police-community relations in the united states_ a review of rec

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Volume 62 | Issue 1 Article 8

1971

Police-Community Relations in the United States:A Review of Recent Literature and ProjectsDeborah Johnson

Robert J. Gregory

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Recommended CitationDeborah Johnson, Robert J. Gregory, Police-Community Relations in the United States: A Review of Recent Literature and Projects,62 J. Crim. L. Criminology & Police Sci. 94 (1971)

TnE JOUnxAL OF CumIINAL LAW, CRMIN-OLOGy AND POLICE SCIENCE Vol. 62, No. 1Copyright @ 1971 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A.

POLICE-COMMUNITY RELATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES:A REVIEW OF RECENT LITERATURE AND PROJECTS

DEBORAH JOHNSON AND ROBERT J. GREGORY

Mrs. Deborah Johnson is an Instructor at Monteith College in Detroit, Michigan. In 1968 and 1969she served as Research Assistant at Cumberland County Mental Health Center where she collabor-ated with Dr. Gregory in compiling basic information for this article. During the academic year of1970-1971 Mrs. Johnson is on leave pursuing graduate work towards a masters degree at the Univer-sity of Kansas.

Robert J. Gregory Ph.D. is a Fellow of the Institute of Human Ecology in Raleigh, N.C. Hewas previously a member of the staff of the Cumberland County Mental Health Center, Fayette-ville, North Carolina. His work at that center included research in the areas of police training, studyof the drug scene, and evaluation of educational programs. His present work includes research con-tacts with various agencies and groups which consult his Institute.

We as a nation, have had the opportunity tolearn a great deal about ourselves in the last tenyears. Our experiences have made some of us in-tensely aware of the immense problems facing us.

We have seen our cities go up in smoke andsmoulder in chaos as our citizens rioted in ghettoesacross the country.

We have witnessed the assassinations of threeof our most dynamic national leaders; PresidentJohn Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and RobertKennedy.

We have watched our students protest the in-adequacies of our universities, in many casesactually initiating a guerilla war with the schooladministrations.

We have heard shocking reports of the thousandsof Americans who are forced to live impoverishedlives, deprived of adequate nutrition, health care,and education in a nation that has immense re-sources.

And we have heard thousands of complaints ofpolice brutality from cities in the East to cities inthe West. In fact, we have witnessed this brutalityin person, in photographs or on television screens,in the South, at the Democratic National Conven-tion in Chicago, at San Francisco State, and inWashington, D. C.

We have experienced this violence and we haveexperienced much more that tells us that our coun-try is in trouble, that we are faced with complex"social problems." The problems are shocking,depressing, staggering and most of all, they pressfor immediate solution.

This article is about only one of these problems-police-community relations. The awareness thatproblems exist between the police and the public

has inspired hundreds of studies and innumerablepublications which attempt to analyze the situa-tion and recommend or initiate programs to solvethe problems. What follows is a selected review ofthat literature.

THE POLICEBefore jumping into an analysis of the problem,

a proper perspective must be established. Today'spolice are faced with an extremely difficult andcomplex task. America is a place of great diversityand rapid change. It is a country divided by a rigidsocio-economic class system and by a multitude ofminority and ethnic groups. In the last fifty years,America has been urbanized at a tremendous rate.Even now people are leaving the country and mov-ing to the city; people from the South are pouringinto cities in the North. The cities become moreand more crowded, especially in the ghettoes. Con-sequently, this is a time of increased crime andsocial unrest. Police work is particularly compli-cated, delicate, and important.

The policeman's role, unlike many other occu-pational roles, is ambiguous. The policeman is afriend and a protector. He assures safety on thestreets and keeps the peace. You call him whenyou are in trouble, when your neighbors are makingtoo much noise, or when your cat is caught in atree. At the same time, the policeman is foe andrepressor. He inhibits your freedom, tickets youwhen you are speeding or illegally parked, comesto your house to quiet you down when your neigh-bors complain about noise, investigates, and in-terrogates you when you are suspected of or in-volved in some illegal activity.

