Building Trust Between Police and Communities Police

Police: Building Trust Between Police and Communities

Building Trust between Police and Communities: Police

Police Trust, Integrity and Ethics in Bridging the Gap in Community Relations

The death of Eric Garner in the hands of New York police, and the shootings of 12-year-old Rice Tamir and Michael Brown in Ohio and Missouri respectively, have and continue to brew a wave of public mistrust in the police service. Such incidences often spur massive public protests that eventually destroy relations between police and the communities they serve. A study conducted by Reuters on 3,600 citizens between December 2014 and January 2015 found that a significant 27.6% of adult Americans do not trust the police to be fair and just (Reuters, 2015). In December, 2015, President Barrack Obama signed an executive order creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing, whose primary aim is to build confidence and trust in the local police. This text explores the specific strategies that the task force, and individual police departments could use to achieve this objective.

Creating a Culture of Ethics and Integrity

Community trust is an honored relationship between an agency and the community that it is meant to serve. It is crucial for effective policing. As such, it is prudent that police executives take steps to ensure competence, integrity, honesty, and integrity in their departments. They need to foster an environment in which ethical behavior is expected, and individual officers are responsible for meeting those expectations. They need to be transparent and open about the internal affairs processes of their departments (IACP, 2010). They ought to develop a culture of acknowledging misconduct, dealing with it appropriately when it occurs, and involving the public in the response to the same (IACP, 2010). When local communities know the procedures and policies that the police use, and are involved in ensuring that officers follow those procedures, they are deemed to again begin trusting the force.

Additionally, police executives need to ensure that the agency's principles and core values are communicated and reinforced throughout the various aspects of the department's administration. This they could do by adopting clear and precise mission statements to direct the activities of their departments (Raines, 2011). These mission statements need to clearly articulate the department's core values and principles, including the commitment to service and integrity. Moreover, the principles and ethical standards guiding the department ought to be set forth in a code of conduct or manual for all personnel (Raines, 2011). These manuals should identify conduct that is considered unacceptable, and should also define acceptable standards of conduct. All personnel within the department should be made to understand that they represent the agency, and must, therefore, embrace the values and principles governing ethical behavior. Culture-changing policies such as these will go a long way towards fostering integrity and ethical decision-making, and also obtaining the confidence and respect of citizens.

Ethics and integrity training/education is also crucial in making police departments more ethical in their motivations. Such training and education equip officers with knowledge of the ethical thing to do in specific situations (IACP, 2010). Examples of courses that departments could adopt include: the cultural competency 101 training package, which brings awareness to class, race and cultural issues within a community, teaches officers how to deal with the same to maintain healthy relations; the domestic violence and law-enforcement ethics course, which enhances ethical decision-making by discussing issues common to the field of law-enforcement; and the ethical leadership course, which uses exercises to discover individuals' ethics and how to apply them on the job.

Departments could also use new technologies and social media to encourage officers to act in an ethical manner. Body cameras and CCTV technologies could, for instance, be used as mechanisms for accountability, and for identifying use-of-force incidents (IACP, 2010). Moreover, social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide opportunities for police to connect and interact with local communities. They also accord citizens ample platforms to voice out their concerns to police. Trust is built when communities feel that the police listen, and respond appropriately to their valid opinions and concerns.

Citizen Police Academies

These are platforms through which residents get to learn about their local law-enforcement agency's core values, culture, and overall operations (Miller & Hess, 2007). They provide local communities with a first-hand look at the regulations, policies, and guidelines to which officers must adhere (Miller & Hess, 2007). Moreover, they allow citizens to better understand what being a police officer is like, and the stresses of the occupation (Miller & Hess, 2007). Citizens who graduate from such academies often become ambassadors and advocates of police practices and policies to other citizens (IACP, 2010). In the end, this kind of advocacy helps to enhance the relationship between police and the public.

Community-Oriented Policing

This is a philosophy that requires communities and police to collaborate to proactively enhance public safety in the local community (IACP, 2010). Community-oriented policing strategies not only establish frequent contact between communities and police, but also build meaningful relationships by fostering dialogue. Ultimately, they enhance community trust. Successful strategies that departments could employ in this regard include: i) convening regular meetings with members of the community; ii) increasing foot and bicycle patrols on community streets; and iii) establishing programs that solicit residents' involvement, such as Night Out and Neighborhood Watch programs (IACP, 2010).