Police Relations with Minority Ethnic Communities Essay

After the death of Stephen Lawrence, an inquiry was held to investigate how the metropolitan police handled the case. Sir William Macpherson released a report that “institutional racism affects the Metropolitan Police Service, and police services elsewhere. “He made 70 recommendations which he thought would help eliminate institutional racism within the metropolitan police services. In a review of the Macpherson report the Home office stated they applied 67 of the recommendations in part or full.

The term “racial profiling” is used by agencies of law enforcement to describe an individual’s race or ethnicity as a factor in articulating reasonable suspicion to stop, question, or arrest an individual (Racial Profiling 2001: 1). Police officers have the discretion to make decisions regarding whom they stop. However, if any law enforcement employee profiles potential suspects based on their race or ethnicity they violate the civil rights of the individual. If you suspect someone of a crime based on their race and ethnicity you are violating the civil rights of these minority groups. If any officer suspects another officer of racial profiling they must notify their supervisor. When a situation like this comes up an

policies that are currently in place to reduce tension between police officers and the minority groups that they serveLaw enforcement officers and the community have been disconnected. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police who here to protect and serve our communities. When Ferguson, Missouri exploded after the police shot an unarmed black teenager, the tension between the community and its protectors was laid bare. Ferguson is not the first and certainly not the last community forced to bridge that chasm. In South Carolina a policeman shot an unarmed black male who was stopped for a seat belt violation. The cop asked the male for ID, who then reached under his seat to retrieve his wallet, but was shot in the leg by the cop before he could take out his ID. When the body cam video was reviewed it shows that the trigger happy cop probably was in fear of his life, however it is also obvious that the cop shouldn’t have felt threaten as the behavior of the black male involved nothing unusual. Many would say if the driver was white the cop would have not reacted the way he did.

Unfortunately, individuals are dehumanized by police officers by way of discrimination. One example of unfair treatment from law officers is the racial discrimination in England and Wales uncovered by a shocking survey, “Police forces were threatened today with legal action as the Government’s equality watchdog said Black and Asian Britons were still being unfairly

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

With so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. The issues surrounding the topic of race is like the two faces of the same coin as there are usually two sides that we have to consider: reality and media portrayals. The reality side of situations is always there at the time, but it is so subtly hidden from society that nobody understands it unless they witness it firsthand and with the media spreading filtered information, it becomes even harder for us to identify the key issue; this is especially the case when dealing with the police and racial profiling. If you turn on the news and flip to a channel where it is reporting on the police and their arrests, you will most likely see more arrests pertaining to minorities than other ethnicities. In the news, we can often see a misrepresentation of ethnic minorities, usually African-Americans, being arrested when compared to others and this has caused problems around societies countless times. For this essay topic, I will be discussing the different issues surrounding race within the parameters of criminal justice and inequality; furthermore I will be

There are numerous concerns based on the quantity and content of stop and searches which are often influenced by institutionalised racism (Home Office, 1997). Studies suggested that the police maintain a belief that black people are prone to be involved in violent crimes (Reiner, 1989). Therefore leading to black individuals routinely falling victim to police stereotypes and overgeneralisations (Bowling and Phillips, 2007). Police interviews have suggested that police perceive certain ethnicities to be involved with certain crimes, one interview suggested that if police are alerted of a robbery, 90% of the time they will assume it is involving a black individual (Quinton et al, 2000). Despite that there is evidence suggesting that racial disadvantages will cause an increase in young blacks to be involved with crime, suggesting that these suspicions are justified (Waddington et al, 2007). Furthermore, there is little research suggesting that police enforce their prejudices when working on the streets, thus suggesting that racial views are a result of police canteen sub-culture (Waddington, 1999).

On April the 22nd 1993, Stephen Lawrence was murdered in an unprovoked racially motivated attack in South London. During inquiries, the police were criticized for how they handled the case, and in 1999 The Macpherson Report was published (HOC-HAC, 2009). This found that the police showed a lack of professionalism through incompetence in properly investigating the case, fuelled by institutional racism (HOC-HAC, 2009). The report concludes by stating that institutional racism is present in all police forces and should be eradicated to achieve fairness in policing, and thus, justice for all. With the hope of achieving this vision, 70 recommendations were made. In 2009, ten years after the emergence of the Macpherson Report, another report was published with the intention of reviewing the progress made in achieving the recommendations previously outlined. Although the report acknowledges progress has been made within the police force in combatting racial prejudices and institutional racism there are still major areas of concern, with targets set out in the Macpherson Report not being achieved. In 2007/08 its reported that 28% of people from BAME communities felt they would be treated unfairly by the police and the CJS, due to their race (HOC-HAC, 2009). Furthermore, 20 out of the 43 police forces in England and Wales have failed to reach their target of

This paper provides an overview of the problems facing the police in their efforts to improve relations with minority communities in the United States, as well as a survey of previous research and existing literature on cultural diversity

Another factor in conflicts with this nation’s police force is the differences in races between American neighborhoods and their police force. In order to reduce the presence of racism in law enforcement, the race and ethnicities of the police force must be representative of the population they are responsible

However, on a positive note, it led to the Introduction of Race Relations Act 2000 and a recruitment drive for police officers from an ethnic background in a bid to show that the institution of the Metroplitan Police are not racist which has been successful in some respect. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/22/stephen-lawrence-murder-changed-legal-landscape A recent poll by the British Future showed that ‘’ nearly 60% of the British public believed the police response to such cases is now quicker, fairer and less racist. The police say that much has changed over the past decade and there is now a firm desire throughout policing, especially within its leadership, to tackle racism more robustly’’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/metropolitan-police-still-institutionally-racist-20-years-after-stephen-lawrence-murder-black-police-leaders-say-8581873.html

There is recent controversy over police use of force, especially in minority communities such as in African American communities, Hispanic communities, and other publics with large populations of minorities. Increased levels of force among these communities have created challenges for police departments. These challenges include a lack of trust from the community towards law enforcement officers and an absence of respect creating situations that lead to police use of force. There are already various programs in place that attempt to decrease this challenge by educating the public, respecting one another, and giving those who were on the wrong track second chances. A combination of these solutions and the implementation of more of them would decrease the number of contacts between police and minorities that lead to the use of force (Roberg & Novak, 2014).

“Racially Biased Policing: Determinants of Citizen Perception” is a research study done by Ronald Weitzer and Steven Tuch. The goal of this study is to know the views of the citizen towards police bias towards race. This makes it the dependent variable. They focused more on comparing the Blacks, Hispanics, and White Americans. And the factors that affect these views are race, personal experience with discrimination, and media exposure. These are the independent variables. Additionally, they considered some control variables such as age, gender, place of residence, education, and household income. Weitzer and Tuch set up four models to evaluate test their hypothesis. There are three hypotheses and each have secondary ones.

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

However racism within the force goes back decades as before 1984 police were allowed to stop and search whoever they wanted therefore it became easier and more of a habit to target people who fit ‘criminal persona’. This laid back approach to stop and search caused problems because police became