Clark (1965) examined the isolation/integration

POLICE COMMUNITY RELATIONS

of the police in the community in Britain andAmerica. He noted that policemen are isolated frompeople in a community because of a desire forprivacy by people, a history of incompetence andoccasional brutality by police, the general socialavoidance of seamy elements in society and theoccupational, professional, and official policies ofpolicing groups. But police are integrated within acommunity because they are recognized as legiti-mate and needed by the public, a fear of whatcould happen if they were not integrated, an on-going process of accommodation between policeand the policed, and a need for cooperation to moreeffectively police.

The ambiguity of the policeman's role is es-pecially striing in urban slums and ghettoes. Inthese concentrated minority group areas, policeare often hated and feared. They are perceived assoldiers of a White occupation army in a bitterlyhostile country. Yet, the amazing paradox is thatthe police are the ghetto resident's most importantsource of help in times of sickness, injury, andtrouble. The poor and uneducated, it seems, usethe police in the same way that middle-class peopleuse family doctors and clergymen. They are calledon in noncriminal and emergency situations (Bay-ley and Mendelsohn, 1969; Cumming, Cumming,and Edell, 1965; Bard and Berkowitz, 1968; Black,1968). Liberman (1969) discovered that, in theirpathways to the state mental hospital, almost 50per cent of mentally ill patients and their familiesfrom Baltimore utilize the police as a communityresource. To better understand why so many peopleuse the police for help with mental problems, acomparison was made between first admission pa-tients who used the police (N = 17) and those whoused more conventional medical resources (N =35). The results indicate that families decide tocall the police because other, more appropriateresources are not as accessible and will not offerservices to recalcitrant patients. Liberman con-cluded that until community mental health facili-ties develop more active evaluation and treatmentprograms for reluctant patients, the police willcontinue to serve a needed role in the care of thementally ill. This ambiguous role of repressor andhelper complicates the policeman's job and frus-trates the people he is dealing with.

The often debated issue of police power andpolice restraint points to another complexity ofpolice work. The means required to achieve policeends may often conflict with the conduct requiredof the police as legal actors. There are those who

believe that police should have more power andmore freedom in terms of the law. On the otherhand, there are those who emphasize that policemust stick to the Rule of Law. Police and lawenforcement officials are under a great deal of pres-sure to maintain law and order. They perform theirjob where all eyes are upon them. They are stronglycriticized if they try to bypass or go beyond thelimits of the law and rarely are they praised forgood deeds.

The activities of the policeman vary from thecity to the country, from large cities to smallcities, from district to district. Each precinct hasits own unique problems. For example, a precinctlocated near docks, with railroad yards and ware-houses, will have to deal with problems quite dif-ferent from the problems of a precinct in an arealike Greenwich Village where there are coffee-houses, demonstrations, and nonconformists(Black, 1968).

Some generalizations, however, can be madeabout the work of policemen. Algernon D. Black,former chairman of the 1966 Civilian Review Boardof the Police Department of the City of New York,in a book entitled The People and the Police (1968),explained the ramifications and complications ofpolice work. The popular conception of the taskof the policeman is thought to be law enforcement.He is responsible for protecting life and property,preventing lawlessness, and apprehending lawbreakers. He is imagined as chasing hardenedcriminals, capturing bank robbers, and investi-gating murders. His image, no doubt, is acquiredfrom newspapers, television, and movies. In ac-tual fact, the policeman is responsible for law en-forcement, but his job involves much more too. Anumber of recent studies have shown that only asmall percentage of police work involves law en-forcement per se.

Epstein (1962) estimated that 90 per cent of thepoliceman's function is in activities unrelated tocrime control or law enforcement. Cumming,el al. (1965) reported that half of the calls forassistance to an urban police department may in-volve family crisis or other complaints of a per-sonal or inter-personal nature. Raymond Parnas(1967), studying just one month of Chicago's1966 police records, reported that a total of 134,369calls for police in the city of Chicago, 17 per centwere classified as "Criminal Incident." The re-maining 83 per cent includes 12,544 traffic accidentcalls and 96,826 "Miscellaneous Non-Criminal."This "Miscellaneous Non-Criminal" category in-

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cludes about 80 per cent of all calls for policeservice. Misner (1967) indicated that police de-partments have new missions in urban situations.The assumption has been that the policeman's taskis to control crime and investigate criminals. Mis-ner reports that more than 80 per cent of policetime has been spent in non-criminal matters. Thesenon-criminal, interpersonal incidents include any-thing from a cat caught in a tree to a family quarrel,to run-away children, to neighbors making toomuch noise. In other words the policeman makesvery few arrests in comparison to the "humanrelations" work that he does.

