Improving Police & Community Relations
in African American Neighborhoods
Evelyn Smith, M. S. in Library Science, University of North Texas (2012)
Revised December 10, 2014
in African American Neighborhoods
Evelyn Smith, M. S. in Library Science, University of North Texas (2012)
Revised December 10, 2014
Saddened by the events surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner and the subsequent grand jury verdicts acquitting police of any wrong doing as well as rioters and looters' reactions to these events, Americans from all racial and political backgrounds have been pondering how to improve relations between the police and the minority communities they protect and serve. Pundits on both the left and right have proposed many of these solutions within the last few weeks, so remembering the adage that "not everyone thinks like you do", all sides can benefit from a frank and thoughtful discussion.
| A clip--on body camera may prevent police over reactions. |
Saddened by the events surrounding the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Gardner and the subsequent grand jury verdicts acquitting police of any wrong doing as well as rioters and looters' reactions to these events, Americans from all racial and political backgrounds have been pondering how to improve relations between the police and the minority communities they protect and serve. Pundits on both the left and right have proposed many of these solutions within the last few weeks, so remembering the adage that "not everyone thinks like you do", all sides can benefit from a frank and thoughtful discussion.
Whenever police actions result in any individual's death or severe injury (no matter his or her race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or age), state laws should mandate the holding of a pretrial hearing rather than submitting these actions to a grand jury. Incidentally, England and most countries that use common law (a system based on legal precedent and the use of juries instead of judges) have almost completely discarded the grand jury system and instead schedule pretrial hearings to determine whether to precede to a criminal trial.
Pre-trial. (n.d.). Heath and Safety Executive. Retrieved from http://www.hse.gov.uk/enforce/enforcementguide/pretrial/index.htm
Stanek,
Becca. (2014, December 8). England has avoided Eric Garners and
Michael Browns by doing what the U. S. won't. News-Mic.
Retrieved from
http://mic.com/articles/105964/england-has-avoided-eric-garners-and-michael-browns-by-doing-what-the-u-s-won-t?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=soc
The percentage of African Americans in the Michael Brown case, for example, reflected the overall racial composition of St. Louis County rather than the suburban town of Ferguson, Missouri, thus opening up this procedure to the criticism of possible racial bias.
3. State and federal governments need to offer financial incentives to municipal police departments to match their hiring practices with a municipality's racial makeup.
Quota systems should match the hiring of rookie police officers with a municipality's racial composition. Small towns like Ferguson, Missouri, often have problems recruiting minority officers as do some large cities.
McCrary, Justin. (1997) The effect of court-ordered hiring quotas on the composition and quality of police. American Economic Review, 97(1), 318-353. Retrieved from http://eml.berkeley.edu/~jmccrary/mccrary2007.pdf
Barr, Cameron. (2014, December 2).
Body cameras for police? Britain started long ago. Washington Post.
Retrieved from
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/12/02/body-worn-cameras-for-police-britain-started-long-ago/
According to a Plymouth, England, study
that took place in 2006-2007, body camera worn by British police
officers cut down on paper work and make suspects more likely to
confess if confronted with their actions caught on video (Barr, 2014,
December 2, para. 6). However, the study found no “clear
evidence” that the use of body cams improved the public's trust of
the police (Barr, 2014, December 2, para. 7). Furthermore, when
video images, like mugshots, eventually become public, law
enforcement has to cope with a whole new group of unintended
consequences, such as privacy issues (Barr, 2014, December 2, para.
10).
Louis, Errol. (2014, December 5). Police body cams: Will they really help? CNN Opinion. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/05/opinion/louis-cops-body-cams/index.html
Law enforcement agencies should equip all law enforcement officers with a body camera as President Obama has already suggested. Even so, the discrepancy between what a body camera videotapes and the verdict that the Staten Island grand jury delivered in the Eric Gardener case shows that the use of a body cam by police officers is not a cure-all. Indeed, criminologists caution that equipping cops with body cams might have unintended negative consequences (Louis, 2014, December 5, para. 5). This means that rules enforcing the appropriate use of body cams should accompany their use (Louis, 2014, December 5, para. 11).Of course, changes in legal procedure and law enforcement do little to change the adversarial relationship between some African Americans and the police. Thus, the problem needs to elicit changes in behavior and attitudes on both sides.
Pegoraro, Rob. (2014, December 10). 3 questions to ask before putting cameras on cops. Yahoo. Retrieved from https://www.yahoo.com/tech/3-questions-to-ask-before-putting-cameras-on-cops-104709587714.html
Pegoraro notes that authorities should
determine when are the cameras on, what are the recordings used for,
and how long are the video-recordings kept (2014, December 10, para.
7, 13, & 20).
5. Police
departments should regularly use neighborhood surveys and town
meetings to pinpoint law enforcement problems, thus stopping criminal activity before it starts.Neighborhood surveys and town hall meetings that increase the public's interest and participation in keeping a community safe should ease tensions while cutting the crime rate.
McNamara,
Joseph D. (2013, August 16). Building trust between police and
minority communities. Reuters. Retrieved from
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2013/08/16/building-trust-between-police-and-minority-communities/
Crime
prevention programs offered through police
departments and in the public schools can prevent crimes before they start.
For example, simply regularly gathering the entire family together
to eat dinner each evening drastically cuts down on juvenile crime according to the Prevent Delinquency Project.
Research
also shows that after school recreational and activity programs,
scouting, anti-bullying programs, and including parents in counseling sessions when teens have problems apparently
decrease crime rates while scare tactics don't. Accordingly, police
forces should budget some of their funds and scheduling so that
police officers sponsor scout troops, participate in after school
activities, and recreational and tutorial programs, as well as serve
as big brothers/big sisters.
