On Diversity Awareness and Community/Police Relations

We live in a society. In the technological era that we currently reside in, almost every aspect of our society can be placed under a microscope. Though we as a society benefit from these advances in communication and information exchange, our inherent biases can inhibit many of us from being served, or serving, our due justices. It has become more evident as we witness the abuse of power at the hands of the individuals whose jobs are to serve and protect us. Police brutality isn’t an issue that is new to society; it has existed since the inception of the force. But in contemporary American culture, we are able to view recorded accounts presented through various forms of media. This allows their actions to be scrutinized and creates an opportunity for accountability. It’s placed a lens of exposure on the role police officers are supposed to play in our communities as opposed to how they actually police our communities. This juxtaposition has shown that police officers enforce and enact laws differently in certain communities, specifically in lower income neighborhoods, and it has affected the relationship those residents have with police officers. This isn’t a surprising fact, there have been efforts made to bring awareness to these discrepancies and attempts made to educate officers on their conduct. I’ve referenced a couple of articles that pose different approaches to how these “diversity and awareness training” efforts, as they’ve been called, have influenced police officers in regards to their attitudes and actions in the neighborhoods they patrol.

Culture and community play a large role in how individuals view themselves and those they are protective over. This is basic human nature and has allowed us to evolve into the civilizations that exist today. It was philosopher Thomas Hobbes that proposed the idea of a “social contract” wherein citizens of a community give up certain powers and in return they are granted rights and protection. The police currently hold this role of protector of the people. In many communities across America, the police are held in a higher regard and viewed as serving the community through justice. Most of these communities are middle to upper middle class neighborhoods where little evident crime exists as a result of the comfort and privilege that is afforded to them. In these communities, the police play less of an enforcing role and more of a patrolling role. Because of this, there exist few incidents where the police make arrests of residents of these communities. When they do they are rarely hostile or resort to violence as a means to enforce their power.

The privilege of viewing the police as a source for protection isn’t extended to all residents of America. Throughout history, forces in power at the hands of the police have abused Black Americans, immigrants, and other marginalized groups, who often reside in lower income neighborhoods and it has created a festering and legitimate distrust that remains intact today. This unfortunate paradox is referred to as “Legal Cynicism” wherein residents of communities believe that police are unresponsive, illegitimate, and ill equipped to ensure public safety. It is ingrained in the culture of these communities because for generations the relationship that members of these communities have held with police has been one of neglect and abuse. This distrust breaks the social contract that was supposed to be held by the residents and the police force leading to residents acting on their own behalf. It can often lead to individuals policing themselves or being policed by neighborhood groups or gangs.

Two major factors that contribute to the disproportionate incidences of police discrimination in the communities they police are the issues of class and identity. Police restrict the rights of certain citizens in order to protect the rights of others and this is a reflection of the class struggle that exists in our society. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993) The majority, but not all, officers policing lower income neighborhoods do not reside in those communities. They possess a notion that they are in these neighborhoods to protect the residents from each other, but to also confine these residents to their neighborhoods so they can maintain a watchful eye over them. So when these residents venture out of their neighborhood, say to a more affluent neighborhood, it is automatically assumed to be suspicious and they proceed to stereotype them as acting with criminal intent. One officer participating in a cultural diversity awareness training in Milwaukee, WI asked “How can I stop a black family (in an automobile) without being viewed as racist?” When he was questioned about the purpose of the stop the officer replied that he had to stop the family because they were black in a suburban township and this was cause for suspicion. In another incident, after participating in a cultural diversity awareness training and responding to evaluations of the sessions, white officers responded by saying the sessions were “too liberal”, “too antagonistic”, and a “waste of time”. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993) It led to fewer officers in the precincts responding to requests to attend the sessions, which led to a push back from their chiefs in enforcing the sessions because they deemed them as ineffective.

The Kerner Report of 1968 was one of the first and most extensive reports on police community relations and came about around the time of the civil rights movement. Within the report, the National Advisory on Commissions of Civil Disorders asserted that to improve police-minority relations, it is essential for officers to receive training on ghetto problems and conditions. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993) This report was later referenced after the videotaped beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers was released in 1991. At that time, it was the most dramatic depiction of police brutality witnessed and one of the first to be publicized. The Christopher Commission, which was a response to the beating of Rodney King, also requested training be required to police officers in order to increase efforts of cultural sensitivity. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993) Years apart, and both call for cultural training for police officers in order to quell issues of violence and abuse at the hands of officers. It was concluded from some of these commissions that cultural awareness training may introduce officers to a complex set of social, political, and economic issues, but officers must still make quick decisions and resolve conflicts in a crude manner. Law enforcement is inherently discriminatory because of its focus on the crimes of lower classes. Cultural diversity awareness training for police officers does not address existing relations of power and authority, which it is the job of the police to defend. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993)

It is evident throughout history panels and committees were put together to discuss how to improve police and community relations, yet it still remains an issue. One reason for that is the belief that these programs and training are intended to make the relationships more humane, but also to enforce the penal code in a more manipulative way. Similar reforms to penal policies, such as institutionalization, indeterminate sentencing, probation, and community relations, were perceived to be progressive in their intent but were shown to be enhancing the effectiveness of penal policy. (Barlow and Barlow, 1993) The leaders of these committees are also often former police officers and chiefs, therefore they still possess a bias in their intents for reforms as it relates to the communities they serve. In their attempts to appease to the communities they police, they also do not want to expose some of the illegal and discriminatory policing practices they enforce.

Another angle on the issue of police and community relations is the expected role that officers are supposed to play within the communities they police. Policemen, in any given situation, are expected to react in a certain way by a number of persons including their supervisor, the public, and their advisors. These expectations lead to an officer choosing between one or two alternatives at variances with the expectations of those concerned. (Ward, 1970) This stance directly addresses the biases that are possessed by an officer. It attempts to humanize the officer and build the point that they are not automated bots that function with the utmost moral and civil efficiency. Yet considering that they are in an official position, most officers’ should act with the intent of maintaining law and order while serving justice. In some instances, these actions often go against the nature of what the majority would deem humane, especially in lower income neighborhoods.

When officers use force to enact their power, in some cases using illegal, abusive, or even lethal force, this draws back to the initial concern of what detached them from their humanity and led to them viewing the apprehended individual’s life as less valuable than any others. Why would officers treat suspects differently in one neighborhood as opposed to the other if everyone were supposed to be treated equally? These are questions that cannot be answered broadly, and also cannot be resolved solely through cultural training. On a macro scale, the societal structures that have placed these officers in their positions support their actions. On a micro scale, the individual experiences of these officers as a result of being indoctrinated with the social and cultural norms of our society influence how they view individuals of different races, ethnicities, genders, and social classes. While cultural awareness training can play a role in influencing and addressing an officer’s biases and ignorance, in most cases it doesn’t completely shift the officers perspective towards the communities they serve nor lend them the empathy or cultural understanding that will enable them to truly serve and protect when function in a system that doesn’t address its own corrupt and illegal policies and practices.

Sources:

Barlow, D., & Barlow, M. (1993). Cultural Diversity Training in Criminal Justice: A Progressive Or Conservative Reform? Social Justice, 20(3/4 (53–54)), 69–84. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/29766756

Ward, R. (1970). The Police Role: A Case of Diversity. The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 61(4), 580–586. doi:10.2307/1142050