THE PEoPLE

Now, what exactly is the police-communityproblem? The problem is that people across thenation are complaining about policemen. Police-men are being accused of acting with harsh andundue brutality. The situation is at its worst incity slums and ghettoes. Minority groups-Negroes, Puerto-Ricans, Mexican-Americans, andothers-accuse police of racial prejudice and claimthat they are being unjustly treated. The problemis apparent in a much subtler sense by the wide-spread expression of negative attitudes towardpolice-attitudes of distrust, uncooperativeness,and hostility. At the same time, the police arecomplaining. They complain about the lack of re-spect for police officers, especially in minoritygroup districts, about the inadequate and unfairtreatment of police actions by the press and aboutthe attachment by the public of racial connota-tions to every police action involving non-Whitecitizens (International Association of Chiefs ofPolice and the United States Conference of Mayors,1968).

The International Association of Chiefs of Policeand the United States Conference of Mayors re-ports that more than half of the 165 police depart-ments they surveyed were being charged witheither "differential treatment or brutality or both."These charges range from a vague opinion to fullyjustified cases involving excessive and unjustifieduse of force.

As mentioned earlier, much of the hostility to-wards police comes from minority groups living inconcentrated, ghetto areas. To a great extent, thepolice-community relations problem is a racialproblem. A number of studies have been conductedfor the purpose of exposing this predicament. TheNational Opinion Research Center conducted astudy of opinions towards police for the President's

Commission. They found a spectrum of opinion,but they noted that the differences in attitude byrace were striking. Twenty and three tenths percent of all white people thought that the policewere doing an "excellent" job of enforcing the lawwhile only 15 per cent of non-Whites held that view.At the opposite end of this rating scale, 7 per centof all Whites felt that the police were doing a poorjob, as contrasted with 16 per cent of non-Whites.

Prejudicial news reporting is one problem (Jaffe,1965 a and 1965 b; Haines, 1968), while minorityviews are another. Epstein (1967) made a study ofa Negro weekly newspaper in order to determinethe legitimacy of police complaints about un-favorable news coverage. A two year contentanalysis of the paper was made covering 1964 and1965. Epstein concluded that in terms of space,articles, headlines, pictures and letters, police weretreated unfavorably. The Negro press is a reflectionof the attitudes in the Negro community. In theMarch-April 1968 issue of the American BehavioralScientist, Burton Levy reports on a survey of Black-White attitudes toward police. He tells about a1965 poll of Detroit, Michigan where 68 per centof the Negro community believed that law enforce-ment was not fair and equitable. He points outfurther that the hostility towards police is notexclusively confined to the poor or to those en-gaged in illicit activity in the Negro community.Black doctors, lawyers and even police officersshare the beliefs. For example, the Guardians, theNew York City Organization of Negro PoliceOfficers endorse the establishment of a civilianreview board in opposition to the organizations ofWhite officers. The Guardian president publicallystated that he had witnessed "incidents of policebrutality."

Levy also reported that Negroes feel, two to one,that police brutality is a major cause of civil dis-order. This was, in fact, the conclusion of the Na-tional Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.This Advisory Commission cited deep hostilitybetween police and ghetto communities as a pri-mary cause of the disorders that they survey.

It is interesting to note that in the year of theWatts Riot, 1965, complaints about police totaled979. Of these charges, there were enough sustainedto result in discipline of the police force. Threepolicemen were dismissed; eight were retired; 13resigned rather than face disciplinary action; 88were suspended without pay; 70 were repri-manded; 49 received admonishment; and 4 re-ceived warnings. One hundred fifty-two others

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underwent some sort of "relinquishment." Whenthe police moved to contain the Watts Riot, theywere looked on as the cause and were the target ofhatred and the symbol of brutality. (Black, 1968,p. 59).

Aside from contributing to the cause of civildisorders, the negative attitudes towards policehave other indicators and other results. A numberof studies have suggested that relations betweenthe police and schools are not always as good asthey should be. For example, Milander (1967)found that upon an analysis of the contact betweenpolice departments and school systems in thirteenIllinois school districts, five major areas of concernwere reported. These included juvenile delinquencydetection, prevention and control, traffic and con-trol, safety education, crowd control, and studentor adult problems on or near school property.Milander felt that police-school relationships weremuch in nieed of improvement.

