Diversity and Inclusion Research Paper: The Invisible Enemy
During the social movements occurring in most states around the country, I wondered how my best friend, Joann, was doing. I hoped that she was staying safe and that her community was viewing her job performance objectively. Joann has been a Monterey Park Police Officer for more than 25 years and has provided me with a different view of the law. She is my reference point of an honest, caring, ethical and fair cop. She cares about her community and the people that she has been sworn to protect. I have a new appreciation for how much an officer risks their own lives to protect the lives of others. I understand that this assignment was probably meant for me to conduct research on an ethical group, but I felt that researching the other side of a social change was more important. The events over the last few months have been hard to digest, especially when the only scenes flashed on every news outlet have been an attempt to pit two different groups against each other or focus on their many differences. I believe it’s time to focus on the many traits that our society has in common, even the commonalities we may have with police officers. So, I started thinking about how little society knows about the members of law enforcement and the world that they must face every day behind a badge. The most important lesson that I have learned from this class and many other is to not form my opinion of people based on stereotypes or biases. I have learned about double consciousness and shifting my perspective and sometimes just being stuck in the middle, like I am today. I am not choosing a side in a protest. I have many friends from many different backgrounds and believe their lives and experiences are just as important. My expectation is that after I have completed this assignment, I would have a better understanding of a group of people that have recently only been portrayed as racists, stereotyped as murderers, and power-hungry instigators of violence. My hope is that people calling for justice can view the events of the world through a diverse lens and realize that all lives matter, even blue ones.
Also read: Essay on various forms of diversity
California law enforcement was established in 1853 with the development of the Los Angeles Police Department in response to the murder of Jack Whaling, the community’s second City Marshall. The city’s first police department was a group of volunteers called “Los Angeles Rangers” and they were identified by a white ribbon that contained an embossment in English and Spanish that read “City Police.” In the years since, law enforcement in California has gone through many changes. Today, California law enforcement consists of highway patrol officers that protect motorists, deputy sheriffs that have jurisdiction throughout the county and police officers that are responsible for protecting communities within city limits of their department. According to the 2016 Bureau of Justice Statistics, law enforcement in California comprises of over 119,500 full-time law enforcement employees. There are 78,500 sworn officers with full arrest powers and 41,000 civilian staff. Of the 78,500 sworn officers, 48% are municipal or city officers, 39% are county officers and 10% are officers with the California Highway Patrol. One of the most recognizable artifacts of the police department is a badge. A sheriff or county law enforcement’s badge is a gold, five or six-point star and contains the California grizzly bear as the central emblem. Municipal police officers’ badge is in the shape of a shield and usually contains the name of the city or a city landmark that they patrol. For example, the Los Angeles Police Department’s badge contains a silhouette of the Los Angeles city skyline. A badge is only one small token that law enforcement share. Their culture is developed through their shared experiences, training and role modeled by their leaders.
Each law enforcement personnel understands that the duties of those that uphold the law are to maintain public order and safety and to provide the public with protection and other forms of assistance. As officers develop professional experience, they are bonded by the expectations and teaching of the profession. Police officers share many common experiences that help promote unity and relatability in the group. Individuals wanting to become a police officer must be 21 years or older, have a high school diploma or GED and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien who has applied for citizenship. All candidates must complete a Personal Qualification Essay as well as a communications screening. They have to complete a background investigation, polygraph exam and be able to pass a physical abilities test. Once the candidate has successfully completed the background and physical part of the exam, they have to attend a personal panel interview. If they are chosen to continue, the candidate must complete a medical and psychological evaluation. If they have successfully cleared all tests, exams and background checks, candidates are selected as a recruit and attend the Los Angeles Police Academy where they will be trained to assimilate to the culture. Each recruit is required to attend the six-month training program and then assigned to a field training officer for one year. In the first year of training, rookie officers are taught the ideologies and “codes”. In their 2011 research article titled “Learning To Be a Police Officer”, Karp and Stenmark explains ideologies as “a term for conceptions about what the ultimate purpose of police work should be, how the work should be done, and how its content should be communicated to police students” (Karp & Stenmark, 2011, p.7). A position in law enforcement is not just a panel interview and a review of reference checks, it’s a rigorous and thorough evaluation of a person’s character, past history and character traits. It’s also evident that law enforcement leaders start grooming new recruits on the “us vs. them” philosophy very early in a recruit’s career.
