Our Police and the Community they Serve

Background Information 

Law enforcement officers are crucial in minimizing antisocial behaviors within the communities. In the US, over eight million criminal offenses are recorded annually, and it is the police department's responsibility to ensure that justice is served to the offended (Mosteller, 2019) . Likewise, to keep the communities safe, over ten million arrests are made annually, ensuring that the societies are safe and that the offenders take responsibility for their actions (Mosteller, 2019) . However, in recent years, the relationships between the law enforcers and police have been at the crossroads. Police-community relationships have been ruined by heightened mistrust, especially with the minority groups. Mosteller (2019) defines c ommunity policing as “a police strategy that utilizes local partnerships and greater decision-making authority among street-level officers to solve community problems” (p.1).   However, most US citizens consider the police to be law enforcers and not the protector of their well-being (Sereni-Massinger & Wood, 2016). There has been a rise of several civil rights movements, such as the Black Lives Matter (BLM), which fights for the rights of the black minorities from oppression by the police force (Clayton, 2018) . Several unarmed blacks have been murdered by white police officers, without adverse consequences to the officers implicated, which is increasingly ruining their relationships with the communities they serve. Law enforcement departments operate effectively in a free society, which helps promote public safety, reduce antisocial behaviors, and above all, uphold the rule of law. Police-community relations should be prevailed by trust and accountability. Although the government has the right to use force due to achieve its objectives, it must observe its citizens' rights. To be more specific, effective community policing must be based on positive relationships with the communities they serve. These relationship traits are necessary and imperative to enhance trust between the law enforcers and the communities they serve. Without trust, community policing becomes ineffective. 

Review of Literature 

Lee et al. (2019) investigated the extent to which “residential stability influences residents’ opinion, behavior, and attitudes toward the police” (p.2). More specifically, the researchers evaluated the significance of residential stability and how it affects the public's trust in the police. The researchers used data from a five-state community policing survey conducted in 2001. Among the components included in the questionnaire used in this survey included public trust in the police force, residence areas within the communities, and political ideologies. The questionnaire used a self-reported approach where the respondents would describe their level of trust with the police. The research respondents consisted mainly of males; the majority were whites and had achieved a high school education. 

The researchers found that the duration of stay within society had a negative correlation with police trust. Although staying in the same neighborhood for long gets one assimilated to these communities' routine doings, the researchers found that staying in the same neighborhood for long gets people to know their local police officers' inside dirty secrets, leading to less trust. Likewise, in communities that experience criminal activities more often, the residents are likely to lose trust with the policing department for their under-performance. Therefore, the research results revealed that the longer individuals stayed within a community, the lesser the trust they developed with the police force. Contrary, the researchers also found that permanent residents, those living in duplex or condos, had higher trust with the police than those living in other types of homes, such as mobile homes. This trust was hugely influenced by the fact that individuals living in duplex or condos hold events where they get to know each other well, compared to those with mobile homes. 

Despite this research's success, the main limitation of this research was the use of white as the majority of research participants. The researchers ignored the structural racism that affects minorities in the US. Maxwell & Solomon (2018) defines structural racism as “ a system of public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations, and other norms that work in reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial inequality ” (p.1). Perhaps the criminal justice system is a perfect example of whether this form of racism is exercised. The minority groups, especially African Americans, have more encounters with the law enforcement officers compared to the whites, which explains why the research by Lee et al. (2019) lacked variations, making it inferior. 

Another study by McCandless (2018) investigated the impacts of the policing department's strategies on improving accountability for social equity on citizens' perceptions. McCandless (2018) defines s ocial equity accountability as “how administrators take steps to promote fairness, such as admitting social equity issues, making equity a priority equal 

to efficiency, measuring and tracking progress, giving everyone a place at the table, and 

establishing community partnerships” (p.2). The police-community relations have been put to the test severally with the minority communities at the receiving end. In more detail, individuals from minority groups are more likely to be stopped, searched, and put behind bars more often than most whites. 

