As Sergeant Joshi in her presentation and Professor Musheno throughout the course have emphasized, diversity is one of the most important elements for the police to create legitimacy with the communities they police. Diversity allows the law enforcement agency to not only make necessary changes within its organization to become in-sync diversification-wise with the community it serves but also to establish stronger connections with neighborhood associations. By bringing in officers from the communities they are going to policing, they act as both agents of order and agents within the communities. This allows officers to bring in concerns they’ve experienced within their own communities and address them efficiently, such as the fear of the police being present in their neighborhoods.
In her presentation, Sergeant Joshi mentioned that “the police coming into the neighbor was never a good thing growing up.” This sense of fear affects many communities such as Oakland. During the recruitment for new officers, Oakland Police officers, residents, and community advocates voiced their opinion that “new cops should live in the Oakland, know the city, and care about its interests.” This solution has been brought up ever since we learned about policing and legitimacy, especially within the Alameda-Bernal Heights Model.
One East Oakland resident Reggie Wooden points out that “Like every other black kid growing up in Oakland, a fear in cops is just bred in your from day one.” As an applicant for a position within Oakland Police Department, his goal is to break the cycle of fear born in those growing up in Oakland. By using his own knowledge of the city, he as well as many other applicants hope to aid the police in turning the negative image of law enforcement around and make people feel safe when the police are patrolling their neighborhood.
Local knowledge is proving to be more important as a factor in recruiting and for good reasons. Officer Juan Sanchez, who has been a recruiter for eight years, originally entered the force when it believed that it was best to recruit out of state. Having grown up in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, he criticizes the old model, believing local knowledge is valuable since it promotes stronger ties with the community. These ties can result in locals recognizing him, conversing with him in their native language, and feeling comfortable reporting potential crimes happening in the area. Increasing diversification then provides law enforcement with the means of creating or repairing legitimacy within communities they police.
However, there is still a lot of work which must be done to repair the distrust with the police. One report says that between 2000 and 2010, just 16 officers were responsible for nearly half of the total shootings. A community member under a gang injunction believes the police are similar to a gang insofar as they protect each other and don’t snitch if their partner does something wrong. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to be let go once you become a cop, resulting in some of these officers never truly being accounted for.
Nonetheless, increased diversification is a positive step in the right direction for law enforcement. In order to create a more positive image, it is necessary for law enforcement to understand the community they police and be a part of it, whether it be going up to kids and asking them to play basketball with them as part of their patrol duties or organizing community meetings. Although having greater trust in the police is important for community, having trust within the community amongst its own residents should also be an important factor. By cultivating a sense of community amongst those living in it and with those watching over it, it should help speed up the process of turning communities with negative attitudes such as Oakland around.
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This is a clear, concise, thorough post. I liked it from start to finish. You kept on a singular topic, and it was well-supported with multiple claims. It was consistently relative to the course material. Easily one of my favorite posts.
ReplyDeleteIt seems almost obvious that you'd want a police force to be a part of the community they're policing, instead of being apart of the community they're policing. And I'm glad that efforts are being made to prioritize this.
I think there is an inherent benefit that comes from both having a police force that is not only a part of the community but models the diversity of the community.
Especially in diverse cities, with diverse needs, you need an equally diverse social service sector, including the public safety sector.
-Mark Sheppard
I think this is an interesting post. In a country like america, it is imperative that there is diversification not just in the police department, but in all sectors of society. Like it or not, race is something that people identify with. Police officers that share the same race and language as some of the locals will undoubtedly be able to get closer to the community. Insider information is priceless. It is information that not even the most advanced forms of predictive policing can obtain. Community members are never going to give information to an outsider(another race). Minority groups in america identify heavily with their races, and will naturally be more inclined to cooperate with an officer they can identify with.
ReplyDeleteSharlene Djuhari
DeleteI think this is one of the best blog posts I've read through this week. You were able to narrow the subject matter onto a single topic while providing relevant details to back up your ideas. While many people may idealistically claim to be "blind" to race, the harsh reality is that people often unconsciously internalize at least a few of the multitude of stereotypes that they come into contact with starting from a young age. Regardless of where a person was raised these ideas will have some amount of influence on his or her thinking. I agree with the comment above me that race serves as an intangible factor in terms of police officers being able to interact freely with the minorities within the community. I feel that this grass roots effort is an important step in the right direction for the Oakland police department to reconnect with the community especially cause many of their new recruits are able to empathize with the very people whom they are hired to protect.
