Introduction
Cultural diversity plays an important role especially in peacekeeping mission for multicultural societies. A multicultural society is characterized by more than one culture. The numerous cultures can be evident through different religions, beliefs or language. The Asian/ Pacific American communities are among the multicultural communities that require law enforcement officers to be culturally diversified. Law enforcement officers in working in these regions should determine the additional languages and skills that might be appropriate while working in Asian/ Pacific American communities. This paper examines several reasons why it is important for law enforcement officers to have additional languages and skills during a peacekeeping mission.
Law enforcement officials will have to obtain information from victims, suspects, and witnesses who might have little knowledge on the English language. To obtain adequate information, the officers will either have a few officers with a mastery skill of the different languages within the community or will have to hire interpreters. Peacekeeping mission requires the collection of information and the process can easily be jeopardized if officers are unable to collect any information due to language barriers (Shusta, Levine, Harris & Wong, 2015). Asian/ Pacific American communities do not speak English as their primary language hence the law enforcement officers will have to be multi-culturally minded when heading for peacekeeping missions.
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It is also essential for law enforcement officers to have additional communication skills in order to have a complete understanding with the local people during their peacekeeping mission in the Asian/ Pacific American countries (Shusta, Levine, Harris & Wong, 2015). The officers maybe from different communities and may not understand the pattern of communication of the Asian/ Pacific American communities. For example, the Asian communities are prone to confusing pronouns such as "he" and "she." This is normally because the Chinese language and other Asian language do not have a difference between pronunciations for the words "he" and "she." Not having skills that can differentiate skills of communication styles may make law enforcement officers misunderstand the local Asian for deception.
A smooth interaction and collaboration between law enforcement officers and the Asian/ Pacific American communities can only be possible if the officers are able to acknowledge and understand the kind of non-verbal communication styles of the communities (Shusta, Levine, Harris & Wong, 2015). For example, the emotional perspective of their communication is different from communities in the United States and the United Kingdom. For most Asian communities it is considered rude for an officer to involve a "loss of face." A question that is followed by a "yes" from an Asian may have several meanings, the kind of interpretation and the level to which the officers and the people from the Asian/ Pacific American communities depend on how culturally diversified the law enforcers are.
Conclusion
It is also essential to develop a good relationship between the law enforcement officers and the Asian/ Pacific American communities. Building a good relationship between the two is essential for collaboration when information is required. An excellent interaction is only possible if the law enforcement officers are equipped with language skills and additional skills for bilingual communities. The language skills required include having a good knowledge of the various languages within the communities, understanding patterns of communication and having a non-verbal communication affiliated with the Asian/Pacific American communities. All these will be important for the success of a peacekeeping mission within such multicultural communities as discussed in this paper.
References
Shusta, R. M., Levine, D. R., Harris, P. R., & Wong, H. Z. (2015). Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
