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Impact of diversity on law enforcement
Impact of diversity on law enforcement
Strategies in managing diversity
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According to Shusta et al., (2011), “Many law enforcement agencies have had difficulty finding qualified applicants; however, which has led to a recruitment crisis. This crisis, although influenced by economic circumstances, appears to be primarily the result of changing societal and demographic trends” (p. 82). There has been many controversies and attention towards the recruiting and hiring crisis in American law enforcement. Among the various problems that law enforcement agencies in America face, however, do not solely pertain to issues such as budgeting or manpower; but rather, it is the problem of recruiting qualified Asian-American applicants (Gaines & Kappeler, 2014). Policing in the United States has changed since the early days of …show more content…
American law enforcement. Although there have been opportunities for Asian-Americans to pursue a career in law enforcement over the last forty years, an existence of discrimination in the workplace regarding allocation of assignments, promotions, and recruitment still occurs (Matthies et al., 2012). That being said, law enforcement agencies in the United States must be culturally and racially diverse, to reflect the population of Asian-Americans in which they promised to protect and serve. It is important to have more Asian-American officers on a police force to improve relationships between law enforcement and the Asian residents (Alcindor & Penzenstandler, 2015). Asian officers could also help with cultural differences when responding to a call for service involving Asian immigrants (United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2010). Asian-American officers can help solve crimes that might astound colleagues unfamiliar with various Asian dialects (Cao, 2011). Furthermore, Asian officers will have a better chance of obtaining pertinent information from Asian victims of a crime who do not speak any English, and because the victim feels they may be more understanding (Le, 2015). Recruiting a pool of qualified Asian-Americans in today’s police force call for good leadership styles and one such example is found in Chief David Harman and Deputy Chief Frank Viturello of the Montclair Police Department in New Jersey.
The leadership approaches of David Harman and Frank Viturello, have greatly affected their organization as a whole as they lead and demonstrate by example. Chief Harman and Viturello are both strong advocates of organizational leadership. What made these men stood out is their exceptional working relationship and partnership with each other regarding leadership and problem solving (Haberfeld, 2013). Both chiefs’ came from different ethnic backgrounds and experienced discrimination early in their careers and wanted to make a difference with new generations of police officers. The Chiefs’ had powerful envisions of innovative changes within their organization, and had revamped the recruitment policy in order to create ethnic diversification (Haberfeld, 2013). A criminal justice manager must select a style of leadership that will accomplish his or her mission, and most importantly, selecting a style of management that will attract qualified Asian-American applicants towards a career in law enforcement (Shusta et al., …show more content…
2011). As the number of Asian immigrants doubled between the years of 1980-1998, increasing by six million people, U.S police departments across the nation struggles to recruit Asian-American officers to reflect the growing Asian population in the country (United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2010). Developing good working relationships in this multicultural society has always been challenging. The topic of racial profiling is one of the many challenges that law enforcement encounter, and it has been a hot issue in today’s policing. Furthermore, it has created distrustful working relationships between law enforcement and the Asian community. Asian-Americans experience many parallels of social injustice, oppression, prejudice, unlawful detentions, imprisonment, violation of due process and police brutality as African-Americans and Hispanics (United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2010). Asian communities in the United States have long been distrustful of the police due to racial disparity and unconscious biases. Mainstream media have portrayed the police force as comprising of white officers, and that has created negative impressions and discouraged many Asian-Americans from pursuing a career in law enforcement (Newburn, 2011). Not all foreign-born Asians will assimilate into mainstream American society, and will choose to hold onto their close minded ways of thinking. For instance, the traditional patriarchal system is still practiced in today’s Asian communities, and the father has a responsibility to guide his children on a career path that he believes is prestigious and non-life threatening (Zhao et al., 2013). That being said, many Asian immigrant parents discourage their children from becoming police officers and pursue high income professions such as medicine, business, law, and engineering (Chase, 2012). American law enforcement organizations must find innovative methods that can build trust and respect in Asian communities to attract second and third generation Asian-Americans towards a career in law enforcement (Le, 2015). Korean-American Officer Roy Choe, of the Fairfax County Police Department, provided a powerful recruiting tool that he believed had made tremendous impacts on recruiting Asian-Americans. For instance, when Officer Choe pulls over a Korean-American for a minor traffic violations and has decided to provide the citizen with only a warning, the officer dialogues with the Korean driver in his native language. Officer Choe stated by communicating with the Korean driver in the Korean language, “They’re likely to go back to the community and say something positive about their encounter with a Korean-American officer” (Choe, 2012). Choe (2012) further added, “You recruit through the service you provide and the image you develop from providing that service. You recruit by example. Eventually you’ll have second and third generation Asian-American families tell their children it is okay to work there” (p. 2). Background of the Problem The Asian community in the United States has undergone a series of transformation throughout several decades.
