“Video Shows Officers Pepper-Spraying Restrained Man Who Says He Can’t Breathe” (CNN) “These Stats Prove That Driving While Black Can Be A Depressing Reality” (CNN). These are the types of headlines we see in our news outlets every day. There is growing disconnect between the communities and the law enforcement agencies that police them.  This disconnect has become more publicized with events like the killing of Michael Brown, the demonstrations occurring all over the US by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the killings of police officers in places like Dallas, Texas. The debate surrounding this issue is a lack of proper training for our law enforcement agencies. These are a few of my guiding research questions: What is the history of community policing in minority communities? What is causing the disconnect between community and law enforcement agencies? How can the relationship between law enforcement agencies and the community they serve be improved to reflect the values of a 21st century society? This research paper fits into the wider debate because it addresses how law enforcement agencies can improve their relationship with the community by making changes to their training to include more training in engaging and serving the community. In the paper, I will make suggestions of programs to add into current law enforcement training that will improve officers and their roles within minority communities.  With improved training and standards of training, law enforcement will have the necessary tools to develop better relationships within the minority communities they serve.

Community policing, as defined by the U.S. Department of Justice, “is a philosophy that promotes organizational strategies, which support the systematic use of partnerships and problem solving techniques, to proactively address the immediate conditions that give rise to public safety issues, such as crime, social disorder, and fear of crime” (Scheider). The key word in this definition is proactive. Being proactive in law enforcement is engaging with community members on a daily basis and involving them in the way the agency operates. It also means education of law enforcement officers in how to engage the community and how to be more integral in the community’s day to day operations.  

There is a growing distrust of law enforcement amongst our minority communities. According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), minorities are more likely to distrust police than Caucasians because they feel as if they are disproportionately singled out because of their race compared to Caucasian people (Race, Trust, and Police Legitimacy). Law enforcement is becoming more diverse, with personnel that mirror the communities they police. Training for law enforcement has become longer and covers more topics of their responsibilities than ever before. So, why do minorities feel as though they are singled out because of their race? There are many factors that contribute to this feeling of being picked on by the police, such as personal encounters with police, police encounters with family and friends, and the media. If the only time a minority encounters a police officer is when something bad is happening, then that person will only associate police officers with a bad experience. This has even more of an impact on juvenile minorities, who might have family members incarcerated. As of late, our media has been flooded with news that involves law enforcement and minority communities in some way. The NIJ says “Frequent exposure to media reports of police abuse or corruption is a strong predictor of perceptions of misconduct and supports the belief that it is common” (Race, Trust, and Police Legitimacy). Couple the media with the minority community member’s own personal interactions with police, and this is why there are minority communities with growing distrust of law enforcement. 

Starting in the 1980s, there has been pressure from politics and from communities to clean up neighbors from drugs and the crime that surrounds them (Ramsey 10:35). In order to do this, law enforcement began using aggressive policing tactics, which were successful in reducing crime throughout the decades (Ramsey 11:20). Law enforcement achieved this by incarcerating numerous amounts of people and fighting crime like law enforcement was on a battle field. In order to be more aggressive, their training had to become more aggressive as well, with more emphasis on defensive tactics and firearm tactics. The problem with this aggressive style of policing, as said in a Ted talk by former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey, is the amount of collateral damage this style of policing was causing in minority communities (12:39). Not only was this style of policing overly aggressive, but it led to law enforcement officers to have a warrior mindset. The warrior mindset is the attitude that police officers and soldiers are taught to have in life threatening situations (Stoughton 226).  Police officers are trained to treat everyone as if they are armed and dangerous and this affects how they interact with everyday citizens (Stoughton 228). Ramsey also states that people in minority communities did not just want their communities to be crime free, but that the policing was being conducted fair and just (12:52). Aggressive policing is effective in reducing crime at a quick rate, but we are seeing the effects of how damaging this style of policing is now with the mass protest by the Black Lives Matter movement, and the retaliation shootings that occurred in Dallas, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. 

Many of the issues found with policing in minority communities, which is causing relations between minority communities and law enforcement to decline, can be fix with adding community focused training to police academies. For example, The South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy training is 12 weeks long. During this time officers learn defensive tactics, driving, law, firearms, crime scene, and much more, but at no time do they learn how to interact with a community or even what community policing is. For many officers who work in smaller agencies, with limited budgets, the police academy is the only time they receive any sort of training. Since the academy is the only source of training for these officers, it is imperative that they receive some sort of community policing knowledge during this time. Law enforcement attracts people who want to do good for their communities, but with media and Hollywood portrayals of the profession, people have a skewed and misguided idea of what the profession is. Going into the academy with these ideas of what the profession is, the style of training during the academy reinforces these ideals. By adding in training that is focused on the community, it can teach officers that the profession is more than just catching the bad guy and more about serve the community that they are policing. Adding in community focused training to police academies, is a simple and needed solution for rebuilding relationships and trust in minority communities because officers will know how to interact with these communities and build those relationships.

