Introduction
The enforcement of law in a multicultural society is a controversial issue when one resides in societies that are diverse where competing cultures, national identities, and religion challenge the present order and prior to a peace officer developing the abilities and techniques to overcome the community`s prejudices, biases, and engage with the community`s diversity.
Multiculturalism and diversity are the focal point of the universe and describe accurately the demographics of a nation. Multiculturalism doesn’t describe a movement or a political force but rather a community that is comprised of different ranges of ethnic and racial groups. Responses to these changes in the world range from appreciation and celebration of these diverse differences to a complete intolerance of the same differences. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of peace officers to assist with multicultural communities in disaster and terrorism.
Police officers play a vital role in maintaining safety and welfare of the country`s citizens and the government. Law enforcement I a service a service career in essence and the time engaged in fight against crime is a crucial role of law enforcement.
Peace officers support with multicultural communities as people from various cultural heritages help in breaking down the presumed cultural barriers and can aid multicultural understanding among communities. Multicultural communities tend to respond and associate well with peace officers from similar cultural heritage.
In the occurrence of a disaster, peace officers are adequately trained for crisis counseling assistance so as to assist in treatment for the emotional and psychological needs of those who have been affected. The services offered by these peace officers are designed to help individuals cope with their present circumstances, identification of the available options and developing a plan for the affected to get back to their feet.
Peace officers should assist in provision of a constant flow of credible information to the local community in the occurrence of a terrorist incident or homeland security disaster. Clearly, gainful relationships have been formed with the multicultural community leaders and the residents, in such a case, the law enforcement agency would not be in question.
The sources of media used to convey information should include those that are mostly used by the common population especially that media broadcast used by the specific multicultural groups in their specific languages of the communities.
In addition, for the peace officers to be prepared for any occurrence of security issues or disaster, critical strategies that need to be addressed include;
- Intelligence and warning – this is important to law enforcement agencies as they get to act promptly to secure and prevent any kind of threat that is bound to happen.
- Border and Transportation security – Surveillance across borders should be heightened as these are the entry points of terrorists and criminal groups into the nation.
- Domestic counter-terrorism
This is important as it reduces, prevents, and even limits the community`s vulnerability to attack. Community assessment requires careful and progressive measures to locate and measure the risks involved in a particular region. Such community assessments should involve analyzing and reviewing all the localities that are likely to be potential targets for terrorism and efforts to improve the security of these regions.
Emergency preparedness and response
It is the role of local and regional peace officers to minimize and recover from further terrorist attacks in the future that are likely to occur despite the efforts put in place for prevention. Experiences encountered in the past have shown that preparedness efforts are essential in the provision of an effective bounce back from a disaster occurrence.
Training multicultural community law enforcement agencies
It has been noted by law enforcement professionals that if left unchecked, the prejudices and actions based on them, may result in humiliation, citizen complaints, and missed opportunities for building an endurable long-term police-community relationships important for homeland security. Stereotypes and prejudices if left unattended become more pronounced when danger, fear, and personal threat arise, as this may occur in the event of terrorism incidents.
These trainings should go a long way in heightening the awareness of individuals on issues of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction which include; chemical, radiological, biological, and nuclear weapons. These weapons would cause great harm and result in a large number of casualties, contamination, mass psychological disruption, and could overwhelm the medical capacities of the state.
The awareness of terrorism situations, cues, and warnings of possible attacks are not particularly what local law enforcement personnel and agencies encounter every day. Therefore, terrorist related awareness training has to be put to practice and put to use as an elevated approach to heighten the skill level and awareness of the local law enforcement officers. The multicultural communities in the nation would bear the most vulnerable since their vulnerabilities were evident during natural disasters such as hurricanes Rita and Katrina.
Community policing approaches
These community policing approaches have proven to be of value while working with multicultural community groups. This aids in learning their concerns, needs, and problems. These resources developed in these communities, assist in bringing up intelligence gathered throughout the community in regards to terrorism intelligence.
This is done through community meetings to discuss preventive strategies, use of material to aid the identification and recognition of terrorism suspects, public awareness and vigilance, ensuring the community possesses the knowledge of how to process of information reliance to the police and encouragement of crime prevention. The law enforcement agencies are in an excellent position to prevent the erosion of positive community policing ties with the multicultural community members who in particular may have concerns and complaints regarding issues of prejudice, unfairness, bias, and discrimination.
Another role which has change over time is the boundary less policing. It has brought about great differences in the way the law enforcement agencies communicate with each other. This involves the set-up of the emergency response systems in new dimensions. For instance; A National Incident Management System (NIMS) as a tool has been set up by the Federal Emergency Agency (FEMA) for the purpose of communication across all agencies involved in an incident and to communicate amongst them. This was after the 9/11 World Trade Center incident in which all the emergency responders found it difficult to communicate with each other.
Every law enforcement officer is required to familiarize with the National Incident Management System. The incident system created has benefits such as; standard command and management structures, unified approach to incident management, mutual aid and resource management, and emphasis on preparedness. The important aspect of NIMS is that it provides the framework for a more co-operative network among organizations to prepare, protect against, respond to attacks, and recover from the attacks by terrorists groups.
Reference
Shusta, R. M. (2011). Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Pearson Education/Prentice Hall.
Multicultural law enforcement: Strategies for peacekeeping in a diverse society. (2011). Boston: Prentice Hall.
