6.3: Police Knowledge of Cultural Groups
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The tragic death of Jonathan Ferrell former Florida A&M University football player underscores the tension between culturally diverse citizens and the law enforcement professionals that serve their communities. Throughout, this study the term “culturally diverse” refers to individuals, groups, and communities that represent racial, ethnic, gender, cultural, and sexual orientation-based classifications of citizens. The terms “law enforcement” and “police” are both used to refer to agencies, individuals, and organizations that perform policing duties.
According to the Associated Press (2014), “police say that Ferrell wrecked his car and went to a nearby house and banged on the door, apparently for help. The resident called police, and three officers responded. Investigators say Kerrick fired 12 shots, 10 of which hit Ferrell. Kerrick was the only officer who fired his gun.” Many have questioned the actions of police officer Randall W. Kerrick and investigators are trying to determine if race played a role in the incident. Jonathan Ferrell was a young African American male, and Randall W. Kerrick is a Caucasian police officer. The implications behind these incident and similar situations are clear for both police officers and citizens. Police officers are expected to effectively serve communities while engaging in safe interactions with citizens from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Citizens expect to receive fair, equitable, and safe law enforcement services from policing organizations without fear of excessive force, racial discrimination, and brutality.
This is the intersection where cultural competence and law enforcement meet. Law enforcement professionals that possess cultural awareness better understand the needs of citizens and exhibit actions that take into account the cultural context of their interactions with citizens. The Jonathan Ferrell incident illustrates the significance of cultural competency in law enforcement. In this situation it appears that a number of assumptions were made on behalf of the citizens involved in the incident, and on behalf of the officers responding to the scene. First, the citizen who called the police assumed that the young black man banging on her door was attempting to burglarize her home. Second, police responding to a citizens’ call for help lead to assumptions about the intent of Jonathan Ferrell and his actions. Last, Jonathan Ferrell assumed that police officers were responding to the scene to assist him in his disoriented state.
Unfortunately, it is often difficult to determine if the actions of police officers are racially motivated. However, leadership within police departments can enforce policies that promote culturally competent behaviors, and attitudes. All public service professionals should be trained to respond appropriately in cross-cultural situations, this may frequently involve developing increased cultural awareness and sensitivity when dealing with culturally diverse citizens. Policy development in this area is particularly important to assist officers better serve a diverse community.
Cultural Competency
Developing the cultural competency of service delivery professionals has existed as a primary emphasis of research in the fields of healthcare, social work, child welfare, and psychology since the 1980’s. Cultural competency is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency or professional and enable that system, agency or professional to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. In the public sector cultural competency is specifically concerned with an organizations commitment to institutionalizing the policies and practices that lead to culturally competent behaviors, and interactions with the public.
According to Mitchell F. Rice (2008), cultural competency is best operationally defined as the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services, thereby producing better outcomes. In the Jonathan Ferrell case, the police officer may have acted based upon the standards, polices, and practices currently accepted within the police department. As illustrated by these incident and numerous others, however, such actions make citizens question why excessive force is disproportionately used against people from culturally diverse groups. Unfortunately, for law enforcement agencies and governments throughout the United States these questions make organizations more susceptible to lawsuits, and accusations of racial discrimination.
This speaks to the importance of developing and institutionalizing culturally competent policies that guide the attitudes and behaviors of police officers interacting with citizens from culturally diverse groups. Institutionalization means that knowledge is formally recognized, documented, and shared in interactive ways with all public service delivery personnel and that five explicit mechanisms and policies are in place that provide for maintaining and expanding on the professional knowledge base about culture, so that the public agency is truly a learning organization. In the organizational setting this form of institutionalization is often represented by organization 1). mission statements, 2) human resource policies, 3). organization goals/strategic plans, 4). public communications, and 5). other formally documented polices. Therefore, organization leaders and law enforcement professionals that recognize the importance of cultural competency can begin assessing internal cultural competency levels by identifying and reviewing the documented policies that currently exist within their organizations.
Law enforcement professionals encounter individuals living in diverse multicultural communities on a daily basis. As the demographics of these communities increase in culturally diverse populations it becomes significantly important for law enforcement professionals to possess the cultural competency, knowledge, and skills necessary to perform their jobs.
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