Allegations of excessive force by police departments in the United States have continued to generate large media coverage across the nation. After the Rodney King incident in 1991, public outcry regarding the use of excessive force was thrown into public view causing reform in law enforcement. As the years continued, incidents of police brutality have continued to plague the nation. In the state of Ferguson, the fatal shooting of Michael Brown occured at the hands of officer, Darren Wilson, which set off giant unrest and protests within their communities. In addition, Eric Garner, a citizen of New York, was also killed by a local officer through the use of a brutal “chokehold” sparking even more outrage. Countless cases of police brutality …show more content…
For instance, as seen in the Ferguson Police Department report conducted by the Department of Justice, the police department of Ferguson had a large “emphasis on revenue generation [which had] a profound effect on FPD’s approach to law enforcement” (2) . Rather than to see its residents as citizens, officers of Ferguson had viewed its inhabitants, particularly African Americans, as potential offenders and sources of revenue. This type of environment influences officers beyond just simply ticketing. Officers now expect and demand compliance even when they lack the legal authority to enforce it. To demonstrate, programs such as CompStat (a management data system for police departments) have led to a “numbers driven “mentality for officers in New York and other metropolitan areas. Instead of upholding honorable values, programs such as CompStat have led to officers manipulating crime statistics, and changing complaints for crimes in several categories. In fact, officers have conducted over half a million forcible stops, mostly of innocent people to fulfill the statistics that CompStat requires (Rashbaum …show more content…
In today’s police departments, the percentage of white officers on the force is more than 30 percent higher than in the communities they serve, as seen in a government survey of police departments (Ashkenas, Jeremy, and Haeyoun Park 1). Thus, minorities only make up a small quarter of police forces. Through racial diversification, charges of racial discrimination by police would be lowered. According to Ronald Weitzer, a Professor of Sociology at George Washington University, “a diverse law enforcement agency can better develop relationships with the community it serves, promote trust in the fairness of law enforcement, and facilitate effective policing by encouraging citizen support and cooperation” (22). A diverse police force can also help to decrease the belief that individuals are stopped and questioned by officers because of their race. When officers and citizens are of the same race, encounters between white officers and minority citizens may be perceived as less racialized when departments have a larger mass of minority officers. A diverse police force can ultimately reduce the perception that certain actions, such as stops or searches, are based on racial profiling (Weitzer 23). In addition, research shows that minority officers are also better equipped to understand and communicate with minority citizens, thus there is less social