Law enforcement is a complex responsibility that requires cooperated effort from all involved parties. Countries with culturally diverse societies such as the US have seen policing come under scrutiny in matters of legitimacy and purpose. According to Mejia (2018) legal frameworks in the forms of constitutions grant the police departments the mandate to enforce law and order, it remains imperative that such authorities cultivate trust with the local communities. Police work is always a public service role that demands that officers of law enforcement commit to protection and service to the communities hosting them (Mejia, 2018). However, the US has seen a rise in hostility among communities they are supposed to enforce laws. The question of legitimacy and purpose of police officers administering legal mandates in such areas has been called to question (Makin et al., 2019). Minority communities remain the leading volatile areas that have seen rising cases of hostility towards police departments. According to Hendrix et al. (2018), affected communities have always referred to rising cases of police induced injustices towards the population breaching the existing trust levels between the police force and the local minority communities. The paper discusses the current state of policing affairs in minority communities based on perceived injustices against such communities.
Understanding the context of the discussion requires that the term "minority communities" is defined. Hendrix et al. (2018) state that minority communities refer to groups that exist outside the perceived mainstream and the majority of the population. According to Mejia (2018), minority groups include people from minority ethnic or races, minority gender, and currently minority sex groups such as the LGBTQ groups. Such communities are a representation of the minorities in the US who continually report issues of police harassment or violence targeting their community based on the fact that they are from a minority community.
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Policing reports have seen a rise in concern in the relationship between the police as a law enforcement agency and the minor ethnic groups. According to Makin et al. (2019), the relationship between minority groups such as the black and Hispanic communities has always found its way to mainstream media. Advocates against such souring relationships have pointed a blaming accusation towards police enforcement tactics in minority communities. Studies have highlighted the unnecessary use of violence towards such minority groups based on socially instigated stereotyping (Alonso, 2018). African-American communities as minorities have projected anger at the persistent police profiling with police officers being quick to resolve to use of violence against suspects from black communities (Sousa, Miethe, & Sakiyama, 2017). Equally, Hispanic communities have reported struggling to shed the tag of "illegal immigrants" that has always led to unwarranted search and arrests (Makin et al., 2019). It is such hostility among these communities that has significantly been the basis for conflicted policing with officers always resolving to reactionary approaches detested among minority groups. Currently, there are existing complaints and advocacy against police brutality directed towards black populations (Makin et al., 2019). The "Black lives matter" campaigns have not only gained a national following on mainstream media but attracted international human rights groups' attention following several reported cases extrajudicial racially instigated violence against African-American communities.
The situation has led to several legal and human rights groups calling on reforms in the police department. Among the proposal has been for inclusivity and diversity within the force to ensure that it is representative of the multicultural image of the country. As it exists, the police force remains perceived as a white-dominated force that is mainly of Anglo-Saxon descent with the majority either as Catholics or Irish (Sousa, Miethe, & Sakiyama, 2017). The perception has seen other communities detest the force alluding to its bias towards African and Hispanic American communities. Further, there exists a call to have the police force reformed to be more of an integrated force that is intelligence-driven in fighting crime, a move that would ensure that the force is capable of acting proactively on matters security.
References
Alonso, J. A. (2018). How Police Culture Affects the Way Police Departments View and Utilize Deadly Force Policies under the Fourth Amendment. Arizona Law Review , 60 , 987.
Hendrix, J. A., Taniguchi, T. A., Strom, K. J., Barrick, K. A., & Johnson, N. J. (2018). The Eyes of Law Enforcement in the New Panopticon: Police-Community Racial Asymmetry and the Use of Surveillance Technology. Surveillance & Society , 16 (1), 53-68.
Makin, D. A., Willits, D. W., Koslicki, W., Brooks, R., Dietrich, B. J., & Bailey, R. L. (2019). Contextual determinants of observed negative emotional states in police–community interactions. Criminal Justice and Behavior , 46 (2), 301-318.
Mejia, C. (2018). Road to Change: A Community’s Story on Strengthening Law Enforcement-Community Relations.
Sousa, W. H., Miethe, T. D., & Sakiyama, M. (2017). Inconsistencies in public opinion of body-worn cameras on police: Transparency, trust, and improved police–citizen relationships. Policing: A Journal of Policy and Practice , 12 (1), 100-108.