Ennis (1967) indicated that the dissatisfactionwith police and bad attitude towards police de-partments led many people to refuse to reportcrime and criminal behavior. A study done underthesponsorship of theU. S. President's Crime Com-mission confirmed other studies which had demon-strated that much crime goes unreported. In thesummer of 1965, 10,000 households were surveyedand it was found that more than 20 per cent hadbeen victimized in the past year. This finding wasabout twice as high as that reported by the FBIstatistics. Some 55 per cent of non-reporting peopleindicated they did not notify police because oftheir attitude toward police effectiveness.

Perhaps the most striking illustration of the ex-tent of the negative police image is seen through anincident that occurred in a Covina, California,project. This project was called "OperationEmpathy-Skid Row." As a learning experience,Covina police officers spent a day playing the partof skid row inhabitants. They were dressed ac-cordingly, given props such as shopping bags con-taining collected junk or a bottle of wine, and weresent into a community where they were unknown.Nearing the end of the day, two of the policemen-bums stopped in a parking lot to finish off theirbottles of wine. All of a sudden, two uniformedpolicemen appeared, and the two "skid-row bums"were spread against a building and searched. For-getting the agreement not to reveal identities andpurpose unless absolutely necessary, one of the"skid-row bums" panicked and identified himselfas a policeman. When asked later to explain why

he was so quick in his revelation of his identity,the policeman found it very difficult to explain.Finally, he blurted out that he felt he might getshot. He admitted that as he was being searched,he suddenly thought of every negative thing he hadever heard about a policeman. He even perceiveda mental flash on a newspaper heading "PoliceOfficer Erroneously Shot While in the Field."This policeman was afraid of the treatment hewould receive from another policeman.

SPECIAL PRojEcTs IN LAW EIFoRcEmENTThe police-community relations problem is very

diverse, and a variety of special programs havedeveloped across the country. Each program at-tacks the problem with a different approach and,in that sense, points to a different aspect of theproblem. Many of the programs are briefly ex-plained to lend further insight into the problem aswell as point towards solutions.

One of the most unusual and most exciting ofthese projects was developed in New York City byMorton Bard (1968) (Bard and Berkowitz, 1967).Basically, the project was set up to demonstratethe possibilities for prevention of crime and pro-motion of mental health in training police asspecialists in family crisis intervention.

That the majority of police work does not in-volve law enforcement per se, has already beendiscussed. Bard goes further in pointing out howmuch of the police work in New York City involvesfamily crisis in the form of marital fights. Thesefamily crises are extremely serious. Statistics showthat homicides and serious assaults are more likelyto occur within family relationships than amongstrangers. Thus, family crisis intervention is veryoften dangerous for policemen. An example usedearlier will again be helpful here. One policemaninterrupting a marital quarrel may have to disarma very angry husband. Policemen evidently oftenget hurt in this type of incident. Bard points outthat policemen may, in these situations, withoutintent, provoke violence rather than subdue it.Bard feels that policemen need training in how tohandle these situations where subtle techniquesmay calm the family crisis, rather than stimulateit. For example, by showing compassion and under-standing, he might talk the angry husband intohanding over the weapon rather than using vio-lence to force him to disarm.

Some eighteen policemen were chosen from alargely disadvantaged, racially mixed communityin New York, and were trained to operate as police


crisis intervention specialists. The responsibility ofthis unit is to investigate family disturbance com-plaints in the precinct. The men receive regularlyscheduled group and individual professional con-sultation with members of the Psychology De-partment at The City College of the City Univer-sity of New York. A later evaluative phase of theproject will examine changes within the demon-stration precinct in the areas of homicide andassault among members of families and policemen.This final evaluation is not yet complete, butthere are strong indications that the project is suc-cessful. The policemen are learning how to walk inon family crises, to talk to each individual sepa-rately, to disarm people if armed, and when theyhave calmed the family members, to refer them toa counseling center.

Another of the most exciting and most success-ful programs was the Covina, California, projectmentioned briefly earlier. An eight week course wasdesigned to provide greater knowledge of valuesand ethics, individual human behavior, interper-sonal and group relations, organizational behavior,intergroup or race relations and the nature of thecommunity for the twenty members of the CovinaPolice Department who participated. This coursewas held under the direction of the City of Covinaofficials. The program was conducted by CreativeManagement Research and Development, a non-profit organization. Included in the program wasan opening two-day retreat, a series of seven dis-cussion sessions, a field experience in RiversideCounty Jail, research and evaluation and a dosingbanquet.

