Challenges to Community Policing

Cultural Considerations

Community policing is a daunting task. Each culture, diverse in its own right, may believe in a separate religion, have their own language, may have new immigrants, yet all are to be governed by the same set of rules society has set forth. The police strive for equality, yet many times fall short because of human interaction. Immigrants coming from foreign countries are attempting to escape oppression, and obtain the “American Dream.” For all their efforts of escaping, they mistakenly bring the oppression with them.

Earning trust is a difficult task for the police when those in the community have had prior experiences in their previous country. Lysakowski, Pearsall, and Pope state in their report, “Local police departments often feel blindsided by the rapidly growing pace of diversity in their communities and, therefore, have little comfort dealing with this environment,” (Lysakowski, Pearsall III, & Pope, 2009, p. 1). Immigrants are usually the victim of many crimes, however, because of their mistrust of local police they are hesitant to call or even talk with local officers. Hasisi, states in his report, “The immigrants are generally unfamiliar with the culture of the host country, and their vulnerability may make them targets for abuse by criminals in the community,” (Hasisi, 2008, p. 1127).

Challenges to Policing

The difficulty of speaking the language, and knowing the customs of the community are paramount to being able to assist residents and business owners. The immigrant does not always learn the language when they come to, and live within the borders of the United States. Inability to communicate makes responding to the phone calls more difficult, however, there have been strides in ...

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