Rebuilding Trust: Improving Police-Community Relations

We live in an evolving and ever changing world. This does not only apply to technology but also to the jobs that have been around for hundreds of years; like police officers. A police officer is someone who whose job is to enforce laws, investigate crimes, and make arrests in order to protect the community they have sworn themselves to. The past few years have shown us several major police brutality cases that have caused communities across the nation to turn against and lose trust in their officers due to one case and the media. This is due to the fact we have weak police-community relations. At one point in time, and maybe still in some places, you could see an officer every few blocks or so and see a friendly man or woman that you could

Racial profiling has been one of the main causes of the tensions in communities with their police. The officers they believed they once trusted in a community, far from a white police officer and black victim crime, they are now skeptical and thinking, “If they attacked a black/white guy for no reason they’ll attack me.” This type of crime also brings up different combinations of racial tensions that were thought to be left behind in history. Racial profiling, as well as profiling based on religion, ethnicity and origin, continues to plague our nation despite the constitutional guarantee of equality. Evidence of widespread racial profiling, shows that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to be stopped and searched by police, even though they’re less likely to be found with illegal possessions or crimes. “Critics argue that under the sole-factor definition, a hypothetical officer who routinely stops African-Americans for rolling stops or obscured license plates but does not stop Whites for the same infractions is not technically engaging in racial profiling because a reason other than race can be used to justify the stops” (Protecting Civil Rights 159). Profiling undermines public safety and thins the police and community trust. When law enforcement officers target citizens based on race or religion rather than behavior, community distrust of police seems to increase. Although the perpetrator just may happen to be a minority depending on the diversity of the population. Minority communities that had been unfairly targeted in the past continue to experience greater mistrust and fear of police officers. But, this problem can go both ways. There are white communities who would see a black cop and automatically feel fear due to others in his race, and vice versa. In order to put a stop to the problem of racial profiling of and by police officers there must be trust instilled