To change the culture of the Baltimore Police Department - Research Paper Example

Changing the Culture of the Baltimore Police Department al Affiliation) The civil disturbances that were initiated by the killing of Freddie Gray at the hands of the Baltimore police officers in Maryland on 27th April 2015, were widely televised in what others have termed as prejudiced systemic targeting by the Baltimore police department on the less privileged minority population that is predominantly comprised of African Americans. In a statement made a few weeks ago, Commissioner Batts mentioned that he was going to implement changes in his department in order to curb the injustices perpetrated by the police department against the population and especially the black community.

Indeed prompt restructuring of the institutional framework governing the activities of police officers is needed.However, the commissioner and his team of experts are going to be faced with a number of challenges, prime of which is going to be dealing with the deep rooted culture of institutional racism among the police officers, which has been passed on from one generation to the other. Police departments have over the years adopted policing that is racially biased to such an extent that even African American police officers correlate the concept of crime with African Americans, and are more inclined to be suspicious of a fellow African American committing a crime than a Caucasian civilian.

This is evidenced by the fact that of the six police officers charged with the murder of Freddy Gray, an African American youth, half of them were African Americans as well.According to Levine et al., the tactics employed by the police gradually enhance racial bias among the police officers, even those that were initially unbiased. Police officers are urged to intensely patrol the unprivileged neighbourhoods comprised mainly of African Americans, where crime is likely to be higher, which is a by-product of poverty.

Therefore, due to their constant presence in black neighbourhoods, police officers record higher arrests in these neighbourhoods, further perpetuating the notion that African Americans are criminals and contributes to police officers associating crime with black civilians. In addition, in the past, local police departments used to receive federal grants to motivate local officers to make drug related arrests, a crime that is a by-product of the prevalent poverty among the black community. Deprogramming police officers to stop associating crime with African Americans is going to be very hard for Commissioner Batts (Levine, 2008).

Reference ListLevine, H., & Small, D. (2008). Marijuana arrest crusade. Racial bias and police policy in New York City, 1997-2007. New York, NY: Distribution and media by New York Civil Liberties Union.