It is a well-known fact that people do not necessarily like police officers, especially minority groups. However, with all of the complaining about how police officers are, we should look for a solution.
Two studies conducted by Nadal et al. (2017) found that African Americans held less favorable perceptions of police officers than any other minority group. Researchers assumed this may be due to stereotypes about African Americans leading to more violent discrimination and microaggressions than other minority groups. However, African Americans would not be to only ones affected by these instances of discrimination. According to a study by McNeeley & Grothoff (2016), people who perceive their neighborhoods as having racial tension also have less favorable perception of the police. This means that racial tension affects the perception of police from all groups. With all of this in mind, how can we as a society improve perceptions of the police?
After talking to various professors and students about the issue, I have heard a few common answers. Many professors believe that if police officers were more involved in their communities when it doesn’t relate to crime, that could improve the community’s perception of their local police force. However, many students believe that police officers should be trained better to avoid conflicts that could be seen as racially driven. The only problem that I see with this solution is that police officers would begin treating minorities better than Caucasians simply because of their ethnicity. This would obviously lead to backlash from the white community. I think that having police officers more involved in their communities when it does not involve crime would be the simplest way of opening the eyes of the public. However, I am sure that there are many other solutions out there. Either way, these perceptions of the police need to be improved if we are to reduce crime rates and violence across the country. Improving perceptions would be the first step.
Those are my Thoughts for Food.
McNeeley, S., & Grothoff, G. (2016). A multilevel examination of the relationship between racial tension and attitudes toward the police. American Journal of Criminal Justice : The Journal of the Southern Criminal Justice Association,41(3), 383-401. doi:10.1007/s12103-015-9318-2
Nadal, K., Davidoff, K., Allicock, N., Serpe, C., & Erazo, T. (2017). Perceptions of police, racial profiling, and psychological outcomes: A mixed methodological study. Journal of Social Issues,73(4), 808-830. doi:10.1111/josi.12249
Schafer, J. A., Huebner, B. M., & Bynum, T. S. (2003). Citizen perceptions of police services: Race, neighborhood context, and community policing. Police quarterly, 6(4), 440-468.
Thoughts for Food 