Policing multicultural states: lessons from the Canadian model (original) (raw)

Police, Politics, and Culture in a Deeply Divided Society

Policing in Israel, 2015

This Article deals with minorities'perceptions of the police in "deeply divided societies." These societies are generally characterized by political disagreements, and the literature shows that most researchers emphasize the centrality of the political variable in order to understand policeminority interactions. This Article acknowledges the centrality of the political variable and adds a cultural variable that may improve the understanding of police-minority relations in a deeply divided society. In some societies, the disparity in the perceptions of majority and minority groups cannot be attributed solely to the political variable, but also to cultural differences. This is especially prominent in the case of native or immigrant minorities. Hence, it is reasonable to expect that this cultural pluralism will be reflected in minorities' interaction with and its perception of the police. Findings from a survey conducted in Israel indicate that political disagreements between Jews and Arabs have negatively affected the Arab minority's perceptions of the police. This Article also shows that the Arab minority group is not homogenous in regard to their relationship with the police; there are significant political and cultural differences among Arab subgroups (Muslim, Christian, and Druze). The Druze hold similar political orientations to the Jewish majority, and consequently their perceptions of the police were found to be more positive than those of Muslim Arabs. Nevertheless, both Druze and Muslim Arabs expressed

Policing Diversity: Themes and Concerns from the Recent British Experience

Police Quarterly, 2002

The aim of this article is to provide an overview of the recent development of the notion of "policing diversity" in England and Wales. In addition to outlining why policing diversity has become a preeminent theme in current debates about policing, the article explores central conceptual issues and argues that it does represent a fundamental break with long-standing notions such as "policing by consent." However, it argues that, taken to its logical conclusions, the concept might raise serious problems for the police service. Although concern about police relations with sections of the community in the United Kingdom has been particularly salient since the urban unrest of the 1980s and, arguably, has become the single most important issue of debate in the aftermath of the public inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, it is worth noting that police-community relations have been fraught with difficulty since the foundation of modern police forces in the mid-19th century. Similar concerns have applied in many other societies and have been a major issue in the United States for many decades (Barlow & Barlow, 2001). Historians have demonstrated that various sections of the public in Britain have been understood as problematic for the police during particular periods (Emsley, 1996; Reiner, 2000). In the early decades of the modern policing era, the "dangerous classes" located in urban slums were widely regarded as a threat to the police and to "respectable society" more generally (Morris, 1994). In the century or so between the foundation of the modern police and the beginning of large-scale migration to Britain from the Commonwealth, Irish people, Jews from Eastern Europe, and Arab and African seaman, among others, were in various ways understood as difficult

Roundtable: Studies of Policing Should Extend to Communities and across Borders

Methodological conversation with Nicole Nguyen and Alex Vitale, 2022

Police forces are a popular research subject in anthropology, sociology, and other related disciplines. Using participant observation—the methodology of ethnography—scholars have sought to understand the motives, mores, cultural practices, and identities of police officers. But what if traditional ethnographic techniques are not enough to understand the institution of the police, in its totality? Three academics in this roundtable who have used ethnographic techniques to study the police—two in the United States, and one in Turkey—argue that it is no longer adequate to research the police at the level of the station or the squad car. While there is value to this work, these researchers argue that it is limited, and can miss the full range of sites and actors that policing involves, including connections across jurisdictions and international borders. Instead, ethnographies of the police need to explore the cultural and political context of policing. Research should also expand the pool of subjects it considers, and acknowledge the different perspectives that the choice of subjects can offer—depending, for example, on whether those subjects are low-ranking officers, decision-makers, or people or institutions affected by policing. Each research relationship has its own entanglements and methodological and ethical challenges. Researching the police from multiple angles shows that security regimes are global and that the distinction between domestic and foreign policy is not always clear. The definition of a potential threat to national security should not be taken for granted; nor should overtures about friendlier policing be taken at face value. A broader ethnography of the police also reveals how approaches to policing have become transnational, especially since 9/11, and have penetrated into new corners of daily life.

Community Policing - Diversity Engaged and Embedded Multicultural Community Policing DEEM-COP

Police Chief , 2020

Discrimination in the society and Intersections of Race, Gender, Faith, Caste, Poverty and other forms of Social hierarchies create multiple vulnerabilities which lead to violence, fear and subjugation of individuals and communities. If enough investments are not made in police training and capacity building to get engaged with communities and their ways of life in multicultural social environments , the police service delivery can become biased due to inheritance of wider social; prejudices in policing sub cultures. The police training and capacity building must counter these trends by making efforts in anti prejudice measures, neutralizing the inherent biases and creating a respectful engagement of the police with diversity of social life, human rights of each individual and community. The police practices must co-produce and co-create cultures of community policing which are sustainable examples of democratic policing. The Community Policing approach using an interface with community based groups, recruiting volunteers from the different social groups and minorities and intensive partnership building with them helps in creating a transparent, socially sustainable and accountable relationship which creates a acceptable form of multi cultural policing which co produces security and access to justice based outcomes . This approach forms a viable example of 'policing by consent', 'police legitimacy' and 'inter-sectional policing' which can counter 'implicit bias' and build an atmosphere of police trust. The viability of these community policing solutions are shown through an example of the practices in the state of Madhya Pradesh in India to substantiate a model of multi cultural policing.

Policing alienated minorities in divided cities

Regulation & Governance, 2018

Minority groups frequently challenge the legitimacy of legal authorities, particularly the police. Without trust and legitimacy, the police encounter constant conflict and cannot function effectively. While past research has examined minorities' perceptions of the police, national minorities provide an interesting and under-investigated test case because of their inherent identity conflict with the state. The current research examines three factors to explain minority-majority disparities in views of the police: (i) police effectiveness and fairness; (ii) intergroup discrimination (termed relative deprivation in policing); and (iii) identification with the state. Findings from a survey of Jewish and Arab residents of nationally mixed neighborhoods in Israel (n = 394) suggest that while all of these factors account for minority-majority discrepancies in views of the police, perceptions of police fairness are particularly important. Furthermore, feelings of discrimination and low levels of identification with the state are less important than evaluations of fairness in explaining minorities' negative perceptions of the police.

Determinants of Police Strength in Canadian Cities: Assessing the Impact of Minority Threat

Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 2015

The minority threat proposition posits that growth in the size of minority populations results in a corresponding increase in the amount of formal social control. Recent research in other nations has shown a clear and consistent relationship between the size of subordinate populations and the deployment of the police as well as increased law enforcement spending. This study examined the relationships between six indicators of minority populations and both the ratio of police officers to residents and per capita policing expenditures in the 66 largest Canadian cities. Inconsistent with the results of recent U.S. and European studies, indicators of population heterogeneity were not significantly associated with police strength or spending. Levels of police-reported violent crime and population density, however, were strongly associated with both measures of police strength. Police strength was also positively associated with cities that had municipal police services, higher unemployment rates as well as the percentage of conservative voters in provincial elections. Implications for the development of theories of formal social control are discussed.

Policing Ethnic Minorities: Disentangling a Landscape of Conceptual and Practice Tensions

Springer eBooks, 2019

The policing of ethnic minorities has been a challenge for law enforcement agencies. After decades of research, inquiries into policing, policy-making, and attempts at changing practice, some progress has been made, but we are still far from an ideal picture of equity and procedural fairness. Conceptually, and in practice, issues of racial profiling, institutional racism, and over-policing still plague the everyday police business. The many innovative initiatives to increase trust and accountability, build confidence, and close gaps between ethnic minorities and police officers are commendable. However, they go but a small step into the right direction. Some further efforts are needed toward human rights policing and