Comparing Policing Strategies and Relations between Communities and Police - Essay Example

Comparing Policing Strategies Introduction The challenge of policing a multicultural society is to create means by which preferences of every group are transformed into policing outputs. Certainly, this is less straightforward than it seems, for rationales well known to culture theorists. There are various structural conditions that continue to impact upon poor policing communications and policing practice. These include police racism, language barriers, and lack of diversity in police forces, low levels of cultural awareness amongst police officers and attitudes of minority groups towards police. Language barrier has been cited as one of major structural condition considering that about 3.1 million Australians speak other languages other than English at home (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008, 3). Thus, effective communication skills are a vital part of community policing in culturally diverse neighborhoods. Although a number of Australian territory and state agencies have devoted multicultural advisory units that offer services to CALD community members, understanding of religious distinct communities should not be limited to specialist officers or units if effective policing is to be realized (Bowling & Phillips 2002, 13). Despite reforms, some states such as the State of New South Wales continue to show well-established racism and other racism-related problems such as rising death cases of young Aboriginals in custody. Nonexistence of Diversity Diversity as far as community policing is concerned is the treatment of the diverse religious, racial, ethnic groups within any community. Under principles of community policing, police officers are anticipated to offer an equitable, professional and fair standard of service to every member of the society. In other words, acts that show discrimination against any specific group are unacceptable. Nevertheless, despite commendable efforts by most police agencies to enhance good relations, the account of policing in ethnically varied communities often appears no more than a litany of allegation of police prejudice (Gaertner & Dovidio1986, 72). Policing culture is thought to be founded in a macho-based global-view that seems to lag behind broader changes in social altitudes and is unwilling to tolerate diversity. More often than not, police organizations are under-representative of minorities and over-representative of one ethnic group and there are too many allegations of discrimination. Diversity can be the outcome of historical existence of various indigenous cultural, religious, and ethnic groups in a state, but increasingly ethnic multiplicity is closely related to existence of refugees and migrants. In most states, the existence of immigrants is viewed by most people in the society as a risk to the economic health of citizens and the efforts by immigrants to keep their tradition is viewed as an insult on the integrity of the main culture (Stokols 1992, 12). This feeling of threat is frequently translated into government policies and political rhetoric, which are not conducive to the existence of migrants and to their expression of culture (Verlot 2002, 27). Whilst the ethnic minorities that endures prejudice varies from state to state and the kinds of prejudice vary, there is a widespread tendency to marginalize those that are most physically dissimilar to the majority populace. As people acknowledge that policing is very much shaped by the broader occurrence racism and discrimination in community, it must be acknowledged that police represent a type of case study in the relations between the wider social order and the minorities (Omaji 1999, 14). Law enforcers are often play conflicting roles: they are defenders of equal rights and are supposed to enforce laws aimed at ensuring that the privileges of minorities are protected, but they also viewed as primary means of institutional attacks on minorities. Many operational reviews and commissions of inquiry from any countries document both personal and institutional police behaviors that single out minorities. These discriminatory practices include physical violence, language difficulties, and insensitivity to cultural differences, processes which deny minorities’ equitable access to fairness and prejudicial enforcement behaviors that result to over-policing (Casey 2000, 63). During the previous decade, majority of race riots in developed states are a common target of the rioters. The common justification for their actions towards minorities is that the law enforcement officers are only carrying out their work which may have unexpected consequence of affecting a particular segment of the community adversely. However, a number of studies show that discrimination and negative stereotyping do indeed affect policing and this fact, compounded by the effect of few minorities in the police, produces a vicious cycle that prevents the existence of good relationship between minorities and police. Socio-economic factors seem to be strengthened by biased practices and turn out to be self-fulfilling prophecies that that cause inappropriate policing or over-policing. This can generate an internal colonization situation in which one part of the society is viewed and treated like second class citizens. Nonetheless, there is agreement in many police organizations that the existing situation must change and endeavors to enhance relationships between minorities and police are frequently associated with other reforms including the introduction of community policing. Racism and Discrimination Discrimination and racism among police has portrayed itself to be extremely resilient to change. (Chan 1997, 8) shows how, despite being a leader as far as police reforms are concerned, the State of New South Wales in Australia, with internationally recognized innovative and radical programs in a state that has the highest proportion of immigrants in the industrialized world and is widely recognized as a leader in integration strategies, continues to show well-established racism and other racism-related problems such as rising death cases of young Aboriginals in custody. A Victorian investigation on culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities and counter-terrorism policing indicates terrorism has surfaced as a major worry for the community and the