Lesson to be learned from Ferguson - Essay Example

In a society increasingly characterized by advanced communication technology, it has become easy for members of the public to observe and react to such acute police misconduct. Further, revelations of police brutality not only shake the public’s confidence in law enforcers, but may also spark community protests and civil unrest. Strained relations due to perceived brutality are common between police and minorities, particularly those of African-American descent. Surveys and past incidents show that minorities have a higher likelihood to hold negative views of the police, compared to the majority Caucasian populace.

Some of the most vivid incidents where police either used excessive force or killed unarmed civilians include the severe beating of Rodney King in LA in 1991, the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo in New York, the 2001 murder of Timothy Thomas, and the most recent shooting of Thomas Brown in Ferguson, Missouri (Blankstein, Winter & Riordan, 2013). In all of these cases, respective communities took to the streets to protest police cruelty, thus impeding normative activities for some time. The repetitive nature of these incidents shows that police reform is not an easy task (Weitzer & Tuch, 2004).

However, under proper conditions, progressive transformation of policing structures and communities can improve police work, as well as, relationships between the police and communities that receive their services. In an effort to propose potential policing transformation platforms, this paper evaluates four policy alternatives. The latter include: 1. Maintenance of extant state, which constitutes doing nothing, 2. Police Force Reform through strategies like training, internal controls, diversification of police departments, and community patrols, 3.

Empowerment of underprivileged communities via economic development, workforce training, and enhancement