How Race Affects The Public Safety Organization

Ernest Duenez, Jr. was killed by police officer John Moody on June 8, 2011. When Ernest pulled into his driveway, Moody shouted to Ernest to put his hands up and drop the knife. However, Ernest had no knife in his hands. Moody fired thirteen bullets and eleven shots struck Ernest on his chest, back and head. His family was completely devastated; they searched for justice for Ernest, while helping his widow with her child, who was just seventeen days away from his first birthday. Tragedies such as this one can be greatly reduced by body cameras. For example, the Rialto study, where police officers wearing body cameras resorted to physical force 59 percent less than those who did not wear body cameras. When wearing body cameras, police officers would not behave negatively in a situation where they may incriminate themselves.

Northouse (2013) states, “…ethnocentrism is the tendency for individuals to place their own group (ethnic, racial, or cultural) at the center of their observation of others and the world” (p. 385). Obstacles to effective leadership occur when the beliefs, attitudes, and values of one group supersede another. Today diversity in our culture presents as differences of gender, ethnicity, background, sexual orientation, age, physical status, or other characteristics (Chemers & Murphy, 1995). The White man North American bias paradigms that have informed leadership theories are no longer effective for the health of today’s educational institutions and organizations (Chin, 2010, p.2). Changing societal norms have removed the glass ceilings for, “…not only women but for other historically low-power groups” (Klein & Wang, 2010, p. 2). Preconceived opinions cause harm to the leaners, human capital, and leadership of organizations. Development of leadership skills to meet the challenges of diversity is essential to the efficacy of an organization.

An important part of the United States workforce is made up of police officers. The number of police officers employed has grown drastically over the past few years. However, although the number of police officers employed has increased, public scrutiny has as well. The police employment practices have affected the publics’ perception of the police because of the factors involved as well as the desire to seek employment in law enforcement. The paper below will describe some of the factors involved with race and ethnicity when seeking police careers.

He explains how in the second half of the twentieth century, civil rights leaders made great strides to achieve equal rights for people of all racial groups. While this goal may have

Student studying criminal justice and those employed in the field of criminal justice need to be aware of differences between those from different cultures. By studying multiculturalism one learns that different cultures can have values, beliefs, customs, and norms that are different from one’s own which leads to acceptance and understanding (McNamara & Burns, 2009). For those employed in the criminal justice field, with the changing face America, it is necessary to understand the background of others in order to do their job. Immigrant populations are part of every major city today and even most small towns have at least a small population of immigrants. Officers have to understand that their culture is different and that they have to

Again, depending on the citizen these incidents might not even be reported. If you are use to being placed under arrest, than a slight push is considered to be nothing to report. Many researchers report that most use of force incidents happen when officers are attempting to take a suspect into custody and the individual might resist in some manner. In order to place an individual under arrest, there has to be some form of force used even to put cuffs on the suspect. The force can be passive but it is still force just the same.

This use to be just an African American issues, but with immigrants continuously entering the US whether legally or illegally society has to develop a form of hated for them and their race. But we do not just stop there, no we have to have biases against minorities, women, age, or GLBT communities. Why are we doing this? This learner will never comprehend. Bryant & Mohai, Bullard (1992, 1994a) states that many economically impoverished communities are exposed to greater issues including health on the jobs, than their affluent counterparts. Why? Is it because we just keep putting them into a box, and label them as an oppressed group in our social structure? This learner hopes to explore this issue in hope of finding out why we as a powerful nation tend to look and treat people differently.

