Policing, either through service or force, should not be momentously substandard for particular social groups and the rest. The statistical evidence by prominent researchers have indicated that individuals seen as white have a more suitable experience of police in comparison with individuals whose decent lies in Africa or Asia. Current shift in emigration patterns have called for a reconceptualization of the perception of individuals belonging to ethnic minority groups. Indeed, it is a matter of difference that has turned out to be predominant in modern societies (Cao, 2014).
Current Statistics and Historical Developments
These kind of conceptual shifts have worsen the cordial relationship between the public and police from marginalized ethnic communities. According to recent studies, persons from the minority communities are over-represented at virtually every stage of criminal justice procedure, excessively targeted by the police. Also, they are more probable to be jailed for long periods than white British (Wu, 2013).
Discrimination in Policing
The Asian and black communities experience in British society went through a fundamental reforms during the recent years. While a few individuals from minority ethnic groups were represented in civil service, sports, politics and business during 1960s, no Asian and Black police officers existed at all (Doering, 2015). Whereas they are extremely under-represented currently, they make a considerable participation to political, social and economic life of British nation and are gradually building a better representative portion of criminal justice system.
Xenophobic attitudes, racist beliefs and racial believes are however still prevalent in Britain society. Although the most evident kinds of racism are rare, anti-immigrants feelings, racist attitudes and xenophobic values encompass a powerful and deep well-spring where to draw. It could be anticipated that some police officers are racially prejudiced if they are a cross-section of society. Consistent with the research carried out during 1970s, 1980s, and the beginning of 1990s, racial and racism prejudice in police values became more extreme and widespread than in broader society. The outcome of the study indicates that racialist talk and racial prejudice were expected, pervasive, accepted and ever trendy whereas views of populace from ethnic minorities and backing for predominant political parties were widespread (Cao, 2014).
Over the past three decades, research evidence has identified that particular stereotypes are often employed by police brigadiers to classify civilians in terms of their ethnic origin. As pointed in the studies, Asians were mostly considered as liars, devious, and prospective illegal migrants (Sadd & Grinc, 2011). The flexibility of stereotypes of Asians and especially Muslim community has been documented in current stud, which has claimed that perception Muslims have gone through a transformation. The assumption of stereotypes that Asian societies were communist is currently believed to be less useful and rather, the same stereotypes assumed to explicate law-abiding behavior are currently believed to encourage deviant and criminal involvement among Asian youth. The change in the perception of those particular groups has been situated in both indigenous and global concept of Asian youth as progressively engaged in disorderly, gangs, riotous, violent, and recently as potential terrorists (Wu, 2013).
Stop and Search
According to recent findings, individuals from minority groups are more probable to be stopped-and-searched by white British citizens. The inequality varies between numerous stop-and-search powers. During 2011, police were 30 times more likely to apply ‘Section 60’ stop-and-search power, in which officers do not need suspicion of the individual having participated in an offence) against black groups than white groups. In the year 2013 to 2014, 59% individuals stopped by Metropolitan Police Service of London were either Asian British or Black British (Ortmeier & Meese, 2012).
Arrests
About 1.05 million arrests carried out by police in Wales and London in March 2014. The total number of arrests during this time declined by 3% in comparison with the previous year: 79% of those arrested constituted self-defined white persons, 6% Asian British and 8% Black people. Equally, local forces like Metropolitan Police registered increased arrests of United Kingdom’s minority population with 25% of overall arrests from 201 to 2014 of Asian or Black citizens.
In 2014, Black individuals were almost 3-times more likely to get arrested than white individuals. In relation to JENGbA (joint enterprise, Not Guilty by Association), joint enterprise is disproportionally applied against minority groups. About 80% of prisoners are minority communities are from about 500 prisoners working with JENGbA (Wu, 2013).
Police Violence and Death in Custody
There is a reasonable amount of material questioning the degree which the police frequently adheres to code of ‘minimal use of force’ when they handle Asian, African, Caribbean, and other minority groups. In Cao (2014) studies, the death of black people came around either via use of oppressive control tactics or via lack of care. As noted by the (Ortmeier et al. (2012), there is a trend to obscure data on death in guardianship and to manufacture ‘official misinformation’ explaining the deaths as unintentional, or fault of the victim due to his or her behavior, abuse of drugs, or physical or mental condition. This diverts attention from police deviancy to queries of the victim’s deviancy. There is persuasive proof that racist assumptions concerning dangerous, drug addicts, out-of-control, or schizophrenics may cause police to oversee signs of physical ailment which are not treated and cause heartbreaking mortalities (Sadd et al., 2011).
Police forces have characterized extensive local authorities to stop and search people who are suspected of criminal intent since the 19th Century. In 1970s, what was known as ‘sus’ laws allowed the police officers to arrest and charge persons under the Vagrancy Act 1824 for loitering or frequenting in a public venue with intention to commit crime. Evidence showed the extremely heavy application of these authorities against individuals from marginalized ethnic communities, especially youthful Black population (Wu, 2013).
