How can we foster and grow the trust between the Black community and law enforcement?

The police violence against the African-Americans became a phenomenon in the American society where the Blacks have been undervalued, which caused the racial as well as political division and led to the development of movements such as the Black Lives Matter (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). If the African-Americans are victims of violence and over-policing, how can we foster and grow the trust between the Black community and law enforcement? This can be resolved by a better understanding of the theories on race as well as race relations, and historical readings on race and policing. According to a review by Carbado & Richardson (2018) of the Forman’s Book, African-Americans played an important role in the facilitation of the Black’s incarceration (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). It has pointed out that some choices made by Blacks such as the contribution of some of the Blacks in the increase of drug epidemic in the African-American community lead to their incarceration. It also proposed that race has less to do with their imprisonment and that they are not victims but they are agents too (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). Foreman’s thesis has been assessed as the roots of racial discrimination in the U.S. can be traced to power as well as structure instead of individual choice or identity (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). It is also mentioned in this review that Black police are experiencing pressures in themselves in the departments where some believe that failure in sharing to the ideologies of White police on racial assumptions can be perceived as soft on criminality but hard on the racial affiliation (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). This only shows that achieving higher education of the Blacks did not eradicate educational inequality.

It is also explained in the review that there were two issues why the African-American participated in the incarceration of the Blacks and these are their desire to protect their lives from violence as well as crime that ravaged their communities in the 1960s and the second issue is racism’s role in providing limited options in protecting their lives (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). It is also discussed in the review that there are studies showed where Black police are also physically abusive and sometimes even harsher than their contemporaries White police due to the following reasons: due to the Fourth Amendment, this is a reliable source in targeting the African-Americans. Racial biases also make the Black police to become aggressive the African-American such as the same raise biases and the intra-racial biases (Carbado, Richardson, 2018). The Black police may also go through anxieties that make them more militarized to the African-Americans such as masculinity threats, racial anxiety, racial targeting through stops and frisks. These are just among the reasons and scenarios that will implicate the Black police in contributing to the incarcerations of the African-Americans. According to the research, it revealed that whites and blacks automatically associate the African-Americans to negative values and the whites are positive ones and Blacks are criminally minded. Furthermore, police departments that have greater numbers of Black police are the ones that are performing racial profiling (Carbado, Richardson, 2018).

Due to the understood biases based on the shooter-bias study, there are more Blacks are harmed compared to the Whites. Because of racial biases, members of law enforcement are focusing more on their attention and become aggressive to the Blacks and these analyses came from the four threats namely social, stereotype, masculinity and racial solidarity. Other factors that make the police aggressive to the African-Americans are the police department’s structure and allocated works and legal backdrop which are the fourth amendment, a law permitting the police to employ force even if there is no basis for it.

Furthermore, based on the historical realities the reason why the police officers are more suspicious of the African Americans is that the Black is a young age no longer trusts the police and makes them flee from law enforcers.

Conclusion

As technology improves policing. However, there are still neighborhoods that are distressed, especially in the inner cities. In improving the effectiveness of policing it depends on the information that will be gathered in the community. Disconnection with the constituents means police are illegal. If law enforcers are not considered as legal in a community then the mission of the police will never be effective. It can be understood that police can’t control the numerous variables contributing to crime and disorder . But police can encourage the community to join the discussion concerning the safety of the public. New strategies, as well as technologies in a proactive way, will continue to fasten in achieving success for maintaining peace and order in the community. This technology can be limited due to possible violations of the constitutional privacy rights of the constituents or people. Another example is mitigating cybercrime where the role of the police is not yet defined. The new generations become the concerns of the police too where they need to adopt the trend of young people and be able to hire and retain the smartest one.

The legitimacy and procedural justice should also be discussed to ensure that citizens are treated fairly and with respect by the members of the police force to gain public trust. Trust between the community and the police force that they protect is the key to the stability and the integrity of the justice system. Former President Obama in 2014 of December 18th launching the executive order on Task Force on 21st Century Policing where recommendations are organized in pillars (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). The first pillar is building trust/ legitimacy among the police and the citizens. Legitimacy can be attained if the public believes that the police are acting according to the fair procedural way. This pillar is focused on building a relationship where law enforcement is expected to embrace the guardian instead of a warrior (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). The Executive order is directing the police force to adopt procedural justice that will serve as the guiding principle in implementing internal as well as external policing practices. Furthermore, it is mandated in the order that there should be transparency as well as accountability to be able to gain the trust of the public. Law enforcement force is also required to proactively promote the public trust through initiating activities with positive enforcement and create a diverse workforce that includes race, language, cultural background, gender, and life experiences to ensure effective understanding in dealing with the people or citizens (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015).

Pillar II emphasizes that policing policies should reflect the community values by collaborating with the communities that are disproportionately affected by the crimes (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). Pillar III is a concern on the technology and the social media that will improve the practices of policing and be able to build the community trust as well as legitimacy (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). Pillar four is community policing and crime reduction focusing on the working relationship with the neighborhoods in maintaining public safety (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). The fifth pillar is focused on training/education to ensure effectiveness in engaging with /to the community members (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015). The sixth pillar is focused on wellness and the well-being of the members of the law enforcement (President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 2015).