One of the most unique aspects of this programwas the field experience referred to as "OperationEmpathy." Policemen from a nearby county cameinto one of the class meetings and arrested theentire class. They were handcuffed and transportedto the Riverside County Jail. Each member of theclass was booked and sentenced to spend the nightin jail. Afterwards the members of the class re-ported they had learned a great deal from the ex-perience.

Because of the success of that experience theCovina Police Department planned additional fieldexperience. Policemen were dressed up as skid-rowbums, given the appropriate paraphernalia andasked to spend a day in the Los Angeles skid-rowdistrict. Again the experience was found to be veryvaluable. Police claimed that they had learned theimportance of certain techniques for handlingpeople, such as telling a man exactly how he is

going to be searched before searching him andusing respectful names in talking with peoplerather than words that will trigger hard feelings.

Yet, in another quite different project inHouston, Texas, a group of businessmen formedCommunity Effort, Inc., as a private fundingagency for the Houston Cooperative Crime Pre-vention Programs. A program was set up to bringtogether "Police and Community for MutualExchange of Attitudes and Images." The designand methodology followed closely the modelprovided by the Houston Veterans Administra-tion Human Relation Training Laboratory, em-ploying t-group and sensitivity-training ap-proaches.

A series of human relations laboratories weredevised. Each laboratory lasted six weeks, meetingfor three hours each week. Each group containedan equal number of police officers and communitymembers (especially representatives of minorityand dissident groups). There were approximatelytwelve members in each group.

Group leaders were doctoral level psychologistsand their assistants were graduate students inpsychology. In initial meetings the police andcommunity members used an exchange of imagesmodel. Police were asked to develop a list ofimages of the community and of themselves. Com-munity people were asked to do the same. The twosub-groups then confronted each other with theseimages. After that, other methods were used de-pending on the group leader-techniques such aspsychodrama, role reversal, and role mirroring.

The course was evaluated by a brief and anony-mous questionnaire. Police and communitymembers were asked to rate the program on ascale and to indicate in what ways the course hadchanged their attitudes. An analysis of these ques-tionnaires yielded a number of results, of whichsome can be summarized. In answer to the ques-tions about attitude changes, community peoplesaid that they had gained (1) better awareness ofthe policeman's role, his problems and scope of hisresponsibilities; (2) recognition of their responsi-bility as citizens to enforce law and order, to be-come involved, and to work with, not against orapart from the police; (3) greater respect for thepolice as individual human beings rather than beingclassed into one undifferentiated group, the "BlueMinority;" and (4) hope that some of the policewill change their behavior and attitudes towardsminority group members. At the same time, police-men said they were gratified that (1) the com-

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munity had gained some appreciation of the police-man's role, and what he can and cannot do; (2)the recognition that police may provoke situationsand aggravate feelings by verbal abuse; (3) anawareness and a shocked reaction by some of theintensity of the hatred for police held by somecommunity members and (4) some awareness ofthe need to control personal feelings and emotions.

More details and more anecdotal material onthis project are provided in Ebony, October, 1968,in an article entitled "Psychotherapy for HoustonPolice." (McLean, 1968). In Houston, sensitivity-training and encounter-group techniques wereused. These techniques are quite controversial,and have been praised and criticized.

For example, Skousen (1967), one of the critics,discussed the role of sensitivity-training forpolicemen in an article in Law and Order. He indi-cated that sensitivity training was not useful forpolicemen because policemen became sensitive tothe feelings, aspirations, and frustrations ofcriminals. He indicated that no similar effort wasbeing conducted among the criminals to make themsensitive to the riots and messes they were makingin the communities. He felt that sensitivity train-ing forced the group to look at the personal atti-tudes and convictions of individuals and tried tomanipulate them. He felt also that sensitivitytraining challenged and discredited the traditionalChristian value system and essentially constitutedan ideological war against American culture.

