Final Paper Diversity in law enforcement has grown to become a hot topic within the law enforcement community. The demographic of society has changed dramatically over the last 20 years and with that law enforcement has been changing, but have they been changing enough? Different law enforcement agencies have their own ways of implementing diversity in their practices and procedures, some of them are better than others, but with issues that happen today it is important that they do something. There have been major incidents in our generation that have caused the need for diversity reform in law enforcement. The biggest incident was the attacks on the United States of America that occurred on September 11th, 2001. The attacks that …show more content…
Following this African-Americans were always treated as unequal to the white male. They were segregated and found it utterly impossible to gain any ground in society. How could they? African Americans rarely got the opportunity to get an education or have a good job.
Hate crimes have continued to be a very real issue for African Americans. According to civilrights.org “Despite the election of our nations first African-American President, African Americans remain by far the most frequent victims of hate crimes…On election night in 2008, Ralph Nicoletti and Michael Contreas, both 18, and Brian Carranza 21, of Staten Island, New York decided shortly after learning of Barrack Obama’s election victory to find African Americans to assault…The men drove to a predominantly African American neighborhood in Staten Island where they came upon a 17 year old African American who was walking home after watching the election at a friends house. One of the men in the car yelled “Obama” Then, the men got out of the car and beat the youth with a metal pipe and collapsible police baton, injuring his head and legs. The men went on to commit additional assaults that night.” (civilrights.org) Again, here is another prime example of why it is important to reform diversity in law enforcement and think of creative ways to educate and police these communities. There are some law enforcement agencies that are taking a proactive approach by implementing diversity training
With the increase of diversity in the country, comes a wide variety of issues facing all sectors. In the criminal justice sector we see issues such as racial profiling, discrimination amongst others.
Recently, it has been brought up that there is still institutional racism within the Police force, this, as well as many other reasons such as negative stereotyping, informal bias and assumptions from ethnic minority groups themselves are reasons why people from minority groups are less inclined to join. The Police have introduced a number of ways to try and create a more diverse workforce. Some of these methods include, improving the data collected on the age,
The objective of this thesis is to provide comprehensive information to all stakeholders who have an interest in enhancing minority recruitment and selection. The goal of this thesis is to address law enforcement professionals about the importance of diversifying police agencies; more importantly, is to address the underrepresentation of Asian-American police officers and the challenges of recruiting potential candidates from Asian communities. Through community policing, mediation, trust building, collaboration with stakeholders, and cultural diversity training, law enforcement agencies will achieve its recruiting and diversity goals. Targeting Asian cultural events, partnering up with higher learning institutions, and sending mass emails regarding job opportunities to criminal justice majors could produce students’ interests and desires to pursue a career in law enforcement (Castaneda & Ridgeway, 2010). Recruitment issues and needs will be examined; moreover, the importance of evaluating implemented strategies must be followed up in order to monitor community changes or problems that may arise (Tangel, 2015).
Because of exceptional results akin to those of the Rialto study, Birmingham police Chief, A.C. Roper plans to equip every officer in Birmingham with a body camera. Since the behavior of the police are so much better, there will be more diversity within the police force. Therefore, the police force’s public image would alleviate, and more people would be willing to join the police force. Diversity will increase the placement of trust in the police force. Diversity will allow the agency to converse more effectively with minority communities. Diversity will allow the police to understand racial perspectives through communication with other police officers. People would believe that their interactions with the police are not based on racial
The diversity issue focused on in this paper will be racial disparity in sentencing. This paper will also focus on some of the reasons why racial disparity exists within sentencing. One of the research methods used in this paper will be case studies. In society today there are a diversity of citizens, of offenders, and leaders within in the court system. However, race still plays a big role in the Criminal Justice system especially during the sentencing portion. Although racial dynamics may have changed over time, race still exerts an undeniable presence in sentencing process. This ranges from disparate traffic stops due to racial profiling to imposition of the death penalty based on the race of
Today like never before organizations are hoping to fill their positions with a group of diverse law enforcement officers that mirrors the populaces they serve. As organizations search for officers who reflect their settings in which they serve in , they are additionally expanding their meanings of decent variety. From this point of view, assorted variety can incorporate race, ethnic gathering, religion, sexual preference, and age. Being a minority working in the law enforcement field can be very helpful for an agency however, that specific group may still go unrecognized. This paper will provide a brief review of the disguised minority achievements as it relates to the U.S. Marshals Service in the past. It will also be examined in
Throughout the last one hundred and fifty years, there has been a history of tension and conflict between the police and minority communities in the United States. In principle, the police exist to enforce the law and protect all citizens regardless of race or ethnic background, yet police departments across the country have been repeatedly accused of targeting and harassing racial minorities, and of failing to root out racist attitudes and practices within their ranks. In recent years, high profile cases such as the beating of Rodney King in Los Angles and the assault on Abner Louima in New York have only served to heighten concerns over the mistreatment of minorities by the police, resulting in widespread calls for major legal and institutional reforms. The recent shootings of Michael Brown, Ezell Ford, Eric Garner, and Terrance Crutcher underscore the danger Black men and boys face when they cross paths with law enforcement officers. In the absence of a coordinated national strategy, state and local police departments have largely been left to develop their own solutions to the problems of policing minority communities and improving cultural sensitivity amongst their officers. Many departments have sought to reform recruitment and selection policies in the hope of attracting greater numbers of minority applicants, while others have instituted diversity training and education programs aimed at improving police understanding of minority cultures and communities. To date, however, these efforts have yielded mixed results. Some departments have achieved notable successes, but on the whole, relations between the police and minority communities across the country remain strained. of cultural diversity and the police.
