). Residents of the Ferguson area describe a long standing issue regarding profiling and targeting, in particular when it comes to traffic stops, even noting the rarity of any civil communication at all between the two parties (Crawford as cited in Lowery, Leonnig, & Berman, 2014). For years, the issue of race has gone unacknowledged and a lack of trust in regard to law enforcement officials has prevailed (Lowery, Leonnig, & Berman, 2014). “It 's never easy to move past the sins of our country 's history. Especially when some of that history is only hours old” (The Washington Post, 2014). We see this in the case of Michael Brown.

. Tracing the history of Community policing, There are Compelling reasons why law enforcement leaders believe that time has come to alter the police and practice of their organization. These reasons are rooted in the history of policing and police research during the last quarter of a century in the changing nature of communities, in the shifting characteristics of crime and violence that affect these communities Throughout history individuals have been expected to follow the rules of the majority, the demands to control the behavior of individuals can be traced to the ancient times when the tribe, clan or family controlled the behavior of the individuals and had the responsibility to enforce its informal rules or customs.

My father spent 26 years as a police officer in the San Francisco Bay area with a background working in SWAT and riot control. In addition he spent the last 4 years of his career as the Lieutenant Commander and was often dealing with riots relating to race in Oakland, California. When the issues in Ferguson begun, I often would ask my father what he would do if he were the police chief. One of the main issues that we both agreed on was that Ferguson shouldn’t have had a police force that was all or primarily white in a community that is primarily African American. The police force needs to match the demographic and culture of the community of which it is policing.

When most people think of Community Policing they think of the Neighborhood Watch, local citizens patrolling their neighborhoods in an attempt to deter criminal behavior. Since 1994 there has been a national program named Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) administered by the Department of Justice which used $14 Billion of appropriated funds from the United States Government to assist communities nationwide. (DOJ, 2016) This program has been very successful and with sound fiscal management has funded the training for 126,000 police officers. (Office of the Attorney General, 2016) These funds have also been used at the local, civilian level and this is where we will focus this paper, civilian community police presence throughout our neighborhoods.

There has been a movement in the United States police reform which has resulted in a powerful emergent from community policing and Compstat. Community policing is understood to be an especially dedicated group formed from the local police department. These officers work with particular area in which the rate of crime should be reduced through proactive measures which include but are not limited to: taking a vested interest in the desires of the public, forming relationships and partnerships with the public, and appropriate training for both officers and citizens for the program. These efforts are designed to decrease neighborhood

Community oriented policing was created in the mid-20th century. Between the years of 1930 and 1960, law enforcement personnel used a specialized policing model that was developed from a para-military design. The model consisted of tiered structures, effective and quick response times, and the use of patrol vehicles. Up until the late 1960’s this method worked flawlessly. During the 1960’s the number of civil disputes increased drastically within the United States, and the professional policing model that was currently being used was no longer effective. During this time, the law enforcement officers, and the people that they served were at odds. In order to fix this problem, the team policing model was used. Team policing placed certain officers in specific areas in which they would stay and patrol. The officers were supposed to get to know the people within that neighborhood and build relationships with them in order to gain information from them. This model failed because it was a long-term problem solver and not a short-term problem solver or preventative action. Essentially, rather than detectives going into communities and gathering