how a police officer assigned the task of building the right image of the police department in disadvantaged communities can successfully accomplish his task

how a police officer assigned the task of building the right image of the police department in disadvantaged communities can successfully accomplish his task

Abstract

Disadvantaged communities over the years have been victims of inhuman treatment by police officers. This has created tension, suspicion and anxiety in the community, and the police officers are viewed as brutal law enforcement agencies. This paper explores how a police officer assigned the task of building the right image of the police department in disadvantaged communities can successfully accomplish his task. In so doing, it will discuss how he can use the SARA problem-solving model to implement four key strategies that will help him build a positive image of the police department. These strategies are one, recruiting police personnel from across the cultural diversity. Two, improve the training of the selected officers. Three, choose a suitable location from where one can offer services to the community. Lastly, organize a regular meeting with community leaders.

Introduction

The presence of police officers should be a sign of safety and peace in any society. But unfortunately, sometimes police officers have been the face of oppression. They have repeatedly involved themselves in unpalatable activities like legalizing racial and gender discrimination as well as denying some group of people their right to enjoy fundamental human rights.

Such behavior of police officers leads to the creation of mistrust between the disadvantaged communities and the officers. This mistrust is easily carried on from one generation to another. This makes it difficult for these law enforcement agencies to create a friendly environment within the communities that feel they have been unfairly targeted either in the past or in the present.

Does this imply that it is impossible to correct the image created by police officers in disadvantaged communities? Is it impossible for the police to have a friendly working environment in these communities? The answer to these questions is no. Police officers who wish to shift their emphasis community partnership and co-production of the safety-focused on equality, accountability, transparency, and shared information can through some strategies.

This paper will discuss how assigned the role of changing the image of the police department in a disadvantaged community can accomplish his mission. In so doing, it will discuss how he can utilize the SARA problem-solving model in his assigned task. It will also discuss vital strategies that he can employ to win the confidence and the trust of the community.

Utilizing the SARA problem-solving model

This problem-solving model is mostly used in community-oriented policing. The acronym stands for Scanning, Analysis, Response and Assessment. The primary goal of ‘SARA’ model is to change the image of the police department in communities by changing the perception of a particular community when it comes to administering criminal justice.

Scanning primarily means defining the problem in a particular community’s perspective. In this stage, as a police officer, I will be required to identify the recurring insecurity issues. I need to identify the type of crime, the level of damage it causes in the community, the most vulnerable victims of the identified crime, and the time and the place it is taking place. I also need to understand the community’s perception of the crime and their readiness to take action and how they are willing to fight that crime.

In analyzing the problem, I need to consult the members of the community to identify the primary cause of the problem. In this case, it is essential to take caution not to trace the root causes that will be difficult to address in a partnership agreement with the community. The questions I need to answer here are who, what, why, when and how concerning the crime.

Response is the action taken after the law enforcement agencies, together with the community, have agreed on the cause of the problem and have developed a comprehensive and long-term solution. This action is oriented to addressing the root cause in a manner that it will not occur again. The action taken need to incorporate the arrest and punishment of the worst offenders, change the way of doing things, which favours the crime, and educate the community on what law says about the crime and the responsibility of the community members in fighting crime.

Assessment is the last thing to do in this mode. Here both the community and the police department carry regular evaluation on the actions taken to determine their effectiveness. If need be adjustments that are considered to be more appropriate and useful are made.

Strategies to use in changing the image of the police department in a disadvantaged community

Selection of police officers to work in the underprivileged communities

For me to be successful in the task I have been assigned, I must address the issue of cultural diversity in the community am serving. One of the significant reasons why a disadvantaged group of people fearful and suspicious of the police if a feeling that they are being ill-treated because they do not have their members serving in the police department. When people see their fellows of the same gender, race or any other group of people serving in the department, they feel there is a person they can talk to and understand them.

For instance, if male police officers are mistreating a woman, she might feel they mistreating him due to male chauvinism but not because of the crime she has committed. The same feeling will be expressed by immigrants, blacks or poor people when they are mistreated by a police officer who is not from their social group. This can accelerate hatred and create anxiety between the community and the police.

After defining and identifying the problem, and knowing that this is part of what creates a poor image of the police department, I then need to respond by taking appropriate action. In so doing, I need to ensure that the team of police officers working in my assigned municipality shows cultural diversity. I need to select both men and women police officers of all races, including immigrates to work in the community.

These police officers need impartial and discharge their duties without biases or discrimination. Each police officer will have a responsibility to help the whole police department gain confidence and trust from the people in his social group. Through treating all people equally and fairly will help create a new picture of the department in that community.

