Introduction
Cultural awareness is crucial in the law enforcement sector of society than any other profession. This is because the police force holds specific power in this section of society, a factor that necessitates a proper understanding of a multicultural and pluralistic society among the officers. Different facets of community policing highly depend on such an understanding in order to realize successful service delivery. Police officers hold a nature of power that makes it necessary for officers to understand fully, the changing community needs as well as the ethnic and racial challenges that come with such needs (Leenen, 2002, p.117).
The police force like any other profession derives its clientele from society. Service to society requires a lot of responsibility and professionalism and this is an implication that police officers must have a clear understanding of the social context that defines their line of duty. In today’s society, service to the community requires that these officers recognize the diversified nature of the communities they are serving because such diversification also reflects different needs in different communities or social groups. The work of a police officer includes such duties as patrol, solving neighborhood problems, crime prevention, conducting security checks, and dealing with the disorderly members of society among others. Such duties cannot be effectively carried out without understanding of the differences in race, ethnicity, religion and gender of the communities being served (Glenn, 2003, p.6, 107).
Main body
Pluralistic societies like the US are made up of very many religious groups that practice different beliefs and practices. This necessitates that police officers exemplify an understanding of such religious diversity as well as show respect for diverse religions. Because religion has always been a major source of conflict between different people or social groups, officers that have an understanding and respect for religious diversity will reflect effective resolving of religious conflict; as well as help in prevention of future occurrence of such conflict. The police force is also able to effectively create diverse strategies to prevent incidences of hate crimes that follow international events such as terrorism. Racial and ethnic stereotyping by police officers is also checked through such strategies and racial profiling instead helps the police to protect the targeted groups of such hate crimes (Kazarian, Crichlow and Bradford, 2007, p.181, 205-207).
Due to the nature of their duties, police officers cannot perform their respective duties competently unless there is public approval of their actions. They must develop a kind of confidence with the people they are serving in order to secure the public’s willingness to cooperate in voluntary law observance activities. Positive contact between the police force and the citizens as well as learning their cultural or ethnic backgrounds would ensure a more positive attitude towards the nature of duty being performed in a certain community. The officers get a better understanding of particular problems facing certain communities, while members of such communities are in return able to grasp the officers’ effort to understand the problem. A cultural understanding of diverse groups of people also ensures competent deliverance of services to these communities in a manner that is culturally appropriate, while at the same time easing tension between such communities and the police force (Leenen, 2002, p45-49, 51-53).
Community policing refers to the process of bringing police officers and the community together in a partnership that will help find solutions to crime. Effective policing can only result from a police force and communities that communicate effectively because such communication then breaks the walls of distrust between officers and particular groups. Police officers have always been associated with crime control and the effectiveness of the police in controlling crime determines the level of trust the community has in their services. Even though most Americans report some degree of satisfaction with the police force, the degree of trust varies within different cultural or ethnic settings. Foreigners have for example, often reported unpleasant encounters with the police and cultural understanding helps in avoiding unmistakable difference between the officers and such communities. A knowledge and respect for cultural diversity therefore helps to bridge the wide gap that often characterizes police-citizen interaction and bring together the two groups in a unite effort to solve community based problems such as crime control and prevention. Police community interaction therefore creates satisfaction (Glenn, 2003, 92-93).
Understanding makes the officers acceptable to the specific community they are serving therefore enhancing community support for the officers. When a police to community relationship is one characterized by mutual respect, tension between the two groups, eases and officers are able to execute their duties professionally. In such way, the safety of the officers is also enhanced especially within those communities where organized crime is prevalent. Mutual respect helps officers to gather information from the people with ease and the officers certainly experience a greater ethical satisfaction. Diverse communities in return get better services from the police force (Leenen, 2002, 58-59).
Conclusion
Understanding people’s diversity is crucial to the police force as it enhances professionalism in the execution of duty. This creates the need for intercultural police education in order to create an inter-culturally efficient police service. It is therefore important that executives in every police department make considerable effort and ensure that the officers being produced within their agencies are inter-culturally skilled.
References
Glenn, R. (2003). Los Angeles (Calif). Police Dept. Training the 21st century police officer: Redefining police professionalism for the Los Angeles police department. Pittsburgh, PA: Rand Corporation.
Kazarian, S., Crichlow.W. and Bradford.S. (2007). Diversity issues in law enforcement. Toronto, Canada: Emond Montgomery
Leenen, W. (2002). Enhancing intercultural competence in police organizations. Münster, Germany: Waxman Verlag.