Community Relations in the Movie Crash - Assignment Example

?Crash assignment: Community Relations Memo format superior of LAPD. “Re:” – ? suggestions for LAPD community relations. April 15th (HEADING) Short paragraph summarizing problem, why this campaign in necessary This campaign is necessary because misunderstandings and unseen but real boundaries and obstacles between people and races are ever increasing. Even departments that are supposed to protect people from ‘bad guys’, are not free from racism and prejudice. The movie Crash is an eye opener as to what goes on in the streets that people are aware of but think that the problem is too deep to root out, and hence they keep on living their lives. This paper is an inspirational suggestion that things don’t need to head down that road, the road that leads to the doom. Such an awareness and training campaign is necessary to prevent this society from committing racial suicide and keep them from destroying the fabric of human respect and affection, and to bind them in the bonds of a true community where police and law enforcement agencies also uphold and respect the laws and everything in between morality and justice. Narrative: RESEARCH: campaign hasn’t happened yet ? proposal, what research needs to be done in order to proceed. This is a proposal to start an awareness styled campaign in the LAPD. Such a campaign has never been launched before but it doesn’t make it unnecessary at all. To make a complete proposal, in-depth research and data analysis will be needed, for instance which parts of the city are drenched in racial hatred? Things need to be initiated from there, and then spread all across the city and even the state and the country. The question is what this campaign aims to achieve? As a result of this (hopefully successful) campaign, the project will gather sufficient (useful) data that will help identify the issues that are eating away the social fabric. Human bonding is the way to look forward to a better closely knitted society and without the help of departments like LAPD, there isn’t much hope. We SHOULD look into things To make this plan work and to make it really productive, goal oriented and to actually have an impact on the society, a lot of data needs to be collected, especially people’s opinions about the LAPD. If people simply don’t trust the police department, there isn’t much that can be done. If there is lack of trust, how would that be an easy path to forming a friendly community where police officials are considered sons and brothers? Moreover, as the movie Crash highlights, people don’t have a very high opinion of LAPD. In one scene of the movie, Graham Waters, the official from LAPD tries to help a trapped car victim and the moment she sees him, she gets hysterical thinking he will repeat what he tried to do the last time they met (he had violated her). In the end Waters does help her get out of the car but that emotion she shows is the opinion people have of the LAPD. To make sure we have accurate data in regards with this study, fresh questionnaires and interviews need to conducted, and online surveys will help save time. Plus interviewing police officials and even random people on the street will help – they deal with cops almost on regular basis, they know how they operate and therefore can give a solid insight as to what they believe cops are doing and what they should be doing. There are heroes and there are villains, many LAPD officials have laid their lives to protect the civilians, but that is not always the case, people also remember brutality, bias and prejudice against them. Even cop killers like Christopher Dorner, who killed 3 people with his gun, an LAPD cop, also plays a role in shaping people’s opinion of the police. What the community wants to see from the LAPD The answer to this question is somewhat predictable, what would the people of a city want from their police? Unbiased protection. They don’t want the LAPD to arrest a black guy for only being present at the crime scene. They don’t want them to harass a Hispanic locksmith because there are stolen items reported in the neighborhood. Changing the behavior of the police department OBJECTIVES: Fixing racial issues + attitudes towards ethnic groups Find out what is not trusting in LAPD To improve attitudes of police department toward pop of LA by 15% by time campaign has run its course Improve community relations Improve attitudes of ethnic community by 10% Increase trust by 20% in community PROGRAMMING: Confidential hotline to call in complaints about police “citizen run ? establishes trust: This is probably the most significant step a civil society can take to build trust with the police and also to keep a close eye on them. This sword cuts two ways; police will be on their toes given the fact that this ‘citizen run’ department has significant authority in case a complaint is lodged against them plus it will build trust among the people as they will realize that this complaint center is their own, no police authorities are running it, they will consider it their own department and will cooperate with and trust this department. How to build this department is a different debate; for instance who will govern it? Who will be the chair and how to keep them impartial and away from the influence of the police so that people’s trust remains in it forever? Educate police department about ethnicities within the community “sensitivity training” Education is the best supervision a man can have. Like everyone else, police also needs education. They need to understand how ethnicities think, what their insecurities are and how they perceive the world. More importantly what are their problems? Creating a sense of empathy in police will be half the battle won, if they would know what they are doing in the field, dealing with people from all ethnicities and religions and communities they would know how they feel and what they’ve been through and go through daily, living their lives. Language classes Language classes is another aspect of the proposal that will help us all in moving toward the goal of turning LAPD into more trust worthy and unbiased muscle department of the law. It is only natural to trust someone who speaks your language, a cop dealing with Hispanics should know Spanish; it is better to train cops that patrol those ground to have some fluency in Spanish. Hiring native speakers One way to avoid language training cost and time consumed would be to hire native speakers. For instance, a cop dealing with Arabs should be proficient in Arab, so that they would trust him plus, if the police needs to instruct the people on something, they would not feel left out only because they can’t comprehend English very well. Special events: Go to high school + talk to minority groups Children are sensitive and they form opinions and biases very quickly. If a child grows up believing that cops are biased and they don’t like immigrants, it will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. This is why it is very important, the representatives (even the real cops too) should go to high school and talk to children there, hold a friendly seminar and present what they offer to the society and how the people can help them to improve their service. Same is the case with minority groups, being small in numbers creates a naturally defensive attitude. LAPD can go and talk to minorities and build rapport and trust with them. The more they interact, the more the minorities will feel a crucial part of this society. Co-sponsor on ethnicity related event Cosponsoring and ethnic event can be one of the most productive tools that LAPD can use to build trust with the community. What happens if a police department sponsors an ethnic event? It generates feeling in the event participants that the police acknowledges their existence and respects their events and values. Policeman doing “good” around the city: heroism After all, the police department risks the lives of its employees every day. Despite of all the racial and ethnic bias, they are still out their risking their lives for the civil society. This ‘heroism’ needs to be acknowledged. Highlight the positives Positives of LAPD need to be highlighted, Hollywood can also play a crucial role in this. Crash is without a doubt a splendid movie and it deserved every award it received. However a similar movie that portrays the real heroism of LAPD needs to be made. Making a movie is far too expensive and difficult for LAPD but what they can (and this proposal) do is highlight the positives of the department. Transparency Like in many corporates, there is always a Quality Assurance Department, LAPD can also incorporate that and publish public reports so that transparency can be maintained and communicated (at least what can be communicated officially) to the public. EVALUATION: How may do research ? dissect How you will gauge progress ? How successful the campaign is Progress can be gauged by conducting a before and after survey; a survey and interview series will be conducted before the launch of the campaign to get the feedback of people regarding the LAPD, same process will be related at the end of the campaign. If there is an improvement in people’s opinions about the police, then the campaign is successful, regardless of how much the change has been brought. Paragraph summarizing what will be done Conclude. A campaign will be launched to promote a better image of LAPD. Surveys will be conducted to get the opinions of people about LAPD; like what they currently think about the police department and what do they suggest should be done to improve the police. Police will be trained in languages and ethnic and religious values, they will be sent to different events and organizations to give presentations and ‘talk’ to people and children. They need to be seen (and need to be made) as the heroes that the uniform and the badge represents. The same survey will be conducted at the end of the campaign to measure if there has been any improvement in the LAPD’s image or not. Read More