In the routine of the police departments, they tend to work to serve and protect the community that relies on them. On the other hand, the community is dependent on the police department to help in cooperation and support. The relationship is vice versa, but it is not always harmonious as it should be. The community offers support to the police department to solve disorders and crime problems. With the support community deciding to trust the police, they must first count the legitimacy and principles police have towards the community’s core values. The relationship between the police and the community is based on how each party treats or presents itself toward the other. The main objective of police-community relations is to make sure they bring a collaborative union that will analyze problems, design them, and implement possible solutions that are seen as community-based.
The statement “police/community relations is the job of every officer and not just the person conferred with the title”. It means that it does not matter the title an officer holds the role and services one is expected to offer to the public should be equal without violation of police act guidelines. The process of solving and working toward the interest of the job’s inquest is the first interaction process between the officers and the community (Watson, 2018). The acts of human relations happen in all forms and have to happen daily as the nature subject’s human to meet actively daily. For an officer to do their job, they have to interact with the community. Coming into contact with people, a person can offer a helping hand, and, in any case, there is no effective communication and no interaction.
The law enforcers and police officers should make sure that they portray a good image toward the community they are offering security to and serving. This is to ensure that the public trusts them and they can depend on them to provide support in case of need and insecurity problems. The better the image, the stronger the relationship, and the poorer the image, the lesser the trust and the relations. The blame will rekindle when a crime happens, and the law enforcer will carry the responsibility always. Officers tend to showcase a positive impact on serving and offering security to the community. This is done as audio or video on camera. Officers in charge provide positive updates that will not tarnish their image. In the current scenario, police-community relations have been changing positively (Watson, D. 2018). To some extent, some officers are dragging the law enforcers behind by ruining the relationship of the community they are serving. The issues they are supposed to ensure the building relationship are corruption, violence, race relations, cooperation, and fear of police officers.
In conclusion, the police community relation stands to ensure various mentioned issues are moving smoothly without affecting any side negatively. In case one side feels violated and affected, then the relationship is not working well. For instance, in a current scenario in Minneapolis, some officers destroyed the police public relations image by killing a black man named George Floyd. They did this publicly, and the result ended up ruining police public relations and police-community relations. The urge to ensure the law enforcers’ attitude toward the community is good is on the rise through creating trust and reducing fear of police officers.
Reference
Watson, D. (2018). Assigning the brand: Police labelling and its impact on police/community relations. Police and the Policed, 39-64. Web.