Therefore, in conducting the research, McCandless (2018) was guided by the following research question “How do strategies of police agencies that foster accountability for social equity affect citizen perceptions?” (p.5). The researcher undertook an exploratory phenomenological collective case study based on interviews to conduct this research based on three propositions: Social Equity Performance Measurement, Community Policing Programs, and ethical training. To avoid bias, the researcher ensured that they used purposive maximum variation sampling. Data from federal institutions, such as the US Census Bureau, the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) dataset, and the State and Local Law Enforcement Training Academies. Moreover, the researcher consulted various news outlets to find the interactions between the law enforcers and the minority groups, mainly the African Americans in the recent past. 

The researcher found mixed reactions with Community Policing Programs and the Social Equity Performance Measurement in promoting social equity. Positive perceptions were noted in departments that involved communities-based practices. Contrary, negative perceptions were noted when the leaders felt unincorporated programs. Likewise, the researcher also found that CPPs are only effectively applicable in areas with low crime rates. Areas requiring the policing departments to take tougher measures would not effectively use CPPs. Likewise, policing departments with SEPM were perceived positively compared to those without this program, although the unit leaders appeared skeptical of achieving results. However, biases were found to affect this approach. For instance, police units led by leaders with perceptions that African Americans were more likely to commit crimes affected equity achievement. Moreover, it was also found that ethics in training was more positively perceived. 

Discussion 

With the existing literature, it is evident that the relationship between law enforcement officers, the level of education among the residents, and residents' area with the citizens influences their perceptions regarding community policing. It is evident that several factors influence the community policing programs implemented to enhance trust between the law enforcers and the citizens. For instance, areas that experience more crime rates call for police to use excessive force than areas with low crime rates. Conversely, people in high crime areas may tend to lose trust with law enforcement officers as they may deem them as under-performing. Moreover, structural racism also influences the relationship between the police and the citizens. Due to the higher rate of police encounters with the minority groups, they tend to lose trust in the policing force. 

Therefore, the applicability of Community Oriented Policing (COP) relies on the relationship between the citizens and the police force. COP effectively reduces crime rates and conflicts within the societies (Sereni-Massinger & Wood, 2016). However, most COP programs fail to materialize due to the negative perceptions of the police force. Therefore, police need retraining on soft skills competencies, such as critical thinking and interpersonal communication skills. This will enable police officers to engage in problem-solving rather than reacting proactively to situations within their jurisdictions. 

Conclusion 

Despite the challenges of implementing community-based policing, there are numerous benefits, such as reducing crime rates and solving other community problems. It is also evident that community-based policing's effectiveness depends on everybody's involvement, the citizens, and policing staff. This enhances the understanding and creates awareness of the problems facing the community, recognizes that solving these problems requires the involvement of everybody. To that end, it also enables the policing department to recognize that they cannot solve the community problems from the outside. This calls for the policing departments to tune the citizens’ minds by making them realize that the police units are a resourItutilized within the communities to solve issues and should not be used selectively to some members. Therefore, there is a need for the police officers to be trained more often to foster a solid foundation with the residents of their area of jurisdiction. Additionally, the police ought to organize for the police week and interact with the community to change the notion that police are brutal. This will help in the successful enhancement of police-community relations. 

References 

Clayton, D. M. (2018). Black Lives Matter and the Civil Rights Movement: A Comparative Analysis of Two Social Movements in the United States.  Journal of Black Studies ,  49 (5), 448–480. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934718764099 

Lee, H. D., Boateng, F. D., Kim, D., & Binning, C. (2019). Residential Stability and Trust in the Police: an Understudied Area of Police Attitudinal Research.  American Journal of Criminal Justice ,  45 (1), 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-019-09492-6 

Maxwell, C., & Solomon, D. (2018).  Center for American Progress . Center for American Progress; Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2018/06/05/451647/mass-incarceration-stress-black-infant-mortality/ 

McCandless, S. (2018). Improving Community Relations: How Police Strategies to Improve Accountability for Social Equity Affect Citizen Perceptions.  Public Integrity ,  20 (4), 370–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2017.1416880 

Mosteller, J. (2019).  The Role of Policing in Society in 60 Seconds . Charles Koch Institute. https://www.charleskochinstitute.org/issue-areas/criminal-justice-policing-reform/role-of-police-in-america/ 

Sereni-Massinger, C., & Wood, N. (2016). Improving Law Enforcement Cross-Cultural Competencies through Continued Education. Journal of Education and Learning ,  5 (2), 258. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v5n2p258