Police Community Relations in Minority Communities

Overview

            The relations between the police and the community are constantly changing the police systems all over the world. Police-community relations are likened to diplomatic policing actions with the acceptable approach to controlling crime rates. The police capability to effectively carry out their function depend on public approval of policing systems, actions, and traits. Hence the police have to work hand in hand with the community. Also, communication mechanisms is a central concept in positioning and enhancing police-community relations. The creation of community immersion programs assists the communities to get acquainted with police reforms and roles within the communities. Variation of ideas and reintroducing policies that favor the community enables the community to form a partnership with policing systems which in turn improves the entire police-community relations.

Annotated Bibliography

Madon, N. S., Murphy, K., & Sargeant, E. (2017). Promoting police legitimacy among disengaged minority groups: Does procedural justice matter more?. Criminology & criminal justice, 17(5), 624-642.

 This journal highlights procedural justice and how it improves police legitimacy. This research then goes to show that the aim of police-community relations is enhancing engagement between the police systems and ethnic minorities. Ethnic minority groups tend to avoid interacting with police officers hence perceive police officers as illegitimate.  The underlying reason for the deteriorating relationship between the police and the minority ethnic group is the harassment ethnic minorities get from the neighborhood police department. Instead of police officers dispensing their duties fairly without discrimination, they tend to discriminate against minority groups hence causing minority groups to create a disconnection between them and the police. The research recommends enacting regulations which hold the police offers accountable for their actions or even wrong arrest. For the sake of coming to terms with the issues affecting the most vulnerable members of the community, the police's central role in containing violence and protecting all the members of the communities.

Albrecht, J. F. (2019). Evaluating Police-Community Relations Globally. In Policing and Minority Communities (pp. 3-10). Springer, Cham.

This article analyses police-community relations worldwide. According to its findings, police-community relations were established in the 1820s and its relevant role expanded in later years due to public security issues. Public perception establishes police legitimacy. Governments had to train police officers on how to deal with people and also establish a relationship between people and the police forces. Ethnic minorities have to know and confirm that police officers will protect them despite their skin color or economic status. Also, trust and confidence develop through active involvement in community problems. For instance, police officers have to live in the communities they serve and they have to know the immediate communities they serve. Therefore, the role of the police has to be intertwined with the community. The policing systems have to cooperate with the communities and vice versa is also true.

Schneider, E. C., Agee, C., & Chronopoulos, T. (2020). Dirty work: Police and community relations and the limits of liberalism in postwar Philadelphia. Journal of Urban History, 46(5), 961-979.

            The journal traces the police-community relations between black Americans and the people from Philadelphia. Scholars note that police abuse led to uprising and protests in the 1960s. Police actions became the center of rights civilizations. The failure to uphold police-community relations led to intensified tensions in Philadelphia hence putting a limitation on the residents. Some scholars claimed that police officers were responsible for maintaining institutionalized racism in America. One way the police managed to perpetuate racism in America is through police brutality and making frequent arrests. Also, the article recommends a forum where the police are vetted on how to handle members of the black community. Also, members of the public should be able to launch complaints against the police departments. The police have a duty to protect the community and anytime they break the law, the community should be able to restrain them and keep them in check. This ensures that all the people serving as police men and women adhere to the law.