Newburn (2011) stated, “Until well into the 1960’s while there were a few people from minority ethnic communities represented in sport, business, politics, and the civil service, there were no Asian police officers whatsoever” (p. 611). Some of the challenges that police recruiters may face when recruiting Asian-Americans are as follows: (1) language barriers; (2) cultural differences; (3) racist attitudes; (4) historical distrust; and (5) racial biases (Scaramella et al., 2011). Law enforcement agencies that are culturally and linguistically diverse are prone to be more effective in serving diverse communities. The underrepresentation of Asian-American police officers can negatively impact the solvability of violent crimes such as home invasions and arm robberies in Asian communities (Le, 2015). Asian immigrants are more willing to address criminal activities to Asian-American police officers as oppose to non-Asian-Americans (Cao, 2011). Reporting criminal activities to the police is beneficial for both the victim and the department. An offense report could either
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Do the institution and also those officers serve it act discriminately to different race group? On the one hand, it has to be admitted that some actions taken by the police are leading to the greater involvement of young black people in the criminal justice system but they cannot be recognised as discriminative behaviours. For example, the police tend to give priority and more effort into certain crime categories and some deprived areas, depending on local and central first concern. As a consequence, some criminals of ethnic groups and ethnic minority residences living in certain areas are inevitably more likely to come into contact with the
The fundamentals of community policing could be utilized to outline the importance of trust, confidence, and as a recruitment approach to attract Asian-Americans towards a career in law enforcement. Tangel (2015) recommended law enforcement agencies to “utilize the community as a recruitment agent to fashion a police force which more closely mirrors the community, racially and ethnically” (p. 1). Recruiting and hiring qualified Asian-American candidates has been a challenge for law enforcement for several decades. For the most part, concerns regarding racial biases and mistrust have dominated the hiring landscape (Hanser & Gomila, 2015). Law enforcement agencies along with the help of prior researchers have made tremendous recruiting efforts by developing traditional recruitment techniques to attract the most qualified candidates. However, in the event of globalization and an increase of Asian immigrants in the United States, law enforcement agencies must search beyond traditional methods to attract potential Asian-American police candidates (Crump, 2011). It is not to say that traditional methods of recruiting are ineffective in today’s 21st century recruitment, but rather, law enforcement agencies must utilize both traditional and non-traditional methods to recruit and hire the most qualified
Choudhury and Fenwick (2011) argue that as a result of increased policing and stop and searches, more members of minorities are subjected to prejudice and discriminatory views from law enforcement which has heightend distrust amonst minorities with the police force as laws are seen as being unlawfully implicated amongst members of their minority group as a result of their race of religious
According to Dr. Carl S. Taylor, the relationship between minority groups and police in the United States has historically been strained. Some cities have a deep and bitter history of bias and prejudice interwoven in their past relationships. The feeling in many communities today is that the system pits law enforcement as an occupying army versus the neighborhood. Dr. Taylor wrote about easing tensions between police and minorities, but stated “If there is any good news in the current situation, it is that the history of this strain has found the 1990’s ripe for change.
Despite the fact racism has been around for hundreds of years, upcoming generations are becoming more open minded and less likely to publicly berate minorities; racial profiling, however, is the one loophole of racism America overlooks. Police officials often use the practices of racial profiling to discretely single out minority races. A common approach to this is through traffic patrols. According to a statistic based in San Jose, CA, nearly 100,000 drivers were stopped; during the year ending in June 2000; and of these drivers less than 32% were white, the remaining 68% of drivers were a...
