Writing Assignment 2
Writing Assignment
Luan Huynh
CRJ 141
Making a relationship with the public or minority group always help law enforcement. Strong relationships and trustworthiness between police agencies and the communities they are serving are critical because it helps maintaining public safety and effective policing. The keys to build a strong and effective relationship are acknowledge and discuss with your communities the challenges you are facing, be transparent and accountable, maintain focus on the importance of collaboration, and be visible in the community, and promote internal diversity and ensure professional growth opportunities.
First, police agencies should acknowledge and discuss with your communities the challenges they are facing. Police uses of force and other incidents can damage the relationship between them and the communities. In some cases, a misconduct by a single officer in one city not only damages, but it also can gain nationwide attention and reduce trust of the police in generally. A variety of current day police strategies and tactics have contributed to mistrust of police in minority communities. These tactics raise issues of racial bias about the controversies about police use of force. Police should consider establishing strategies for ensuring that if one officer engages in misconduct, other officers will step in and stop it.
Second, transparency is essential to positive between police and community relationships. When a critical incident happen, agencies or police officer should try to release as much information about it as soon as possible, so the community will feel safe rather than the agencies keep and hide from the community. At the same time, it is also important to stress that the first information to emerge following a critical incident is preliminary and may change as more information becomes available. In other word, the chef of the police should let the news media and the public know that early information may not be correct and should correct any misinformation quickly. On the other hand, police departments should post information on the websites about detailing policies on use of force, community member complaints, and other issues. This information should be easily accessible to the community. The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended that “to embrace a culture of transparency, law enforcement agencies should make all department policies available for public review and regularly post on the department’s website information about stops, summonses, arrests, reported crime, and other law enforcement data, aggregated by demographics.” Agencies may considering seek for recognition by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies or similar agencies as a method of demonstrating their commitment to excellence in law enforcement. Local police departments also provide a wealth of information about best practices to ensure constitutional policing. Many documents from these investigations are available on the Civil Rights Division’s website such as the consent decrees, case summaries, findings letters, and other documents detail reforms in policies, training, and practices in areas including police use of force, Early Intervention Systems to detect potential problems with officers’ behavior, management and supervision of officers, bias in policing, police interactions with persons with mental illness, and other areas that most often result in DOJ investigations.
Next, it is important for the police to be visible in their communities and know their residents. Many people do not interact with the police outside of enforcement information. This can result in people developing negative associations with the police. For example, if the only contact the communities have ever had with police are consisted of receiving a traffic citation or calling the police to report being the victim of a crime, that will result in a negative sign for the communities. Finding opportunities to interact with community members helps to reduce bias on the part of community members and police officers. Getting to know community residents also reinforce both groups to break down personal barriers, overcome stereotypes, and allows officers to learn which residents of a neighborhood are obedience the law and which ones are not.
Finally, Police agencies need to present policing as a profession. Departments should recruit people who want to become officers based on a realistic understanding that most of the police officers’ time is addressing community requests and that actual “law enforcement.” Police agencies should step up in recruiting and promote processes to increase overall diversity in their departments by race and many other demographics. Moreover, agencies should provide regular opportunities for career growth and professional development training. The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing calls for the federal government as well as state and local agencies to push higher education for police officers through student loan programs. Internal processes of a department regarding recruiting, promotions, and other matters should be transparent and fair. When an agency creates an environment that promotes internal fairness and respect, officers are more likely to demonstrate these qualities in their daily interactions with the community.
Word Cited
“Biased-Based Policing” (collection of documents). Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Washington D.C
Gove, Tracey G. “Implicit Bias and Law Enforcement,” The Police Chief. October 2011: (78)44–56
President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015. “Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.” Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, Washington D.C
Procedural Justice for Law Enforcement Agencies: Organizational Change through the Integration of Procedural Justice Core Principles into Decision Making and Policies. 2012. University of Illinois Center for Public Safety and Justice
Shasta, Robert M. et al. 2005. Multicultural Law Enforcement: Strategies for Peacekeeping in a Diverse Society
