The community is always a nice place that most people who relate and know each other well live. A community is always happy when there are peace and tranquillity. In recent years, however, the relations between the police and the community members have been deteriorating (McCandless, 2018). The police feel threatened by the community members while the citizens feel that the police are unfair and partial hence having mistrust. The relationship between the police and the community they serve is one of the fundamental keys towards successful law enforcement. Also, it becomes easy for the community to approach the police and offer critical information that may help in solving a crime.
Part 1
Two specific steps or programs that you would implement to improve police-community relations
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Creation of community immersion
The police agency should get immersed in the communities and interact with people. The reintroduction or elevations of the early community policing methods are some of the ways that this program can get achieved. The tension that might be forming between the law enforcement agencies and the community members can get calmed through forming community coalitions and partnerships (McCandless, 2018). The police officers need always to get closer to the community members and show them that they are good people and they need to be trusted. Also, the community members need to show the police that they are law abiding citizens and offer information on the few members that break the law.
There are several things that make the people to fear or not interact with the police. The body languages, as well as the tone that the law enforcement officers use, can scare the community members hence straining the police community relation. The police need to make sure that they communicate in a tone that does not instill fear among the people but instead use a friendly tone. Also, the police and the community members need to learn about each other's motivations and values so that they get to know each other well.
One of the areas that this program of creating community immersion has worked is Pasco Police department in Washington (PERF, 2016). After the shooting in Antonio Zambrano-Montes by three officers from the department of Pasco, the United States Department of Justice decided to avoid such incidents by ensuring the relationship between the police and the community was excellent.
Insist on transparency
Transparency in the way the police works is essential in improving their relations with the community members. When the community members are always briefed on why the police officers are doing certain things they become less opposed to their work. This plan on transparency is critical in building the trust between the two parties (Wolfe, 2016). When trust is there, the community members can readily give the police any information that may help them in their work of enforcing the law. Transparency between the police officers and the community members can get achieved through better communication.
The transparency program is a success story in the Durham police department. In this particular department, the Tom Bonfield who was the city manager then alongside Jose Lopez who was the police chief wanted the police and the community members to have an improved relation (ICMA, 2015). He decided to come up with a strategic plan that could see the police in his department participate in most of the events organized by the community. Their measure was not only to help in the improvement of transparency but also increase the levels of trust between the two parties. Both the chief of police Jose Lopez together with the city manager ensured that they achieved their goals in the 2015-2016 financial years.
Part 2
Two Steps or Programs That You Would Implement Within the Police Force to Address Morale and Cultural Insensitivity
Fairness
The morale of any worker contributes so much to their productivity output in their work. Morale is a sensitive subject that affects even the police officers. One of the steps that the police organization can do to ensure that the morale of the officers is high is through being fair. Some police officers have their motivation dealt a blow when there is a lot of favoritism, partiality, internal politics as well as the disparity in their place of work (McCandless, 2018). The opportunities for the profession of being a law enforcement agencies as well as the promotion part should be equal. The police officers should not feel that they are discriminated against anything. The promotional opportunities should be purely based on the hard work of each (Wolfe, 2016). This will make officers keep working and have high morale knowing that it will pay off someday. The morale will reduce when they know that they are not treated fairly and may not benefit from the hard work in the long run.
The motivation of some officers deteriorated after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson (Wolfe, 2016). The police chiefs during this time wanted to ensure that all the police officers across the nation could get treated fairly and their promotion gets based on their work rate and academic qualification. Also, all the officers started to get treated and addressed with respect. This interaction fairness within the organization as well as an open relationship was the key points that the chief of police and other senior members were to push for.
Training of the police officers
Culture insensitivity is a subtle topic. Most individuals come from different cultural backgrounds hence the way they perceive things is different. The same case applies to police officers. Most police officers come from various cultural setups and meet at police camps. Some of the officers have never interacted with people from different backgrounds and cultures; hence it becomes a challenge (Taya, 2015). The lack of proper knowledge of how different people from various cultures operate leads to the cultural insensitivity issue within the police force. Some members of the police force might feel like their culture is the best hence undermining the others way of doing things. As the chief of police, I will make sure that all the police officers in my department get relevant training on the issue of culture. This training will help each officer get to appreciate another's culture so that they can get to work together as a unit (McCandless, 2018). When police officers don't get discriminated in line with their cultures, their morale for the work will go high since they know that their colleagues and superiors understand them.
Also, police officers need to understand the culture of the community members fully. The ordinance and stature of different people should get considered when the officers are handling them (Taya, 2015). Some individuals may ignore the social cues, but this might be an involuntary action; hence the officers should take note.
The issue of training on cultural sensitivity has been a success in the Lafayette police department. According to Taya (2015), the training on police officers has helped tone down the cases of cultural insensitivity among the police officers and the community that they serve after the case of Michael Brown in Ferguson. The previous stereotypes that the minority groups or individuals dressed in a particular manner were likely to be a threat has been dealt with in the training sessions ( ICMA, 2015) . The police officers in this department have always been encouraged to know more about the individuals' culture so that they avoid making decisions on assumptions but use facts.
Reference
Flores, Taya. (2015) Police consider approaches to diversity training. https://www.jconline.com/story/news/2015/03/21/police-consider-approaches-diversity-training/25136969/
ICMA (2015) Ways to Improve Police/Community Relations https://icma.org/articles/article/3-ways-improve-policecommunity-relations
McCandless, Sean (2018) Improving Community Relations: How Police Strategies to Improve Accountability for Social Equity Affect Citizen Perceptions https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10999922.2017.1416880?journalCode=mpin20
Police Executive Research Forum. 2016. Recommendations on Advancing Community Policing in the Pasco Police Department. Critical Response Initiative. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.
Wolfe, Scott. (2016) Managing police departments post-Ferguson. https://hbr.org/2016/09/managing-police-departments-post-ferguson
