The Role of the Police

It is impossible to increase the ability of the police to reduce violent crime unless police-community rela tions are substantially improved in minority areas. These relationships have been getting increasingly worse because of rising demands of minority groups, frequent physical and verbal abuse committed by police officers against citizens, and other police activity on the streets. Recent changes in police departments to make them more professional have often further harmed police-minority relations, and the reforms being adopted in police departments to improve these relationships have generally not been effective. Substantial improvement in police-minority relations requires that the police and public radically change their concept of what police work is about. Police officers must be seen as one of many different groups in our society dealing with human problems and serving the public, such as teachers, gang workers, and correctional officers. Such a change will require that police personnel and policies be substantially changed.