Police Culture Essay

America is a very diverse place where people from all over the world choose to reside. With all of these different cultures blending together into one melting pot, we have to learn how to live with each other. For all these cultures to be able to dwell together, there needs to be order, rules, and guidelines established into the community. Without people that can fulfill those duties in a country there would be no kind of structure within the United States. The people who we count on to enforce these rules in the United States are the police. The citizens hold the police on a higher scale than regular civilians hold each other to. This takes places because civilians view the police in the United States on a pedestal because; they are the enforcers
Most people believe that the majority of the perception on police is negative. (Mirsky, 2009, p. 2) A survey conducted in 1999 concluded that more than one-third of United States citizens held positive attitudes toward their local police department. Although this perception is known to stay true till this day the minorities have an alternative viewing on the police. (Thomas & Burns 2005) “Throughout history ethnic and racial minorities have experienced discriminatory practices from law enforcement officials.” Minorities have a lower perception of the police due to the fact that they have more confrontations with police officers. Even though minorities have more confrontation with police officers still doesn’t answer why minorities more negatively perceive police. Another factor that come into play on minorities viewing of the police is the not just the amount of confrontations but, it’s the amount of negative confrontations. (Mirsky, 2009, p. 2) “Latinos and African Americans usually encounter excessive force from police, in addition to racial profiling in jurisdictions with a sizeable minority population.” To sum up the reason why minorities have a more negative reaction towards police is because they feel that police are constantly out to get them. The reason why the police have more contact with minorities is because police presence is a lot more needed in minority living areas. With that being stated it makes sense on why minorities have more interactions with the police. Even though all those interactions aren’t negative the chances of having a negative interaction with police officers increases within the minority