In research of law enforcement, it’s not hard to see where they belong in Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. The group of law enforcement in California is a highly collectivist group that is centered on large power distance and operates under a masculine culture. Leadership in law enforcement is expressive because of the risk associated with the position. As a collective group, officers are taught to care about other officers as if they were family members. The group is so cohesive that their “family” is referred to the “Blue Brotherhood”. Karp and Stenmark describe how law enforcement personnel follow codes “as the value content that individual police students or new police officers have to embrace in order to be accepted by their colleagues and feel at home in their training or professional lives (cf., Nilsson, 1988). Codes regulate the behavior of individuals at the collective level by defining the attitudes and conduct that the collective either rewards or finds unacceptable” (Karp & Stenmark, 2011, p. 7). The power distance among law enforcement is large and following the chain of command is expected at all times. There are eight ranks ranging from the newest officer which is a police technician and the highest ranking as the Chief of Police. The rankings show respect for leadership and knowledge in the field. The culture of law enforcement is masculine. Law enforcement personnel are expected to be assertive and direct in dealing with the public and less focused on relationship building and interpersonal activities.
During review of the 2017 statistics surrounding law enforcement, the Public Policy Institute of California reports that 66% of Californians think that minorities do not receive equal treatment in the criminal justice system. The opinion is shared by all ethnic and racial groups including 60% of whites and 90% of African Americans (Martin & Lofstrom, 2018). Law enforcement is stereotyped as aggressive, negative, disrespectful and prejudiced. As a representative of the state, police officers are expected to build relationships in the communities they serve, but how is that possible if the public views officers so negatively? In 2017, Gordijn, Vacher and Kuppens researched the effects of meta-stereotyping and how the negative views of officers by the public affect how officers interact with citizens. The writers explain how each group responded to other based on biases and stereotypes “During contact, people are guided by how they perceive the other group and how they think the other group perceives them” (p.255). Interestingly, even if a citizen has only experienced positive interactions with officers, the stereotypes that people have about officers may influence how they feel, think, and act towards them. The daily stress that officers face has a psychological and behavioral consequence. Officers interact with a community member who have already stereotyped them to be aggressive, so in response, citizens respond negatively and aggressively. In the 2017 article titled “To Serve and Protect When Expecting To Be Seen Negatively: The Relation Between Police Officers' Contact With Citizens, Meta‐Stereotyping, and Work‐Related Well‐Being”, Gordijn, Vacher and Kuppens state that “Police officers working in stressful situations could experience negative well‐being, as evidenced by being more cynical, dissatisfied, exhausted, and a higher likelihood to suffer from high blood pressure” (Gordijn et al., 2017, p. 254). They continue and explain that officers may also display absenteeism and receive more complaints from citizens. High levels of stress can result in aggression and violence and in turn, lead to a lack of support for law enforcement in general (p. 254).
The lack of support for law enforcement causes a barrier to building relationships with the public and negatively impacts both the officers and community members. Gordijn, Vacher and Kuppens state that “When police officers have many negative contacts with citizens, they may be likely to develop prejudice and negative stereotypes of citizens” (p.255). As previously stated, law enforcement can develop health problems, unprofessional habits and display a lack of compassion and empathy for the citizens that officers have sworn to protect. Officers can also develop “mental ruts”. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word rut means “a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change.” If an officer is only experiencing negative and sometimes violent interactions with citizens of their community, an officer’s view of others can come from a closed-minded space. A mental rut halts an officer’s perspective from shifting and they begin to see all citizens as possible criminals, violent offenders or someone who has motives to hurt an officer. Similarly, if an officer is already displaying a lack of trust when interacting with citizens, then a normal reaction is for citizens to become defensive and fearful. Unfortunately, this pattern of behavior has become more evident to the general public through social media and news outlets. However, only the officer’s maladaptive behavior is highlighted and the lack of citizen support becomes justified. If citizens and law enforcement were able to try to use some conflict management approaches such as confronting the issues and communicating, they would be able to see that the actions and reactions from both sides of the issues stems from a lack of support, fear, and stereotyping.