Past Policing Challenges
Policing had grew from a politically controlled and directed state of social control, even though a professional or reform model concentrated on reactive crime control to problem-oriented and new forms of community policing eras. Criticizers of the community era lamented that community focus and problem-solving was illusory instead of real, with ‘business-usual’ (Doering, 2015) the actuality. Also, police challenges in defining and interacting with their communities was another weakness of the community policing era (Sadd et al., 2011).
Reform and political era – controlling police by local political figures, conflict between local ward leaders and urban reformers regarding law enforcement regulating corruption generated a constant struggle to control police in the ending of 19th to early 20th –centuries.
Police in the past encountered other numerous challenges such as, inability access unlimited information, deficient training and education, inability to share experiences and ideas worldwide and inadequate understanding of what policing may cause to quality of life of the country (Ortmeier et al., 2012).
The requirements on police were continuous, convincing and frequently competed, thus it was not often clear how police resources and skills can suitably be deployed in order to attain the civility, security and order which the public demands. Acting before reflecting through and planning a sequence of action was as getting on a difficult journey with no map. Most likely, police may get lost. Therefore, police must begin by fixing on final destination and plan how to reach there, the type of resources required, and how to overcome difficulties that you will probably encounter on the way (Cao, 2014).
Current Policing Challenges (policing challenges of the 21st century)
The events that are mostly considered to become challenges of the following century are identified by intellectual and regular study of what is happening in civilization. Plentiful information at any one time is accessible to police on the economy fluctuations, government strategies, shifts in social attitudes, migration of the people and birth and fatality rate. Such information analysis is equivalent to the collecting and analyzing criminal intelligence, though it cast a far broader net with a perception to planning operational and organizational strategy instead of identifying certain criminal activity.
Other new policing issues incorporate preventing terrorism, both internally and neighboring states, controlling arrival of refugees, peace-keeping in failing governments, and response to new technological and economic crimes. Correspondingly, police are increasingly take part to address social challenges, like responding to embedded disadvantaged in native communities, perceived escalation in social behavior, and people having mental illnesses. The above new problems have emerged against the contextual of continuing ‘old’ crime issues of violence, drugs and property crimes (Wu, 2013).
Modern policing is manifested by the divergence and uncertainty of offence control glitches in this social and cultural climate. Policing prior models can focus on comparatively known and stable classes of offenders and offences, and on traditional responses to them. The new challenges change quickly, rely on wide-ranging technological, social, economic and political factors, and necessitate new skills and flexible responses. Generally, the present models lack these attributes. Police organizations are constrained by their dependence on a paramilitary model that has failed to adapt well to foreign demands for accountability or change (Doering, 2015).
Future Challenges
The expected technological advancement in today and the future may influence how police access and respond to crimes. A barrier to adapt to security and safety web may pose problems in implementing police strategies. It is the challenge to match necessary to be more efficient in addressing fresh crimes like cybercrimes while being able to successfully respond to conventional offences need for service. Increased cases of cyber-attacks, such as racist or ethnic online posts, may pose significant mitigating challenges to police who have less training in the future (Ortmeier et al., 2012).
Also, rapid increase in population may cause shortage policing shortages since there will be insufficient police force to support the demographic trend. Another challenge will be caused by inadequate funding to facilitate police operations, particularly in developing nations. Furthermore, emerging trend of hostilities and lack of corporation among warring countries may pose inability to mitigate cross-border crimes (Sadd et al., 2011).
In addition, feeling of isolation among diverse religious groups, such as Muslims and Christians may elevate radicalization of youths, thus contributing to irreconcilable violence and mistrust in the society. As a result, police forces may be divided among these domain lines, worsening policing capability further (Wu, 2013).
References
Cao, L. (2014). The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America991Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam DeLone. The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America . Cincinnati, OH: Wadsworth Publishing Co 1996. 244 pp $15.95. Policing Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 22(3), 219-222. doi:10.1108/pijpsm.1999.22.3.219.1
Doering, J. (2015). Visibly White: How Community Policing Activists Negotiate Their Whiteness. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 2(1), 106-119. doi:10.1177/2332649215584829
Ortmeier, P. J., & Meese, E. (2012). Leadership, ethics, and policing: Challenges for the 21st century. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Sadd, S., & Grinc, R. M. (2011). Implementation challenges in community policing: Innovative Neighborhood-Oriented Policing in eight cities. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.
Wu, Y. (2013). Race/ethnicity and perceptions of the police: A comparison of White, Black, Asian and Hispanic Americans. Policing and Society, 24(2), 135-157. doi:10.1080/10439463.2013.784288