In Boston, thirteen police districts have a com-munity relations workshop which includes acaptain and a representative steering committeeof about 12 citizens from the area. They meet on aregular basis. Some of the programs already setup by these young men, especially minority groupmembers, prepare men for a police entrance exami-nation. Another is a city wide community relationsconference. A third is a police seminar includingjunior and senior high school students who partici-pate. A fourth project includes a three-day instituteconducted by the National Conference of Chris-tians and Jews. A fifth program involves planningin order to bring grade schools and high schoolsinto contact with police departments and opera-tions.

One police community relations training pro-gram was developed by the Newark Police Depart-ment. The plans involved police and poor peoplein a dialogue forum. The sample of citizens selectedincluded probationers and parolees. They plannedon five classes of sixty persons each including

thirty law enforcement officers and thirty poorcitizens from Newark. Programs would includelectures, case discussions, field experiences andopen discussions. Attitudes and behavior patternsboth would be evaluated in a follow-up studydesigned to determine effectiveness of the pro-gram.

Lipsitt and Steinbruner (1969) designed a proj-ect to study the effectiveness of group discussionin mitigating the rise of hostility between policeand residents of the urban ghetto. Two fifteenmember groups of police and ghetto residents heldweekly discussions, led and observed by universityresearchers, for twelve weeks. Attitude scalesadministered at the beginning and end of thestudy, as well as recorded logs of the meeting,reveal increased understanding and empathy be-tween initially hostile and defensive participantsby the end of the study. With increased awarenessof each other's problems came an increased faithin the power of cooperation to solve problems.Police became more interested in serving merely asdisciplinarians. Some of the community membersbegan to attempt to instill in their neighbors amore friendly attitude toward the police.

A short-term kind of police community rela-tions workshop was developed at Adelphi Uni-versity in New York. Sponsored by the NationalConference of Christians and Jews and AdelphiUniversity, the project started on July 5, 1966, andwas completed on July 29, 1966. Its purpose was toimprove relationships between community orga-nizations and administrators of justice includingpolice, corrections, and courts. The participantsincluded members of both groups.

In Dayton, Ohio, a police-community relationsprogram was developed by Harold Silverman. Thisproject is supported by Miami University of Ohioand Ohio State University and the Dayton Ohio,Police Department. The project began in 1967 andwas scheduled to be completed in 1968. It includedsome eleven different groups of policemen over aneleven-week period in which fifteen officers ofvarying ranks were chosen at random and exposedto twelve hours of group discussion, lectures androle playing each week. Prior to the course anattitude questionnaire was administered which wasto be readministered at a six-month interval. Eachparticipating officer was given an opportunity toevaluate the course anonymously.

In addition to these programs aimed at bringingpolicemen and community people together or atincreasing police understanding, a number of

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programs involve such techniques as having thepolice educate the public, getting police involvedwith the schools, and having a police love-in.

The Tampa, Florida, Police Department, forexample, has developed a program to help preventcrime. Through police talks, films, radio announce-ments, and educational television programs, theproject is supposed to educate the public aboutlaw enforcement, to improve the image of thepoliceman, to discuss responsibilities of the publicfor law enforcement and to enable the crime pre-vention division to listen to public opinion andthereby design prevention programs to fit theneeds.

An interesting project was set up in Des Moines,Iowa to have police officers instruct business menand women on how to reduce their chances ofbeing victimized by criminal activity. This in-cludes such things as shoplifting, forgery, burglary,auto thefts, and assaults. A ten week course meet-ing for two hours once a week was set up at thepolice academy there.

In Kansas City, a program was set up whereby ateam of policemen including one White officer andone Black officer visited fourth grade classes insome eighty elementary schools. They spoke to atotal of over 6,000 children. On a secondary level,eleven schools were visited with a total of 5,500ninth graders involved. The role of the policedepartment and obligations of policemen to protectpeople and property were explained to these youngpeople. Apparently, no evaluation was carriedout on this project.

A special program to develop good relationshipsbetween police departments and the schools wasset up in the Minneapolis junior High Schools.Selected police officers in the juvenile division wereplaced, to conduct preventive and educationalwork, in various junior high schools in Minneapo-lis.

Cormack (1967) conducted attitude surveys inWauwatsa, Wisconsin. In a report of police com-munity relations, a program was set up to trainpolice officers and to prepare a code of conduct toprovide public instruction and information aboutthe police force and to establish special law andorder week programs in conjunction with localservice groups.