Hays, K. L., Regoli, R. M., & Hewitt, J. D. (2007). Police Chiefs, Anomia, and Leadership. Sage .
These authors’ arguments are both well-articulated and comprehensive, addressing virtually every pertinent concept in the issue of explaining racially disparate arrest rates. In The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System, Wilbanks insists that racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is a fabrication, explaining the over-representation of African Americans in arrest numbers simply through higher incidence of crime. Walker, Spohn and DeLone’s The Color of Justice dissents that not only are African Americans not anywhere near the disproportionate level of crime that police statistics would indicate, they are also arrested more because they are policed discriminately. Walker, Spohn and DeLone addi...
Racial Profiling is a big issue amongst people of color and the police force. In this paper I speak about the relations both have between each other and how stereotyping has affected society as a whole.
Weitzer, Ronald, and Steven A. Tuch. "Race and Perceptions of Police Misconduct." JSTOR. Aug. 2004. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
Police reform should start by giving proper training to the new recruits and veterans in the force. During their training, “Law enforcement agencies should adopt and enforce policies prohibiting discrimination based on race, ethnicity immigration status, etc.” (Cops, p.90). It is apparent
When Police Officers participate in stereotypical behavior a false since of being is then created (Kirby, 2016). Corrupt Police Officers coin a theory to search out suspects then evidence (Kirby, 2016). In America everyone is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (Thomson, 2016). The Criminal Justice Administration has already claimed the lives of many due to the lack of evidence and probable cause (Goldstein, 1994). Police Officers who are racially motivated also create a conflict in the reward system because they act quickly especially when a victim is Caucasian, distinguished, a child or a member of Law Enforcement (Kirby, 2016). Racism is often the motive of corruption within the Criminal Justice Administration (Kirby,
Recruiting officers is a vital job for any city, state, federal department. The people that are recruited could be the next leaders of the department. Most departments try to pull in the most diverse and qualified applicants that are looking to make law enforcement a career. They also look for applicants that have a commitment in severing their community. The recruiters have a bigger pull of people with the unemployment rate going up. There are more people going back to school to study criminal law and are looking for a career in law enforcement. The recruiters look for people that hold knowledge in law, communication skills, self- discipline, and attention to detail. The new recruit should want to stay learning new things by furthering their education in law enforcement. The recruiters must hold a high standard for hiring police officers because of what the community expects from their law enforcement. Most recruiters have to go by the department’s code of ethics that each department has set for their officers. This has made recruiters come up with new ways of trying to recruit officers. Some recruiters have started going after top students out of universities and other schools. Many Departments have come up with hiring incentives for new r...
Social Science Research, 38, 717-731. http://journals2.scholarsportal.info.libaccess.lib.mcmaster.ca/tmp/9506051508484483171.pdf. Nielsen, A. L., & Martinez, R. (2011). Nationality, immigrant groups, and arrests. Examining the diversity of arrests for urban violent crime.
In this essay, I will investigate and describe a cultural group in my desired field. I will provide details from an interview with a professional person in my field of interest. Gender inequality is still a big issue in law enforcement. Women make up a small percentage in the world of law enforcement. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, there are only thirteen percent of women working in law enforcement in the United States and only five percent are African American (Criminal Justice School Info, 2014). The New York City Police Department hired the first female officers in 1845 and they were called “matrons” (Felperin, 2004). Over twenty years of extensive research has shown that female officers possess a unique style of policing in which they rely more on their interpersonal skills rather than physical strength or force to talk a person down from a violent situation (National Center for Women & Policing, 2013).
Creating community policing units creates a better quality of life for low and middle income neighborhoods that are vulnerable for crime. Through the collaboration of social service agencies, community leaders, the police, and an effective strategy; community policing will have a positive impact on reducing neighborhood crime (Peak, 2009, p. 179). Moreover, law enforcement will need to bridge their relationship with community members. It is even more imperative that organizational leaders discover and eliminate any and all barriers that impede the ability to deal with cultural differences. This can be attained through diversifying the organization so that community members believe that the police care about their concerns and safety.