Manchester Police - Learning Lessons about Profiling and Diversity from the Singh-Bhacker Case - Essay Example

CASE The Manchester Police can learn many lessons about profiling and diversity from the Singh-Bhacker case. “The tribunal ruled that Mr Singh-Bhacker had suffered racial discrimination. It will rule on compensation next month. It noted that he was a qualified, physically fit officer who had been accepted by the Wiltshire, Merseyside, West Yorkshire and Cheshire forces, as well as British Transport Police, his current employer” (Case, 2010). The overall assumption is that prejudice and discrimination is shown in the institutional capacity in the case, by the Greater Manchester Police, through unreasonable behaviors and practices like racial profiling and race-based surveillance, which are based on stereotypes. This belief that is characterized by or based on the attitude that ones own group is superior is also a sideline highlighting the tendency of some individuals to view other groups as being a threat, due largely to pervasive stereotyping stemming from lack of experience with the perceived groups. In the case, the police used internal prejudice to advance their own stereotypes at the expense of Mr. Singh-Barker, who was singled out as an immigrant for non promotion. Many people who are prejudiced about their own groups have little contact or experience with the groups they are consciously or unconsciously persecuting. Although people from different races can work together and form alliances in many cases (like different minority students from different populations coming together to protest prejudice at a school), which seek to combat stereotyping and promote unity and understanding between superficially different groups. In this type of setting, cross cultural understanding becomes important. There is a clear line to be drawn between discretion and racial profiling when it comes to a law enforcement officers’ making the decision to investigate a crime or suspect on positive grounds of incongruity, suspicion, or report, not race or ethnicity; this works internally, as well. In practice, unfortunately, this theory does not always stick. In practice, police often color-code their targets and look for immigrant individuals like Singh Bhacker. The Manchester Police, therefore, are being unreasonable. The Manchester Police force is also guilty of labeling in the case. Labeling is a psycho/sociological theory of deviance, and it is also important to consider biological classifications and their implications. Ethnocentrism is characterized by the attitude that one’s own group is superior to another group or groups. It is shown in the institutional capacity through restrictive immigration policy and race-based surveillance. This belief that is characterized by or based on the attitude that ones own group is superior is also a social-psychological sideline highlighting the tendency of some individuals to view out-groups as being a threat due largely to pervasive stereotyping stemming from lack of experience with the perceived out-groups that they are discriminating against. “Mr Singh-Bhacker, married with two sons, said that the judgment marked an end to his battle and that he would no longer try to join the Manchester force. ‘I love my city. I wanted to work in the city as a policeman, to be close to my family and especially my mother, who was ill for a long time until she died last year” (Case, 2010). Discrimination was definitely seen in this case. Discrimination is at the causal end of oppression, and works as a way of enhancing and enacting the stereotypes of the dominant group, which is seen to act as an “in-group” of unique and special individuals which perceives the oppressed people as an “out-group” of homogenous mass, and therefore feels it fit to treat this out-group in a way that is biased and unequal, based on the depersonalization of the group’s members by the dominant society. At the same time that, for example, Mr. Singh Bhacker is depersonalized in this way strictly because of something out of their control, he is also in a setting where personalization is the whole meaning. Discrimination often works racially, and although it may also work economically, this is often linked to race. To say that people are genetically predisposed to certain conditions, for example, borders on the sort eugenic thought that was popular in Nazi Germany. There is no room for this thought in modern society. Police who make the decision to investigate a crime due to the recorded testimony of a civilian complainant or otherwise find that they have probable cause and that they are not conducting themselves in an unreasonable manner can be said to be using discretion. In these cases, which are presented theoretically, the system can be said to work as it should. In other cases, such as the Greater Manchester Police, the system is seen to be racist. Law enforcement officers are supposed to be trained to detect incongruity, not to determine identifiers that are based on factors that have nothing to do with deviance and are superficial in nature. By using these superficial markers, officers are acting as the first link in a chain of the justice system that gives the message to African-Americans and other minorities that they are being judged not objectively, but instead by their attenuation to a role or idea in the mind of the officer or system pertaining to criminal behavior. Once this chain is established, it stretches throughout the justice system, presenting the minority repeatedly with an