A number of problems arise from race and ethnicity issues in policing practices. From the department’s perspective, issues with race and ethnicity, create negative consequences. For example, if a police department fails properly to resolve situational conflicts, this can cause loss of productivity, tension among officers of different race and backgrounds, enhanced suspicion of other officers, and increased isolation of staff member. The department will suffer tremendously if it fails
Although the questionnaire and interview processes are useful in gaining a better understanding of the cultural competence of law enforcement agencies, they are not helpful in improving the cultural competency of those agencies. This is where instituting mandatory cultural competency training comes into play. For example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission proposed steps and recommendations to increase cultural competency and one of those steps was to “develop and deploy effective EEO and diversity/inclusion training for different state and local law enforcement audiences, including department leadership, human resources, and hiring officials, union leadership, and individual officers.” (Yang, 2015). While this recommendation pertains to hiring practices, it would also be very beneficial for law enforcement agencies to have trainings. Cultural competency training is important and would greatly improve relations between law enforcement and the community.
Diversity recruitment is vital to any organization, especially that of a law enforcement agency. Many police departments across Missouri are struggling to maintain a workforce that is equally as diverse at the community it serves. According to The Police Chief magazine, one of the most effective recruitment techniques to achieve a diverse police force is to generate a positive perception of police within the community. (Pearsall & Kohlhepp, 2016)
Jessie, I really enjoyed your post as I have been a police officer for 18 years and it directly relates to my job. Yes, police departments across the country must strive to make their departments more diverse, especially with the rising Hispanic population. One main hindrance to this goal is the fact that many cities are doing away with pension programs and starting hybrid or 401K retirement plans. At my agency, the Knoxville Police Department, we are having problems getting any race to apply because of the new hybrid system. I would recommend offering ride-a-long and cadet programs to attract more minorities to the field. As far as keeping arrest numbers equal to the makeup of the population, there is no way to make this happen
Police brutality is not a new subject. It has been around for numerous years, and like most issues, has resurfaced to the public’s eyes. The recent events brought up the question: Does there need to be a reform in the system in the police system? In this year alone, there have been countless cases of individuals being harmed or even killed by police officers for reasons that continuously are not explained. What has people more attentive to this injustice are statistics showing that most victims in these police attacks happen to be African Americans and other minorities.
The term diversity refers to the condition of being diverse; thus, “composed of distinct forms or qualities” (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2004). Looking back at the history of the U.S., there has always been a diverse population in many jurisdictions. But did policy agency workforces mirror this diversity of the communities they served? When in the past the issue of diversity within law enforcement was at stake, where the same measures used today the same as the in the past?
The Necessity and Functional Value of Social Diversity in Law Enforcement: Women and African American as Officers Social diversity is indeed a necessary functional value in law enforcement especially gender and racial diversity. The importance of quality personnel 1. Gender Diversity and Recruitment
For many when hearing or talking about police officers an image of a white male might come to mind. This is an understandable assumption because only 12 percent of all officers are of the Hispanic verity, only 10 percent make up the other minority groups such as Asians, American Indians, and 3 percent of that 10 is Pacific Islander (Gaines & Miller, 2015, p. 79). The United States of America is home to a variety of ethnicities and therefore police forces should not be any different. That being said, there are many reasons why having ethical diversity would benefit the police department as well as the community. For example, when it comes to an officer interviewing a female rape victim, the victim in question might feel safer speaking with someone