Another police community relations unit wasset up in Richmond to develop programs relatingto education and training. Reports, a manual,pamphlets, booklets and other literature were pre-

pared, published and circulated. Consultativeservice was provided to interested police and otheragencies and organizations. Police-citizen partner-ship was encouraged to prevent crime and moreprofessional use of other agencies was advocated asa solution of community problems and stress. Anattempt was also made to smooth the role of police-men with the prosecution, courts and correctionaldepartments. Additionally, the police and othercommunity leaders were given assistance in tryingto understand the complexity of social relation-ships, especially police-minority group relation-ships. An official police community relations unit,a realistic training program, and the involvementof civic organizations in human relations as well asmany other community resources, was established.

In Detroit, Michigan, the new Chief of Police,Johannes Spreen, (Taking a Chance on Love, 1969)issued a St. Valentine's Day appeal for a 100-daypublic love-in toward the police--an era of goodfeeling to enable him to make needed reforms. Itworked. Almost overnight bouquets of flowersand "cops axe tops" valentines began flooding hisoffice. He followed this by asking Detroiters tohelp their police by $1.00 contributions for newequipment. Ten thousand donations were made.Spreen had other brainstorms which include motorscooters (as in New York City) for use instead ofsquad cars which he claims "isolate the police andcitizenry;" an information center to keep relativesinformed of the status of prisoners; Review Boards;and $1,000.00 raises for police with college degrees.

Another form of program which has attemptedto deal with the police-community relationsproblem is the civilian review board. The Presi-dent's Commission felt that it was an absolutenecessity for every police department to havemachinery for investigation of complaints againstpolice activity or employees. Furthermore, anumber of police-community relations projectshave been criticized and accused of failure be-cause they lacked a channel through which citizencomplaints could be received and reviewed.

In the November 29, 1968, issue of Commonweal,Joe Riggert reports on three police-communityrelations projects: in San Francisco, St. Louis andBaltimore. His assessment of these three projectsis that they are "only half successful at best, anddoomed to failure at worst." Riggert claims thatthese programs have failed because no mechanismhas been set up for public hearings on citizen com-plaints. The processing of grievances in these

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three cities still remains largely a secret process,with findings, but no subsequent disciplinaryaction, and no report back to the complainingcitizen. It is just this practice, in the view of theCrime Commission on Civil Disorders, that leadsto distrust and belief in a "white wash" amongminority residents. The San Francisco projectserves as a good illustration.

In 1962, Dante Antreotti was named to head theCommunity Relations Unit of the San FranciscoPolice Force. Under this program a crew of com-munity-relations police officers, civilian-clothed,were sent into the ghetto area to learn about thecommunity and its needs, and to set up a numberof different programs. They helped young Blacksobtain jobs by explaining their criminal records toprospective employers. Over a ten month period,they worked with 200 youths in the area of jobsand contacted 5,000 persons. They set up recrea-tional activities sponsoring scores of athletic eventsand dances. They talked at Black Panther meet-ings, converted a rock throwing problem into arock clean-up, and enlisted the aid of 22 streetwalkers to help dispel rumors and ease hostilities.In addition, the Community Relations Unit lis-tened to complaints from minority groups andturned these in to the police department. Accord-ing to Andreotti in an interview with Fortunemagazine (Carruth, 1968), this created muchantagonism among the other members of thepolice department. And since few if any of thesecomplaints were acted on, the community stilldid not feel that their voices were being heard.

Packer (1966) advocated that police make fulluse of review boards as a means to gain moreeffective relationships with the public. Naegele(1967) indicated that police review boards wouldbe extremely valuable in cities where there waslittle trust in the police departments. When publicconfidence began to develop, the wrongs of thepolice would no longer be ignored in a police re-view board. Only this can curb police abuses andsatisfy citizens who have legitimate complaints.He discussed the system in Los Angeles as a casein point. He put down the police arguments thatcivilian complaints are the prerogative of policemanagement, that legally constituted enforce-ment agencies lose power with the development ofsuch review boards and that the review boardsshould have power to discipline but should notnecessarily just rest within the police department.There is sometimes no recourse in the courts so

that civilians may have legitimate complaintswhich are not recognized through current struc-tures.

As former chairman of the New York CivilianComplaint Review Board, Algernon Black isperhaps one of the best sources of information oncivilian review boards. Let it suffice to say herethat he is very strongly in favor of these types ofboards in all cities.