police. In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, people from distinct religious groups or CALD have attracted a lot of interest from counter-terrorism policies. The investigation revealed that the attention given to CALD communities can make them develop a sense of susceptibility due to increasing police interest. Concerns expressed by most Muslims comprised an alleged equating of terrorism with Islam, a perceived feeling of increased surveillance, remote racist incidents involving youths more frequently than in the past, and the perceived demonizing of non-Europeans and Muslims through terrorism coverage in the media. According to Paradies & Williams (2001, 13) religious and cultural feelings can also impact the giving out of information to police. The investigation recognized problems faced by police in CALD communities, especially in connection to counter-terrorism. Involving religious distinct groups via community policing is viewed as essential by law enforcers and most are aware of the significance of diversity for society. Notwithstanding this belief, about 60% of Victorian law enforcers interacted in various ways with people from CALD communities few times and the majority hardly ever spent their time trying to from good relations with these religious distinct communities (Pickering et al 2007, 38). Police cited the following as the most important obstacles to policing in CALD communities: lack of community trust, language barriers, and lack of religious and cultural understanding (Shah, Rahman & Khashu 2007, 11). Language Barrier In other studies language barrier was one of the most significant issued cited by police (Pederson, Attwell & Heveli 2005, 150). Likewise, researches in the U.S revealed that language is for the most part a barrier to effective policing. Generally, 3.1 million Australians use other languages to communicate other than English at home. Thus, effective communication skills are a vital part of community policing in culturally diverse neighborhoods. A number of Australian territory and state agencies have advisory units dealing with multicultural issues and offer services to CALD community members (Wortley, & Homel 1995, 311). Also, a majority have multicultural liaison police officers. Nonetheless, it is clear that the understanding of religious distinct communities should not be limited to specialist officers or units if effective policing is to be realized. According to a topical investigation in Victoria, it was found that those from non-English speakers were about three times more probable to come face to face with discrimination and intolerance in Australia policing (Engel, Calnon, &Thomas 2002, 250). At least one in thirty nine non-English speakers (Victorians) often experience discrimination and intolerance within policing situations. In addition, a region in Victoria with great numbers of newly arrived migrants from Africa, the Community Legal Centre has filed about eighteen complaints of brutality, racism, and harassment on behalf of refugees with the Office of Police over one and half years (Hopkins 2007, 34) . These cases of brutality, racism and excessive force were viewed as an isolated occurrence, but as symptom of management failure and police tradition. The Legal Centre is at the moment receiving news of police aggression in Victoria. Comments made to clients by police suggest that their responsibility was viewed in the wider idea of border management. An additional issue with respect to community and police was emphasized in a topical survey of about eighty eight refugees (eighty five percent of which originated from Africa), of whom forty nine percent had been put under questioning by officers during the first year of study. Wortly (2003, 101) notes, amongst several other practices, racial profiling on average includes racial inequality in police search and questioning behaviors. Though contested, this kind of criminal observation of people from other marginal backgrounds is in line with several findings from Canada, the U.S and Britain (Bhavnani, Mirza & Meetoo 2005, 16). According to Bowling & Phillips 2002, 28) modern assertions of racial profiling of some ethnic groups and widespread racial favoritism by the law enforcers are clear across several Anglo Western states. A review of 1,522 White, Chinese and Black participants in Canada indicated that a considerable majority thought that the law enforcers treated minorities in a different way compared to White people. In their report, HREOC (2007) noted that some participants in consultation across NSW and Victoria believed they would be discriminated against by police due to their religion or race in dialogues between law enforcement agencies and Muslim communities. It was recognized that this view was grounded on; misinformation about police, personal experiences, reports from family and friends concerning police experiences, unhelpful comments made by leaders and politicians which are associated with views of those in power and understanding of police strategies (Marlow & Jane1998, 14). Conclusion Whilst there have been attempts to foster positive relations between the communities and the police, language barriers, lack of cultural awareness and lack of diversity within the police forces have continued to create the perceptions of racial and ethnic discrimination. Institutional racism is also evident within the police as some groups continue to be disproportionately affected by Stop and Search procedures and many still feel stereotyped, particularly if live in an ethicized area. In order to address these structural problems, there is need to train officers to communicate using the language of local CALD groups as this can considerably improve communications and relations between the police and their communities. Given that practices put in place to address inequitable outcomes for some ethnic groups have continually failed to address perceived discrimination and inequalities, there is need for decisive thinking on the character of the institution and its procedures and the kinds of bias within these environments. Bibliography Australian Bureau of Statistics 2008, Year book Australia, 2008. Canberra: ABS. Bowling, B & Phillips, C 2002, Racism, Crime and Justice. Pearson Education, London. Bhavnani, R, Mirza, H. & Meetoo, V 2005, Tackling the Roots of Racism: Lessons for Success, The Policy Press, Bristol. 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