Improving the Police Department’s Relationship and Image within the Community
In order to maintain public safety and ensure effective policing, there is a need for strong police-community relationships. The police rely on the cooperation of the community to give information valuable for solving the crimes in the neighborhoods of the community members. Community cooperation, on the other hand, depends on individuals’ beliefs in the actions of the police officers. The first recommendation for the police in building strong relationships with the community is ensuring transparency and accountability (La Vigne, 2019). In cases where critical incidences occur, the police should ensure that they release information to the public as soon as possible and try to release as much information as is possible. This way, the community will not feel like the agencies are trying to purposefully hide the information from them (La Vigne, 2019). Police departments should also ensure that they post information on their websites, on a daily basis, about community complaints, use of force, and other issues concerning the community.
In order to build the image of the police in the community, the police departments should take measures to ensure that they reduce bias and improve cultural competency. Most communities have people of different cultures, races, and ethnic backgrounds. Police officers should ensure that they can effectively communicate and understand the different cultural norms of these different groups of people. At the same time, the officers should serve justice to all members of the community as equals without showing any forms of bias in the treatment of people of different racial and ethnic groups. To accomplish this, it is important for the police to receive training on diversity, cultural competence, and implicit bias (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015). Individuals who are trained and made aware of their implicit biases are motivated to implement unbiased behavior when executing justice.
References
La Vigne, N., Jannetta, J., Fontaine, J., Lawrence, D. S., & Esthappan, S. (2019). The National Initiative for Building Community Trust and Justice.
President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. (2015). Final report of the President’s task force on 21st century policing.