Chapter 10: Policing Multicultural Communities

Key Problems and Sources of Tension:

• Police-Minority Relations: This is the relationship that police officers have with the minority such as black or Hispanic people.

  • For example, having to stop black riots in the 1930s causes mistrust between them.

• Linguistic: The study of human speech and language. Officers need to realize that language does not just include speech people who are deaf or hard of hearing will struggle to understand an officer and that may result in the situation escalating if the officer perceives it wrong.

• Cultural Barriers: An issue that comes up when both parties are unable to understand each other because they do not speak the same language.

• Minority Communities: People who are the fewer number in the classification. In terms of law enforcement, the minority community is less likely to trust them because of past grievances.

Police Racism and Racial Profiling

• Racism: Believing that one race is better than another or having a bad opinion of one and using that to judge all people of that race.

• Only 58% of blacks say that they have a favorable opinion of the police compared to the 81% of white people that say they have a favorable opinion of the police.

• Socialization Process: Learning the norms, behaviors, and values of a society.

• Stereotypes: Characteristics or image that people have of a person.

• Predisposition: The tendency to have a certain perspective or attitude.

• Socialization: The process of learning behaviors by watching others and interacting with them.

• Fundamental Attribution Errors: Profiling someone by their race or appearance and saying that was the reason they did commit the crime.

Aggressive Patrol Tactics and Minority Communities

• Aggressive patrol: Increasing police presence and punishing anyone who committed a crime even if it’s minor to let other offenders know that the police are watching closely now.

Policing Diversity: Cultural and Linguistic Barriers to Communication

• Diversity: When people with different racial and cultural backgrounds are together. This is the goal of police recruiters, they hope to have both minority and majority groups.

• Immigrant Communities:

• Cross-Cultural Populations: When one culture is considered a norm and one culture is compared to that culture

• Profoundly Deaf: These types of people are incapable of hearing anything.

• Hearing Impaired: They can slightly hear but are more comfortable with reading lips.

• American Sign Language: This is the language that people who are deaf or hearing impaired use to communicate with others.

Minority Representation in the Police

• Minority leaders said that to build trust again between the police and minority they will need to start minority recruitment.

• Affirmative Action: Help increase the minority presence in the police force.

21st Century Technology: Implementing Body Cameras to Improve Police Legitimacy

• Body camera benefits:

  • Better evidence documentation

  • Increased documentation and accountability and transparency