Welcome to AJ105-Community Relations

Mail to:

Rio Hondo College
Department of Public Safety
3600 Workman Mill Road
Whittier, CA 90608

Please  complete the discussion question for each unit.

Course Description: The course covers the role of modern police in a metropolitan community. It is intended for police science students and the general public, especially teachers, city employees, ministers, and others who are interested in the relationship between community welfare and law enforcement. Students majoring in Psychology, Sociology, Government, and Education can benefit from the subject matter presented.

Course Assignments

Unit 1- email your instructor and acknowledge due dates for completed work and final exams.

Unit 2---Define or discuss:

A.     The importance of police-community relations

B.     A current police-community relations program

C.     Factors affecting community relations

D.     The difference between external and internal communities  

• Defining Police-Community Relations
  There is no one "community" that is served by the police. Instead, there are numerous communities that make up an often indefinable "public." As a result, "public opinion" is usually not a clear consensus of viewpoint within a nations, state, county, or municipality but a chorus of differing opinions from various communities. Police-community relations are complicated and constantly changing interaction between representative of the police organization and an assortment of governmental agencies, public groups, and private individuals representing a wide range of competing and often conflicting interests.
• A Historical Perspective
  The concept of police-community relations is not a new one. When Sir Robert Peel undertook reform of the London police with the Metropolitan Police Act of 1829, he emphasized the police should work in cooperation with the people and that members of the office should protect the rights, serve the needs, and earn the trust of the population they police.
• Law Enforcement Code of Ethics
  Adopted by the Executive Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police on October 17, 1989, during its 96th Annual Conference, to replace the 1957 code of ethics adopted at the 64th Annual IACP Conference. Police officers will behave in a manner that does not bring discredit to their agencies or themselves.
• A Consortium of Communities
  A successful police-community relations must take into account exchange relationships among community groups located both within and without the police organization. The best means of enhancing relations with minority communities is not slick public relations programs presented by specialized units but the development of police forces that are carefully selected with trained, highly disciplined and representative of all communities served.
  

Unit 3---Define or discuss:

A.     The difference between public relations and community relations

B.     Two community relations programs from a local police agency

C.     The police officer’s role in a changing society

• Public Relations and or Community Relations
  The lack of agreement among law enforcement professionals has resulted in the development of programs and approaches to community relations that reflect the personal views of local administrators more than they reflect any widely accepted body of knowledge.
• Breadth of Agency Involvement
  Public relations is a tool of police management, not an essential component of operating philosophy. It is easily compartmentalized function, even though it attempts to represent all segments of the departmental activity. Community relations is a linking of the police to a wide array of the public’s interest.
• Why Public Relations Is Not Enough
  Public relations activities can and should be a part of a properly applied community relations program, but they cannot substitute for it.
• Role Concept
  The Policeman is a "Rorschach" in uniform as he patrols his beat. His occupational accoutrements-shield, night stick, gun, and summons book-clothe him in a mantle of symbolism that stimulates fantasy and projection. (Niederhoffer, 1967) Roles are distinct behavior patterns played in connection with a particular social position. Roles are either ascribed (not under the person’s control) or achieved (attained voluntarily).
  

Unit 4---Define or discuss:

A.     Social and physical hazards of police work

B.     Ways to effectively reduce stress

C.     Perceived code of silence

• The Working Personality
  Jerome Skolnic presented an analysis of how certain features (that he identifies in the police officer’s environment) interact with paramilitary structure of the typical police organization to produce what he calls a working personality.
• The Police Socialization Process
  Socialization theory holds that police behavior is learned from interactions with other police officers. The new officer must then reassess his/her personal viewpoints to determine whether or not to adopt what appears to be "police norms."
• Socialization Hazards
  The police officer’s role in society tends to alienate the officer from society as a whole. In contradiction, is that the police are more likely to isolate themselves than to be isolated by others. Most veteran officers grow weary of defending the police and withdraw into close associations with other officers. They withdraw into the police subculture, which provides "protective, supportive, and shared attitudes, values, understandings and views of the world."
• Health Hazards
  During the years 1981 through 1990, 762 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed within the United States. While the potential for violent death is relatively low for American law enforcement officers, the possibility of being injured due to violence is not. Accidents, and contagious diseases are also a contributing health hazard for officers.
• Emotional Distress
  The number one killer of New York City Police Officers is suicide. Substance abuse, stress, poor nutrition, and lack of exercise contributes to poor physical health of many of our officers. To keep and maintain a solid, well-trained police force, departments and individuals alike must be aware of the potential for problems, identify existing problems, and seek out or provide adequate treatment.
  

