Cultural Influences Affected the Interaction Between Officers and Residents

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Introduction

One of the fundamentals of policing is upholding the individual rights of citizens and preventing others from violating them. It is required that all public authorities protect and promote human rights. In addition, to become a more tolerant society, one that respects diversity and the basic dignity of all, one has to be culturally aware and tolerant towards others. To achieve this communication, especially cross-culture communication has to be understood in this world of increasing globalization. To begin with, organizations like police departments have to have a basic understanding of the subject of communication.

Interpersonal situation

People in any organization or society spend most of their time in an interpersonal situation. This is most often the root of organizational or social problems. Successful communication is a necessary element of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, inter-group, intra-group, organizational, or external levels.

Communication process

Communication is simply a process of sending information from one being or group of persons to another. It is of fundamental value to an organization because it often involves people of all walks of life be it be police, residents, employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, creditors, debtors, reporters, tax authorities, local government and national government officials. Superior communication will make sure that all these people and institutions comprehend the message sent. It will help in a favorable response to the message if it appears to be reasonable and fair to both the receiver and the sender (Kar, 2006).

There are many hindrances or a number of sources of problems that can be the cause of improper communication processes. A few of them are language, self-protectiveness, unclear perceptions, misunderstanding of body language, self-fulfilling assumptions, pre- assumptions, perceptual biases, Cultural Differences, etc.

Cultural differences

Cultural differences in public life often become hindrances in effective communication that requires understanding the basic values, intention, aspirations, and suppositions that operate across physical or regional lines. Taking into account some vivid differences across cultures in their approach to such subjects as time, space, and privacy, the opportunities for miscommunication while we are in cross-cultural situations are abundant.

These cultural differences are often a problem in miscommunication between police and residents. It gives people different ways of thinking by means of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world or surroundings. Thus, the same words can mean different things to different people from different cultures, even when they talk the “same” language (King, 2006).

Residents with cultural differences

Residents with cultural differences these frames of reference or world understanding, that provide a backdrop that all new information is compared to or inserted into. Each type of resident as well as police has its own culture and its own rules about the proper meaning of behavior, which affects verbal and nonverbal communication. In some cultures eye-to-eye contact can be a gesture of understanding in other cultures it can mean ways of dominance. In addition, cultures make conform to the display of emotions differently. Few cultures may get very excited when they are debating an issue. They might shout, cry or show their anger, fear, frustration, and other feelings openly. Then there are cultures that belief in keeping their emotions controlled and hidden, exhibiting emotions might be unacceptable. Without proper understanding, police can make out a simple display of excited emotional state as an exhibition of disobedience.

Example

Here is a simple example of a similar situation in India. In India, there are 15 official languages numerous sublanguages. Police officers from North India when come to serve in South India, face problem due to cultural difference. Like for instance, nodding head left to right in North India means “NO”, but “Yes” in South India. North Indians are extroverts compared to South Indians, so their gestures and the behavioral output look offensive to people of that region, with often complaints of unruly behavior exhibited by the concerned Deputy General of Police. Due to these reasons, now local police officers are often preferred.

In the same lines in 2000 a report, “An Evaluation of Efforts to Strengthen Police-Resident Relations in El Centro, California: A Final Report”, complied due to increased differences in Californian residents and police force. In the process, they interviewed 600 residents randomly. With highlights (1) social and cultural characteristics of El Centro residents, (2) resident perceptions of police, and (3) the effects of the El Centro Police Department’s intervention in the Northeast beat. It found that due o proximity to Mexico, most were Mexican American, 66% were English speaking and one-third Spanish speaking. Due to this, there was a wide range of cultural variations. In addition, understandingly, 29% felt police was intimidating and had less faith, were not sure officers would tell the truth when testifying in court. Most residents wanted police to be bi-lingual (Lamb, 2004).

Methods

There are several ways to solve the problem as cited by US justice Dept in 1990. One technique often employed to solve the problem is Community Policing, where minority neighborhood is not viewed as terrain to be controlled and occupied. It is based on community support and interaction to make the community crime-free. Community collaborating in similar lines is an attempt, which emphasizes from just writing reports to developing interpersonal skills to connect people of all ages and make collaborative responses to the issues concerned. This can be done by one-on-one contacts between the police and the residents, chipping in community meetings, surveying residents about their issues and objectives through personal contact, mail or phone.

Language

As in the case of In El Centro, California, the study indicates language is a serious problem, here, in this case, the department should ensure mechanisms for availability for non-Spanish speaking officers to become bilingual. The department might consider an option for making tuitions available for language learning. In this particular case, El Centro Police Department and San Diego State University have gone under collaboration, for cultural understanding.

Interaction

In addition, it is found in many cities in the country, the prevailing interaction between residents and poke is residents seeing officers drive by in patrol cars. Community meetings and ‘’knock and talks” can improve residents’ familiarity with police and help develop perceptions of police performance and professionalism. Such efforts will help promote and improve police-resident partnerships. This in turn helps in reducing crime and improving the quality of life in neighborhoods.

Process of development

In the aim to make the police department more professional the police, it needs to develop a set of values. As a beginning, it has to create a departmental culture with a set of values. Such values will help serve a wide range of purposes. Few of them are

Create a departmental philosophy of policing
Defining clearly the objectives and beliefs of the department;
Devising in definite terms the goals of the police department;
Reflecting the resident’s hope of the department;
Create an ideology of serving as a basis for developing policies and procedures of the police department;
Clearly defining the factors for organizational flexibility to deal with situations;
Defining the rules for operational strategies;
Making the framework for quantifying officer performance and appraisal;
Making the framework for intradepartmental performance evaluation. (King, 2006)

Cross-cultural problems

In view of problems of cross-cultural problems, there is a need for change in recruitment policy. As we already discussed, now a day’s society is by large multi-ethnic. The police department is also is part of the same society so it needs to reflect the society. In addition, evidently, every police department will benefit if it reflects society. Therefore, the police department should make a concentrated effort for minority recruitment and make changes in personnel recruitment policy to suit the multi-ethnic they are serving. It needs to be well organized, and it is often found that recruitment from local colleges has often proven beneficial. The best-recruited team will be diverse in race and sex, reflecting the kind of personnel a unit wants as police officers as well as society. In addition, a little publicity will only increase the image of the police department.

Recruitment

When recruiting, a key target would be minority youth. Even some sops could be offered by relaxing few obstacles to the application program. A cadet-training program will prove beneficial. Imparting these cadets with language programs will also help build many cohesive police-resident relations.

Conclusion

The world over, the presence of cross-culture communication problems is common due to the ever-changing demographics of the world and globalization, and people residing far away from home for livelihood. In addition, as increasingly police departments’ world over facing the problem, have been trying to solve the problems in one way or another as described above.

References

Kar, P; (2006). History of Community Policing and Related Applications. Kolkata: Dasgupta & Chatterjee.
King, H. (2006). Principals Today. Auckland: HBT & Brooks Ltd.
Lamb, D. (2004). Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization. Wellington: National Book Trust.

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