With community focused training, law enforcement officers will be better able to build relationships with the communities they serve. Lee Brown, former Houston police chief and commissioner of New York Police Department, knew the importance of community policing and trained is personal in community policing. During his time at Houston PD, he “transformed the police department into one of the most respected police agencies in the nation” (Brown). Training his officers at the New York police department in community police also yielded successful results in reducing crime in all index categories (Brown). According to Brown, community policing is when officers engage with the people who live and work in the neighborhoods they serve. Officers have to show “support and respect,” (Brown) for the community and then the community will become “allies and not targets” (Brown). The concepts of community policing are also universal. During 1991, Brown was invited to South Africa, after the end of the apartheid, to teach the South African police how incorporate community policing in their now free society. The South Africans also added in the concepts of community policing to their new constitution (Brown). Brown feels that community policing is the best and most effective way to police our minority communities. With how successful community policing is, it is the best way our law enforcement will rebuild its relations with minority communities.

The Obama administration wanted to find out why there was a growing disconnect between law enforcement and minority communities, so the president created a task force to find out. Their findings are as follows: Building trust and legitimacy within the communities is imperative, creation of policy and oversight of that policy is needed, technology and social media need to become integral pieces in engaging the communities, community policing = crime reduction, training and education needs to improve, and officer wellness and safety need to improve (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 6). The first recommendation under the community policing section is that “Law enforcement agencies should develop and adopt policies and strategies that reinforce the importance of community engagement in managing public safety” (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 56). In order to be effective policing minority communities in today’s society, it is a must that our officers are trained and adopt in community style policing. Agencies cannot solely ensure our communities are safe, but if they are trained on how to involve and strengthen the community’s ability to prevent crime through “informal social control,” then they will be successful in reducing crime and keeping communities safe. (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing). Under the training and education section of their finds, recommendation 5.2 states: law enforcement agencies should engage community members in the training process (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 68). What the task force means by this is, the training an officer receives can reflect the needs of the community and be more transparent to the public. This will allow the community and the officers to be better informed, which allows the opening for more engagement and more respect for one another. Much research has been done on finding out how to better police our communities, with emphasis on our minority communities, and community policing is the answer. Our law enforcement agencies should take the recommendations given to them by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and begin implementing community police style training into all officer training programs. 

There are some inherent issues that come up when adding in more training into law enforcement academies. One of these issues is the increased amount of time officers will have to be in the academy. A solution to this issues is, creating a curriculum that only adds on about one week to the already existing academy schedules. A second concern that needs to be address is the amount of money it will cost to train these officers in community policing. Unfortunately, there is no way around having to spend more money to add additional training to the academy curriculum. On the other hand, communities will be willing to spend the extra amount in tax money to have law enforcement officer that are better trained and serves the community better. Also, with having these better trained officers, there will be less complaints and lawsuits that are brought up against officers and the agencies they work for. This will save money in the long run for the taxpayers, officers, and law enforcement agencies. A third problem that might come up, is that not all communities are the same, especially when comparing minority communities to the other communities across the country. So, how do train officers in community policing? The techniques that are taught to officers in community policing are universal techniques such as, proper engagement of human beings and how they should be treat. The techniques are also open to adjustment for the specific communities that officers find themselves in after they graduate from the academy. Having the initial training and foundation in community policing is imperative to officer success upon graduation. It is then up to the officer and agency they work for to alter their techniques appropriately to fit the specific community they are policing.

I am sure I am missing some issues that might come up with training an officer, in the academy, on community policing. In the end, there is no denying the success that community policing has in our minority communities. So, there will always be some comprise or fix to an issue that will allow the training of community policing to be conducted.

Changing the way our law enforcement is trained, can lead to improved relations with the minority communities they serve. There can be classes added during the police academy, such as conflict resolution without the use of force, that will teach officers how to better communicate verbally and physically with the people they encounter. There should be classes on how to engage with the youth of a community. In these classes on engaging the youth, officers will be taught on how to effectively use social media to create a brand, for themselves as well as the agency, which can teach or inspire youth to follow and up hold the values of the community. Officers will be taught how to get involved with youth activities that the community sponsors. There can be a section in the youth class that teaches officers how to come up with alternative responses for when they come across youth breaking the law. In all academies, it should be taught that protecting the rights of the people and serving the communities come first, and only second does the job of enforcing laws come into play. There should also be training on policing outside of a patrol car and engaging with community members more than just driving around in a car all day. All of these changes can be added into any academy curriculum and will not exceed one extra week of training to their current curriculums.  With these changes or additions to law enforcement training, relations between law enforcement and minority communities will improve over time. There will be a reduction in crime, as well as increased respect and trust for one another. It is imperative that these changes to academy curriculums occur so that improvements in the relations, between law enforcement and the minority communities they police, can begin. 