ReplyDeleteMichael Wu
I agree that in order to help repair the distrust with law enforcement, it's important to recruit locals and diversify the force, but also to instill a higher sense of community in the community. I believe the two go hand in hand in that if there is a strengthening in the community, we're more aware and caring towards others, and even more so when one of them now is a law enforcer who is from the community and wants to protect it. The best way to show that you truly care for the welfare of a community is by them living there themselves. The officers are facing the same difficulties and challenges as the other residents in the community and when community members see that, they can also respect and trust these law enforcers.
ReplyDeleteDylan, Your treatment of diversification is richly articulated with the course material on this subject and at the same time, creatively applied as you weigh through what kind of diversification may help move the OBD to gain increased legitimacy and effectiveness. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteAnother very important aspect of diversity, especially in urban areas, is the ability to speak foreign languages. When police officers can't effectively communicate with clients then legitimacy and efficacy are hurt. Thorough post, good job!
ReplyDeleteDerek Chin
Dylan, I really like your article as it highlights a possible solution to the tension between Oakland police and its residents. An Sergeant Joshi said, having police around while growing up was a bad thing. This course has emphasized the importance of modifying this type of thinking by encouraging a relationship between policers and the younger generation. Dylan brings up a great point explaining how diversification has cultivated legitimate understanding. Bringing up the importance of Officer Juan Sanchez's ability to communicate in residents' native language is an excellent example of how recruiting from Latino, Black, and female identity groups has lead to further positive interactions.
ReplyDelete-Victoria Rodriguez
I enjoyed this post because it seems that diversity (or lack thereof) is easily one of the biggest issues facing law enforcement these days. A recurring topic throughout the past couple weeks of class, a police force that is not aligned with the goals of the community and not attuned to its needs is not readily integrated with the community, and thus can become ineffective due to lack of trust and respect from community members. If more officers came from the same community they police, perhaps it would make reforms such as community policing styles more effective, as they would have a better understanding of how to enforce without resorting to broken windows style policing.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the most interesting point in your article was the mention that some see the police force as a gang of their own, and the statistic that about half of the shootings were done by only 16 officers. Numbers like that would make anyone skeptical, and it reminds me of the group of officers Sergeant Joshi mentioned who were indicted. Occurrences such as that are detrimental to the legitimacy of the force.
Overall, great post as it addresses one of the greatest underlying problems of modern law enforcement.
Ayesha Ali
Legitimacy is one of the most important in a law enforcement agency, and the Oakland Police Department’s lack of legitimacy is one of the major reasons why they’re so ineffectual in controlling crime. To the community, the officers are no longer there to protect, instead they are to be feared, resented, and avoided. While it’s not the only problem Oakland needs to address in order to reduce crime, repairing the police department from the inside is crucial, and accumulating a diverse group of officers can be great way of bringing in different perspectives, so that the police can develop a deeper overall understanding of the community. I feel like this blog post does a great job of elaborating on that.
ReplyDelete-Thomas Smith
This blog post does a great job outlining why police officers should have a better relationship with the community. In the final paragraph, I thought it was great that Dylan suggested police officers ask kids to play basketball with them. By engaging with youth in positive situations, they will be able to build trust. It is extremely important that police officers build trust with everyone in the community, and a great place to start is with the youth. As Sergeant Joshi mentioned in her presentation, she formed relationships with those on her patrol beat and they let her know if a shooting was about to occur. When a community trusts the police, the officers are better able to protect them.
ReplyDeleteErica Au
Your post on diversification in law enforcement is sound. The use of quotes from class presenters supplements your argument, bringing validity. Agencies should definitely take into account the wide spectrum of perspectives that become available through the diversification of their work forces. As the Oakland Police Department moves forward, accommodating the community by having a greater variance in their numbers will make a dent in the lack of Legitimacy it has in its community.
ReplyDelete-Alejandro Castellano
Like any other "positive' change one tries to do with existing institutions, there might be a consequences in the future. While cops all have strong occupation identity, they also belong to different groups, like gender, religion, generation, race ect, they identify with. Such as in Cops, Teachers, Councelors, a new cop didn't like how an older cop treated a black man the older cop new and how racist most of the cops were because he was raised Christian and not to be raist. Or the fact that newer cops are more accepting in changes than older cops. Diversity is good and necessary but one cannot know if diversity will cause trouble within a police station or maybe it will turn out all right.
ReplyDeleteLiliana Guerrero