Juvenile
delinquency prevention. (2008). LawyerShop. Retrieved from
http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/criminal-law/juvenile-law/prevention
Prevent Delinquency Project. (2014). Retrieved from http://preventdelinquency.org/
Saminsky, Alina. (2010). Preventing juvenile delinquency: Early intervention and comprehensiveness as critical factors. Student Pulse, 2(2), 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/165/preventing-juvenile-delinquency-early-intervention-and-comprehensiveness-as-critical-factors
7. Corporations need to offer more Starbuck-style work-study scholarships for low income and minority students.
Lower-income African American and Hispanic young adults as well as young white adults from financially-disadvantaged backgrounds all need a college or technical education after they thoroughly perfect high school-level literacy skills. “Occupational bifurcation”, however, creates employment at the high and low ends of the job market—a problem that particularly impacts poor neighborhoods (Kuhn, 2005, p. 2) Meanwhile, middle-class African Americans increasingly move to integrated, suburban neighborhoods, leaving an uneducated, underclass behind (Kuhn, 2005, p. 3).
At the same time, lower-income neighborhoods and small towns also frequently lack the supermarkets, discount stores, and outlet malls that would otherwise employ high school students and young adults (Kuhn, 2005, p. 10). Thus, the Ferguson, Missouri, riots will most likely keep chain stores from locating there in the future while local small business owners may not have the funds to rebuild and restock their stores.
Fitzgerald, John. (2007, December 7). Increasing college opportunities for minority students Twin Cities Daily Planet. Retrieved from http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2007/12/05/increasing-college-opportunities-minority-students.html
Kuhn, Catherine. (2005, February). The Causes and consequences of concentrated urban poverty. Community and Economic Development Program School for Planning, Design and Construction. Michigan State University. Retrieved from http://www.ced.msu.edu/upload/reports/Kuhn%202005.pdf
Grayson, Lee. (n. d). Teen job employment programs. Chron [Houston Chronicle]. Retrieved from http://work.chron.com/teen-job-employment-programs-16644.html
Pathways for students and recent graduates to federal careers. (n. d.). USAjobs. Retrieved from https://www.usajobs.gov/StudentsAndGrads
Summer jobs with the Federal government. (2011, May 6). News from our blog. USA.gov. Retrieved from http://blog.usa.gov/post/5243414396/summer-jobs-with-the-federal-government
9. Communities need to improve adult literacy levels before they can take advantage of higher education and technical training.
The latest statistics available show that only 13 percent (or 28 million) Americans are proficient readers and writers while 44 percent (or 95 million) U.S. residents can successfully perform “moderately challenging literacy activities. At the same time, 29 percent (or 63 million) Americans can only perform “simple and every day“ reading and writing skills, and 14 percent (or 30 million) possess “below basic literacy skills” (U. S. Department of Education, 2003, para. 7). Statistics, nevertheless, show that 39 percent of Hispanic adults can read only at the below basic literacy level while 20 percent of African American adults perform at the below basic literacy level (U.S. Department of Education, 2003, para. 8).
U. S. Department of Education. (2003) National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/NAAL/kf_demographics.asp
For more information on adult literacy also go to http://evelynelainesmith.blogspot.com/2013/12/adult-reading-functional-literacy.html
10. Public schools need to teach persuasive speaking, anger management, and delayed gratification to children and teens.
Children and young adults need to learn argumentation and rhetorical skills. Similarly, police officers need to improve their persuasive skills through continuing education programs as shown by a recent continuing education course offered to police.
Beginning in the elementary grades, public school educators need to emphasize anger management as part of the curriculum. At the very least, most particularly they should instruct African-American students how to behave when approached by a policeman, for challenging a police officer might be the very last choice they make.
Character education resources. (2014, July 23). Internet4Classroom. Retrieved from http://www.internet4classrooms.com/character_ed.htm
http://faculty/cce/programs/police-leadership/courses/communication-skills-for-police-personnel.html
Vanessa. 12 ways to manage anger. Savvy School Counselor. Retrieved from http://savvyschoolcounselor.com/12-ways-to-manage-anger/
Schools need to teach ethical behavior part of their curriculum not only in the early elementary grades, but in middle and high school as well. While families and churches once could be counted on to teach appropriate ethical behavior, communities can no longer count on this instruction.Thus, the public schools by default have become the one place where all students can be exposed to such concepts as the “Golden Rule”: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Schools should, however, encourage church members after they undergo a background check can serve as volunteers, tutors, and mentors.
Harned, Pat and Sutliff, Kathryrn. (2003, December 31). What the schools can teach us about nurturing values. ERC Ethics Resource Center. Retrieved from http://www.ethics.org/resource/what-schools-can-teach-us-about-nurturing-values
Novit, Rob. (2014, November 12). Conference for high school juniors to promote ethical behavior. Aiken Standard. Retrieved from
http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20141112/AIK0101/141119734
Regan, Margaret. (2012, March 5). Modeling ethical conduct in the classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/ethical-conduct-classroom-margaret-regan
Shattuck, Kelly. (n. d.). 7 startling facts: An up close look at church attendance in America. Church Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.churchleaders.com/pastors/pastor-articles/139575-7-startling-facts-an-up-close-look-at-church-attendance-in-america.html
Whitehead, John W. (2011, May 26). The breakdown of the traditional family: Why conservative Christians should rethink the blame game. Huff Post Religion. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/the-breakdown-of-the-trad_b_675444.html
12. Readers please add to this discussion with suggestions and/or corrections!
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