There seems to be a very clear message of discrimination towards law enforcement. It is not a policy; it’s a country-wide view. As the George Floyd protests continue to envelope our society, there are some statistics that are missing. In May 2020, the FBI released the 2019 statistics of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. Sadly, 89 officers were killed in the line-of-duty incidents and 48 of those officers died because of a felonious event. Felonious events are described as tactical situations such as hostage situations, serving search and arrest warrants, responding to robberies and premeditated ambushes. Of the 48 officers killed, 44 of them were killed by an assailant with a handgun, rifle, or shotgun. Out of the 48 murders of officers, 36 assailants had prior criminal arrests and 12 were under the control of judicial supervision such as on parole or on probation. It seems that police officers face the same uncertainty that is described by members of society who feel that they are being profiled by police. It seems that police are also profiled for violence. It is clear that law enforcement and citizens have similar concerns for their own safety, distrust one another, and are losing belief in a system that has failed to protect them. Each group has also screamed for justice, equality and fair treatment. Really, our society has been shouting for the same basic human rights for over 100 years. But most recently, protesters gathered for civil unrests in 1992 during the Rodney King riots. Politicians responded the same way as they are today by recognizing that there is a side in the argument that is to be demonized and a side of the argument that this is to remain victimized. The solution to dismantle Parker Center, redirect law enforcement dollars and re-evaluate the penal system didn’t work in 1992 and it will not be a solution in 2020. But how does the healing begin? Leadership must acknowledge that when we are publicly pressured to only see one side of an issue, it creates a bias blind spot that has dire consequences.
In Diversity Consciousness, Deborah Tannen explains that Americans settle differences by “Finding fault rather than solving a problem, having an argument rather than making an argument and winning the argument rather than understanding another point of view” (Bucher, 2015, p.208). Politicians, high ranking law enforcement and community leaders must come together to discuss how to abolish a system that has clearly divided our nation and has put many lives at risk. Mediation has to begin somewhere and if law enforcement is the first to extend the olive branch, then society also has a responsibility to take their finger off the trigger and open their hand. Law enforcement can train in diverse conscious leadership programs and use conflict management tools to help open dialogue between both groups, but community leaders must also have a desire to meet and collaborate on a solution. If our nations leaders could see that a broken system has created the same fears, anxieties and has resulted in numerous, senseless deaths among law enforcement members and community members, then they would be able find a solution that is based on inclusion rather than segregation.
In reflection, as society searches for answers to complex questions, makes revolutionary demands that are necessary and continue the fight for equality and justice, it’s enormously important to remember that the enemy in the fight is a broken system. A system that has oppressed many people from different backgrounds and social classes - it’s not a human being wearing a uniform and badge.
References
Bucher, R. D., & Bucher, P. L. (2015). Diversity consciousness: opening our minds to people, cultures, and opportunities. Boston: Pearson.
Gordijn, E. H., Vacher, L., & Kuppens, T. (2017). “To serve and protect” when expecting to be seen negatively: The relation between police officers’ contact with citizens, meta-stereotyping, and work-related well-being. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 27(3), 253–268.
http://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd
Karp, S., & Stenmark, H. (2011). Learning to be a police officer. Tradition and change in the training and professional lives of police officers. Police Practice & Research, 12(1), 4–15.
Martin, B., & Lofstrom, M. (2018). Law Enforcement Staffing in California. October.