Improve the training of the selected police offers

When one needs to create a new image of the police department, the training that the police are given in the police training colleges is not enough. To successfully drive this agenda, one needs to provide his team of police officers more training, which are designed primarily to help change the image of the department. This is a vital step to be taken after one has done the scanning and the analyzation of the problem as expressed in the SARA model. b

This training covers key areas that are necessary for enabling the police officers to build a positive image of the department. These areas include implicit bias training. This training is aimed at allowing the police officers to serve the community with zero discrimination. This will help to remove suspicion and fear that people may be possessing that if they are handled by a police officer outside their social group, they will not be given a fair treatment. Once this fear is removed, they feel free and at peace to allow their matter to be handled by any police officer available. Such a move will be a sign of trust and confidence they have of the department.

Additionally, they also need to undergo cultural competency training. In most cases, all the officers working in disadvantaged communities will not come from those disadvantaged social groups. For there to be a smooth inter-cultural relationship within the police and between the police officers and the inter-cultural community they are working in, they need this training. This cultural competency training will enable my team of police officers a good understanding of the culture of the community they are in, and the historical injustices inflicted on that community. In this way, they will be able to know how to handle these disadvantaged communities in a manner that they will not resentments and confusion among citizens. When people feel their culture is appreciated and respected and is not a cause of their discrimination, they can easily trust and create a friendly relationship with police officers.

A training oriented to enabling the officers to get involves in community services is also needed. Police officers, like other members of the public, are endowed with abilities and talents that they can use to better the lives of the people in the community. The train is aimed at showing the police officers how they can incorporate their talents in their work to get them closer to the people and remove the fear they are holding against the department. In this way, these disadvantaged communities will develop a new perception of police officers and start to see them as friendly and kind people.

Lastly, I would see the team go through transparency and professionalism training. This train is aimed at creating the awareness of the need for being transparent and act according to the professional code of conduct of the police department. By behaving in this way, people from these disadvantaged communities will not feel short-changed or taken advantage of their helpless condition. They will feel despite being the minority group or belonging to a particular race or nationality, they have equal rights and opportunities like other citizens.

Selecting the appropriate sites of service delivery

Every community has its principal area of interest or activity that brings them together. It may be religion or cultural event. In choosing the best location from where the service is delivered to the people, I will be required to target the places where these activities are done. For instance, if a specific community are brought together by their religion, I need to ensure that I place my police officers near their place of worship.

This will help the officers to quickly reach a large number of people and interact with them in their most important activity. In this way, the officers will help create a good relationship with the community and gain their confidence. When a disadvantaged community see police officers participating in their cultural, social or religious activities, they see them as part of their community. Therefore, the officers will be able to close the gap that was there between the community and the police officers.

As much as possible, I would also ensure that the site selected is at the centre of the community. This will help to ensure that everyone is given an equal distance of travel whenever he or she is coming to seek police officer services. The primary purpose of this action is to prevent one part of the community from feeling discouraged from reporting their issues to police officers due to the distance they need to cover to get there. But when the location of the police station is at the centre, everyone feels taken care off, and help to create an expression that everyone matters. In this way, they feel that the police officers are interested in service delivery, not inflicting fear in the community.

Arrange for regular community meetings

Meeting regularly with community leaders is an expression that you value their views, and I am will to work with them. This meeting plays a critical role in implementing the SARA model of solving a problem. It is in these meeting that one can identify and understand the problem in the scanning stage. Community leaders help one to understand what is the major problem facing their community and the community perception of that problem.

They also help you understand the root cause of the identified problem. It is important to note that a similar problem can exist in different communities but cause by various aspects. Thus, it is wise to seek to know the cause of the problem in each community and carefully incorporating the newly learnt reasons in your schemata.

Another critical thing to note is the fact that people know their problems, and they also know the solutions to those problems. Therefore, meeting community leaders give you the best solution to their problem, which they know will be effective in their community. It might be less useful if I take a solution from another community and enforce it in another community. As has been stated, the cause of a particular problem differs from one community to another. Equally, the solution also differs in the same manner.

Despite these leaders giving the possible solution, they also make the community own the actions agreed upon in those meeting. The community feels they took part in the decision making, and they would not like their decision to fail. Thus, they will work for hand in hand with the police to ensure that they release their shared agenda. As they work together, they strengthen their bonds, create a friendly environment and consequently rebuild the image of the police department in the community.

Lastly, these meetings will provide an excellent forum to evaluate and assess the effectiveness of the strategies taken to fight the insecurity problem facing the community. Together, the police and the community will agree on the activities that need to be replaced, and the ones need to be upheld. This strategy will see the city owns up their security issues and act as an assistant to the police officers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, just as the president of Police Foundation, Jim Bueermann, said the cardinal call for police officers is to create healthy communities, reduce harm, and help in community activities especially those involving youths and women. Police should co-produce security with the community. Following the discussion above it is true that police officers can make these word of Bueermann come true in every underprevelaged community. There is no reason why disadvantaged communities should always be fearful and suspicious of police officers. This paper has demonstrated that altering a bad image of a police officer is possible by taking the right strategies.