Black Police, White Society

PART III: THE POLICE AND THE BLACK COMMUNITY

• THE POLICE AND THE BLACK COMMUNITY Cooperation is piss-poor, and the reason is that people here don't trust cops. T HE quality of the relationship between the police and the members of any particular community has essentially depended upon the extent to which cultural values and beliefs held by the two groups have tended to converge. The problem in many urban centers, and especially within racial ghettos, is that there has existed a sharp divergence between the values shared by police and those held by the community, and it is this discrepancy that in recent years has led to increasing conflict and open confrontation between the two. Conflicting values, however, are not the only determinants of relations between police and citizens. Face-to-face interaction also constitutes an important basis for any relationship. Individual experiences, it has been argued, often tend to become articulated into fixed images or stereotypes which can, in time, condition the way all police and citizens respond to each other. At the same time individual distinctions tend to become obscured as members of each group begin to alter their perceptions and respond to one another solely on the basis of the stereotypes they themselves have created. In understanding the nature of relations between the police and citizens in a particular community, therefore , one must consider not only the effect of conflicting value systems but also the effect of reciprocal images that have been formed over the years through repeated contacts between members of each group. Part Three looks at a number of these social variables and processes in its discussion of the police involvement in the black community . A number of political and legal factors that are believed to have shaped police-black relations over the years are also examined . In Chapter 6, "Images, Attitudes, and Expectations," several of the traditional causes of conflict between blacks and police are identified. Next, the impact of adding greater numbers of blacks to the police ranks during the early seventies and assigning them to racially sensitive areas of the city is considered. Specific views are then presented on the issues of "integrated police precincts" and "working teams," views which ought to be considered before The Police and the Black Community 161 attempts are made to reduce conflict between police and members of the black community as well as among police themselves. Finally , we consider the adequacy of department programs aimed at reducing tensions between police and blacks and promoting cooperation between the groups. In the final chapter, "The Police Role in the Ghetto" we address the various meanings the police function seem to hold for black officers as well as the way the police function is perceived by members of the black community. Particular attention is given to those problems black (and white) police routinely confront in attempting to reconcile their work role with the expectations and demands black citizens attach to the policeman's job in today's society . The focus then shifts to police relations with two subgroups occupying nearly identical positions in the black community: black youth and black offenders. Here we take a careful look at the problems generated by the opposite and extreme positions held by these groups, on the one hand, and by black police on the other. ...