Police Officers in America face diverse individuals within many communities that consist of different cultures, beliefs, norms, languages, religions, and behaviors. As society becomes more diverse, dilemmas of racism and beliefs arise. One of the important lessons we learned in the course is to fully understand these terms and how it can affect minorities, such as African-Americans and Muslims. Minorities perceive themselves as targets of police racial profiling and bias culture. When we face paradoxes of understanding each other’s views, choice of wardrobe, thoughts, and ideas, it will potentially lead to a negative relationship. One concept that affects interactions can be blinded by Racism. According to Policing in A Diverse Society, by Mary Jackson (2006), racism refers to the “belief that all members of each race possess characteristics specific to that race, which is most of the times inferior or superior” (pg. 6). Racism is the 'promotion of ethnocentrism ' in a way that it can be perceived politically, through actions,

Over time more and more news reports have raised flags on law enforcement, courtrooms and their outcomes due to the crime and the criminal and their racial background. Although a long time has passed since all decision making came from the white supremacist and we do have a more diverse system the race of the criminal seems to still be affecting the outcomes of criminal justice. In earlier times, courtrooms and many jurisdictions were all white decisionmakers. We can see a lot of poorly executed decisions by law enforcement such as stop and frisk due to racial profiling or taking advantage of young minorities influencing them to falsify a confession . Race plays an important role in the justice

Law enforcement officials are continuously criticized due to the way one perceives another individual (Levinthal, 2012). Levinthal (2012) notes law enforcement developed a drug courier profile. The profile assists officers to recognize possible drug smugglers, as well as, the behavior involved of the individual targeted (Levinthal, 2012). Criminal profiles can vary from one law enforcement official to the next; however, at some point, the behaviors all link together. The inconsistency among officers can cause disputes between societies as a whole. Much controversy follows the drug courier profile resulting in a racial profile (Levinthal, 2012).

In order to impose control on their employees, “ administrators are socialized by the organizations they work in and adopt behaviors and preferences that are consistent with organizational goals, thereby minimizing the influence of their own personal values on bureaucratic behavior” (656 Wilkins & williams). According to Wilkins and Williams, police are an oddity, in that they have an innate culture that pushes them away from the social norms they are used to. This article for example, is all about how African American police officers are socialized from “Black to Blue”. What this means is that the socialization of most police departments is so strong, that police officers can lose their prior identity. The overarching and powerful socialization begins as cadets, and continues over the course of their career. It becomes strong enough that it essentially replaces their existing set of norm, and replace them with the police’s.

Poole & Regoli (1980) utilize a quantitative study focusing on the assessment of the effects of race and officer’s decision-making. The race variable was separated into white=0 and black=1 categories. The authors presented their results in two statistics table. The first statistic table provided the correlation matrix, means, and standard deviations for the variables. The second table included beta coefficients, unstandardized regression coefficients, and standard errors for the relationship between the variables. The data described the relationship between race and disciplinary reports. The results concluded that blacks and younger black inmates are more likely to have a prior record of rule violations than white inmates. Having a prior record

When discussing leadership within the law enforcement profession is it vital to take the human factors into consideration. There are multiple human factors that the law enforcement leaders must take note of, such as, family issues, financial issues, stress, health, and morale. These human factors that play an important role for law enforcement in general can impact morale, officer safety and the public perception. When addressing the human factors, “Law enforcement leaders should challenge themselves and their employees to increase safety margins by focusing on human factors. By doing so, they will improve proactive communication at their level of influence and develop an organizational culture that values safety and wellness” (Bone, D., Normore,

The general line of reasoning is that if we learn to incorporate each other’s diverse traits and characteristics in the workplace, we can then use these differences to foster an innovative environment, which will give the company a competitive advantage over the competitors that do not accept workforce diversity. According to the Allied Academies International Conference, “Diversity is rapidly becoming a common practice among companies due to the increasing number of minorities entering the job market today. As these groups become more prevalent throughout companies, upper-level employees are facing numerous challenges when determining what changes must take place to create a positive working environment for everyone. Management is responsible for the development and implementation of effective policies directly relating to diversity to ensure the acceptance of minorities into the workplace and to aid in minorities’ success through equal opportunities and treatment.” (Marcia L. James, 2001, Academy for Studies in International Business Proceedings)

In olden days, the managers considered culturally diverse workforce as a dangerous aspect of the organization, because at that time they could not properly manage the diverse workforce. But still now if the diverse employees are not effectively managed, they would provide serious disadvantages to the organization.