Unit 5---Define or discuss:

A.     The communication process

B.     Mediums of communication

C.     Problems in communications between the police and the public

• Communication in Action
  Communications is basic to the world we know. We transmit and receive information in our world, often without even being aware that we are doing so. Communication is a process through which messages are exchanged. Communications is effective only when these messages are mutually understood by the sender and receiver.
• The Process of Communications
  Communication begins with a source who has an idea (meaning) that he or she wishes to transmit to the receiver. The idea cannot be transmitted as an idea. It must be encoded into symbols (spoken or written words, gestures, pictures etc.).
• Modes of Interpersonal Communication
  There are three interpersonal channels of modes of communication: verbal, non-verbal, and symbolic.
• Kinesics and Proxemics Cues
  Communication by suspects through body language and use of social and personal space (kinesics) has saved many police officers lives and prevented may crimes. The authority figure sitting behind a desk places an obstacle between self and client. This use of proxemics says, "You must obey me. I am your superior."
• Symbolic Cues
  A symbol is something that stands for something else. As an example, the scales of justice convey the meaning that the system is blind to personal distinctions as it goes about evaluation evidence and judging guilt or innocence. The police uniform is a symbol of authority.
• Effective Communications
  To communicate effectively requires ongoing effort in sharpening of ones skills. Effective listening is a mental exercise and the act or power of perceiving sound. For the most part Americans are not effective listeners. Effective listening is an important skill required by police officers, a miscommunication between citizen and officer can have disastrous, if not fatal consequences.
• Communication Blocks
  Community distrust of the police, police distrust of community members, poor training of police, the structure of the police agency, and scapegoating.
  

Unit 6---Define or discuss:

A.     Officer discretion

B.     Selective enforcement and dangers therein

C.     Methods to ensure consistent discretionary decision making  

• Police Discretion
  Discretion is an exercise of individual choice or judgment. Discretion is personal, which means the individual experiences, education, style, goals, and ethics are all involved in the decision-making process. Discretion requires judgment, which means that some choice is made among perceived options.
• The Exercise of Discretion
  Exercising discretion in the police system affects all other parts of the justice system. Police officers many times during their working day will make decisions that in effect, suspend or modify statutory law.
• The Nature
  The nature of police selective and discriminatory enforcement affects society and alters the effectiveness of legislative law. The modern police officer walks a tightrope between the right of the community to be protected and the right of the individual to be left alone by government.
• Discretion on a Day-to-Day Basic
  Police officers day to day contact with the public and their application of discretion allows them to bend the law to fit a particular incident. In essence, the wear one of three important hats in the process, those of a legislator, prosecutor, and judge.
• Factors
  Factors that influence decision making at an operational level. Police officers are charged with responding directly to the citizens’ request for service and to public safety and order situations on the streets of the community. In most cases, they decide what action to take.
• Justification
  Justification for selective enforcement, and its impact on the community. The question of injustice with the use of selective enforcement decisions, in most cases the decisions are justified by police officers with a statement: "Strict enforcement of the law could result in injustice."
  

Unit 7---Define or discuss:

