Police Community Relations

This paper requires your analysis of a community and its police department. You will be asked to select a particular city as your case study and analyze the dynamics of police community relations in that city. For this exercise, you are required have the following outline and contents:

I. Introduction: (30 %)

a. Describe the community in terms of its key demographics and infrastructure. 

1. For the demographics, you are supposed to identify the make-up of the population in terms of race, income, gender, age, immigration/migration, and other factors that in your judgement are unique to that community. These information could be easily derived from the Census or the website of the city. Keep in mind that your goal is at least to derive their homogeneity or lack thereof (horizontal articulation).

2. Identify the infrastructure of your community including their main industries, poverty level, presence of key federal agencies, etc. that would indicate the level of vertical relations and horizontal articulations that we have discussed in class.

b. Describe the police department of the city.

1. You have to provide demographic information about the department in terms of its number of officers, education, experience, etc.

2. The type of police organization you think it is in terms of its organizational features or its unique units. Please see if you could identify it as predominantly legalistic, watchman, professional, or service police department and defend your answer based on your analysis of its units, programs and/or organization’s mission.

c. Gather information about the major challenges the department is experiencing with its community.

1. Using newspaper accounts or other sources, identify at least 3 problems that you think the police are experiencing with their community. For instance, you can note that there was a major riot that happened in that community that was caused by a series of police abusive behaviors. You can also determine if there are problems with the community if you see information about the level of racial profiling or abuse of force complaints against the department.

2. Identify the “major” police-community relations programs and strategies that the department employs. These programs may indicate or discuss the problems that they might be experiencing with their communities. Please note that you should go for something unique from that department.

II. Analyses: (50 %)

1. Based on the data you have collected. Try to classify the type of community that you have chosen. Explain these types using the categories that was discussed in class (solidary, disorganized, etc.). Provide bases or explanations for your answers (Note: We did this in the first week with Detroit).

2. Analyze the “sources or reasons” for the police-community relations you have identified under I (c). Your search for some historical events may provide you with the police-community problems existing in that city.

3. What are the outputs and outcomes of the “community relations programs” that the police have? You may be able to find these in the annual report that the police might have published in their website or annual report. Sometimes, they have these in social media (Ex. Washington’s LEAD program). If you cannot find the specific information on the website, make an argument as to what are the potential output and outcomes of these programs based on your research of studies about these programs and their effects. 

III. Writing Format. The rest of the percentages will come from your meeting the following writing criteria (20%)

A. Use correct grammar and writing format. Your paper should be written in double space with 1 inch margins on all sides. Use the American Psychological Association’s (APA) format for the structure, referencing, and citations in your paper. You should also have page numbers on your paper. A separate cover page is NOT necessary but you have to write your name and the city you are writing about on the first page of your paper. Major violations of this rule may result in a 0 credit for this section and may likewise significantly affect the content of your paper.

B. Your paper should be within 7-8 pages excluding the reference page. You will receive one point deduction for every page that is under or over the required number of pages. Your font should be either Times New Roman 12 or Calibri 11 or Arial 12 all throughout the paper. Do not oversize or undersize any font including the headings. Figures and tables will not count towards the page count.

Special Notes:

a. This is an academic paper so be scholarly. Present scholarly evidence of your claim or data from credible sources.

b. Please reference and cite properly so as to avoid plagiarizing. I will check for originality and anything that is over 20 percent non-original will be considered as not meeting the integrity requirements for the paper. If this case arises, you will receive a grade of 0 for the paper or I may ask you to re-write it if time still permits.

 

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