image of themselves as a violent and even irredeemable criminal. This image is perpetuated within the system in which all of the minorities interred are thought of similarly. The social-psychological concept of reciprocity is related to this issue, because it deals with the theme of belonging in groups and how people relate to each other in terms of fitting in. A lot of the themes covered are similar to those covered in social psychology, as well. “Throughout life, we tend to follow this principle of reciprocity, treating others very much as they have treated us. In choosing between cooperation and competition too we seem to adopt this general rule. When others cooperate with us and put their selfish interests inside, we generally respond in kind” (Social). Those officers who fit the description of biased individuals looking for a person of a certain age, race, gender, or otherwise non-related determination factors can be said to be profiling, or basing their decisions on racial and ethnic stereotypes, thus engaging in discrimination. As noted, this also works internally. #2 Integrating information technology (IT) is very important for the modern police department. It is a matter of balance to adjust for new motivational programs within the organization, so that programs will be kept in an adjusted way that is cost-effective for the organization at the same time that it is amenable to the employees. This process should be completed in a way that stresses key tenets of human resource development operation such as effective communication with employees and the employment of dynamic leadership strategies. Thus, this solution would be cost-effective at the same time that it would be amenable to the employees. In communicating the abovementioned changes to the employees in terms of departmental operations, this will further create a sense of cohesion and shared objectives.. A mentoring program blends together elements of environmental impact and interpersonal communication skills. It posits that the formulation of a mentor relationship can help a new officer fully contextualize their own directions within a workplace amid competing issues by following the pattern of another individual. Mentoring can help new employees develop new skills. “It is my simple thesis that a human problem requires a human solution. First, we have to learn to recognize a human problem when we see one; and second, upon recognizing it, we have to learn to deal with it as such and not as if it were something else” (Stillman, 2009). IT can be used in recruiting, but not training. “Recruiting people to meet the organizations human resource needs is only half the battle in the war for talent. The other half is keeping good employees. Organizations that keep employee turnover rates low gain an advantage against competitors” (Jackson et al., 2006). Multicultural recruiting can ensure more ethnic diversity and tolerance in the workplace, and reduce officer turnover and stress. “The true cost of turnover includes easy to quantify, out of pocket expenses and intangible opportunity costs associated with lost productivity. The out of pocket costs associated with hiring an employee are substantial, but these costs are just a portion of the total” (Bratton and Gold, 2007). In the law enforcement organizational environment, stressors are aspects of this environment that create strain on an individual. There are many possible stressors that effect individuals, which results in stress, especially when it is used inter-organizationally. The process of reorganizing the IT in a law enforcement context for global threats has already been done quite well, and few new alternatives really present themselves, except to decentralize operations and make teams smaller. One could argue that solution-based IT programs in law enforcement recruiting should keep a more centralized management power structure in reorganization, but using a more diffuse structure that responds more dynamically to change seems to be working well for many private security organizations in this industry or sector. Overall, the strategy of being an active agent of change seems to be keeping successful IT operations vital and proactive in their relationships to internal organizational planning as well external factors of opportunity in service delivery. It is important for the modern law enforcement agency to also make the point that there is a clear line to be drawn between discretion and racial profiling when it comes to a law enforcement officers’ making the decision to investigate a crime or suspect on positive grounds of incongruity, suspicion, or report, not race. In practice, unfortunately, as mentioned this theory does not always stick. In practice, police and the HMSS often color-code their targets and look for immigrant males to pull over or Arabic looking people to undergo surveillance in public areas. Police abuse against minorities is part of a history of legal inequality, repression, and colonial slavery. Police or secret service agents who make the decision to investigate a crime due to the recorded testimony of a citizen complaint are doing their job; they are not randomly color coding people, but instead, are using their reasonable discretion. REFERENCE Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice, Stillman, R (2009). Public Administration. New York: Wadsworth. Jackson, Schuler and Werner (2006). Managing Human Resources. Plainsboro, OH: Southwestern. Gabbidon and Greene (2005). Race and Crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Read More