A.     Responsibility of the press vs. the police

B.     Integrity of the investigation vs. the public’s right to know

C.     Difficulties dealing with the young and elderly

• Massive media impact
  The problem with the media and the police is that it acts as a " go-between" or gatekeeper which selects and heightens certain kinds of information. Therefore, the "reality" of the media information may not be the reality of the real world.
• The police-community relations context
  Police-media concerns should be approached in the broader context of community relations because the nature of the police-media relationship is a community is integrally related to the nature of the larger police-community relationship.
• Conflict between the media and the police
  It is clear that accounts of sensational, violent crimes sell newspapers and draw attention to radio and television news. But do attempts by the media to report crime help or hinder police efforts to fight crime? The record is not clear.
• Clear need for guidelines
  The First Amendment guarantees an almost absolute right to print virtually anything, free of legal restraint. The Sixth Amendment, however guarantees every person the right to a fair trial, which means a trail by peers who have not been influence by prejudicial publicity before or during trial. The media must recognize the needs of individuals and a right to know.
• What police officers should know about the media
  Police must understand that there is never a conversation with the media that is "off the record."
• Special problems for the police, the young and the elderly
  Youth between the age of 11 and 18, more than any other age group, confront and are confronted by the police. Most police-youth contacts do not result in arrest.
• Understanding the young and the elderly
  By the year 2000 close to one third of the U.S. population will be over 65. Youth and the elderly have shared problems. The most immediately apparent of these is that a large percentage of the population of both groups is dependent upon other persons or on social agencies for most of all of their basic needs.
  

Unit 8---Define or discuss:

A.     Problems in dealing with other cultures

B.     Publics right to dissent

C.     Officer’s impact on public dissent

• The impact of culture in the United States
  Culture is the total way of life shared by members of a society. It includes not only language, values, and symbolic meanings but also technology and material objects. When applied to the United States, the definition would allow for individual and group differences.
• Sharing a common culture
  American share a common culture based on our national heritage or personal freedom and democratic principles.
• Culture is:
  Organic and supraorganic, overt and covert, explicit and implicit, ideal and manifest, stable and changing. We must understand that no person adheres to all the values in a given culture: socialization is seldom complete.
• Dissent: the Catalyst of Progress
  The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, the press, the right of the people to assemble peacefully, and the right to petition the government for a redress of grievance. The amendment protects not only the individual’s right to dissent but also the right of groups to dissent, assemble, petition and demonstrate.
• Agreement on Dissent
  Both the legalists and the advocates of dissent agree that creative disruptive tactics are legitimate, yet they also realize that many protest strategies pose that serious political problem: how to avoid social disorder while at the same time avoiding total social control.
• Arenas for dissent
  The United States is a politically diverse nation. Both the Liberals and Conservatives argue the cherished individual freedoms but tend to interpret them differently.
  

Unit 9---Define or discuss:

A.     Agency policy and it’s impact on conflict resolution

B.     Community oriented policing

C.     Civilian review boards

• Conflict management
  Focusing on working with the community to identify areas of conflict, defusing problems when (or before) they arise, minimizing or preventing property damage and violence through communication, education, and/or advocacy of community interest.
• Tactics for maintaining an orderly community
  There is no prescribed formula to tell us how to accomplish this task. Each situation is unique and must be resolved through intricate knowledge of the community-its concerns and its priorities.
• Conflict intervention and the defusement process
  The defusement process is a conflict management technique employed to smooth over potentially abrasive police-community interaction when a large group forms, either spontaneously or as a planned demonstration.
• Models of Policing
  The police service models have evolved over time including the Peelian, Traditional and most recently the Professional model.
• Community Police Models
  A new group of reformers, led by New York City Police Commissioner Patrick Murphy, began to emerge during the 1960s and 1970s. New techniques that emphasized community relations and enhanced service delivery became popular.
• Community Control
  The term is generally defined to suit the purposes of a specific analysis, and depends to a large extent on what subject is being investigated. Community control is a continuum of citizen participation. It is multifaceted ever-changing , and encompasses a wide range of citizen involvement.
• Civilian review boards
  Civilian review boards have created a great deal of controversy, the police insisting that they are best suited to investigate internal problems and civilians who have a distrust for the system.
  

Final Examination: Your grade for the course will be weighted as follows: Written Assignments = 50%, Final Exam = 50%. In order to successfully complete the course you MUST complete the written assignments and, take the final examination. If you live within 50 miles of the campus, you MUST take the final examination on campus. You may contact the Learning Assistance Center at (562) 692-0921 x 4016 or 3169 to schedule taking the final exam. The Learning Assistance Center is located at the Police Academy which is on the main campus on Canyon Drive. If you live over 50 miles from the college the exam may be proctored at your location. Contact your instructor for details.

If you experience any difficulty or need any further clarification, contact the Online Coordinator, Carley Mitchell at mitchellcarley@hotmail.com or in an emergency call him at (801) 953-6173.

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