The preceding review makes it evident thatmany projects and ideas are circulating. It isimportant to look at implications of these ideasand projects for police agencies. The followingsummary identifies some implications in broadoutlines.

1. There is a major social problem in thiscountry. This problem stems from a social andeconomic system which produces, maintains, andfosters inequalities among people. Only part ofthe policeman's role concerns crime and law en-forcement, and this is further restricted to crimeamong people oppressed by the system. But thepolicemen are involved with the oppressed inmany ways. Thus, emergency situations and non-criminal problems, especially with minority groupmembers and poor people, constitute areas inwhich police spend considerable amounts of time.Many of these police services involve human rela-tions, often under extremely stressful conditions.And yet, police work, by its very nature, tends toproduce cynicism, isolation, and conservatism.

2. Frequently too few policemen are given toolarge a task. Police departments are typically un-derstrength. Aside from the quantity issue, majorchanges are needed in quality of services. Policemenare in need of better training. Procedures for screen-ing applicants must be improved, with more em-phasis given on emotional fitness standards. Cullingout those who cannot meet the quality standardsmust take place. Educational standards must beimproved. At least some college or university train-ing is a necessity for personnel in law enforcementpositions. The types of education, and the topicsconsidered must be altered, with more emphasisgiven to non-law enforcement problems in policetraining. Internships and on-the-job training areboth important aspects of police education. Moreminority group members must be recruited to thepolice force. More contact is needed between policeand ghetto communities, especially contact inwhich police learn about and experience empathy.Police relationships with the school systems must

19711


be improved through contact of the police withschool people.

3. Community and public images are negative.Only through increasing police effectiveness willthis dissatisfaction change. Therefore, moreuniversity programs to perform research, trainpolicemen, and develop programs relating to crimeand criminal justice must be set-up. A modelsystem, as developed by California, to promote lawenforcement, should be extended. Teaching juniorhigh and high school students about police workthrough contact with policemen may be effectivein interesting students in careers in law enforce-ment. This would also involve policemen with theschools. Serious long-range research studies con-cerning the philosophy of law enforcement andpolicing must be developed. Mental health train-ing for police intervention in family crises is possi-ble. This should be extended. Empathy experiencesin the field, i.e., what it's like to be a member of aminority group, are important. Sensitivity train-ing may provide one technique by which policecan learn what it is like to be a member of aminority group. Periodic community relationsmeetings between police and members of the com-munities at large should take place. Classes teach-ing businessmen and women, or others on how toreduce chances of being victimized may be legiti-mately conducted by a police-community program.Some special endeavors could go a long way tohelp.

4. Information centers to provide help forrelatives about prisoners may be important.Civilian review boards are generally advisable.Special programs such as sports programs, con-ducted by policemen in problem areas may be veryvaluable in developing community-police rela-tionships. Some of these recommendations are inpractice now in many communities. Interestedcitizens, and policemen, can help to promote betterlaw enforcement in communities through develop-ing some of the above suggestions.

CONCLUSION

In concluding, it should be clear that only thesurface of published literature and ideas has beenscratched. The problem is vast. It can only be seenin the context of the total social structure, of whichit is a part, and in the context of the judicialsystem of which it is a part. Nevertheless, someliterature and ideas have been presented. It ishoped that a clear understanding in the directionof future solutions has been gained.

REFERENCES*BARD, MORTON, Family Intervention Police Teams as a

Community Mental Health Resource, Paper pre-sented at a symposium at the American Psycho-logical Association 76th Annual Convention in SanFrancisco, California, September 3, 1968.

- AND BERKOWiTZ, BERNARD, Family Disturbanceas a Police Function, Paper presented at the SecondNational Symposium on Law Enforcement,Science and Technology Center, I.I.T. ResearchInstitute, Chicago, Illinois, April 18, 1968, (to bepublished in the Proceedings of the symposium).

- AND - , Training Police as Specialists in FamilyCrisis Intervention: A Community Psychology Ac-tion Program, 3 CoMMINTY MENTAL HEALTHJoURNAL, 315-317, (1967).

BAYLEY, DAvD AND MENDELSOHN, HAROr, MINOR-ITIES AND THE POLICE; CONFRONTATION IN AmER-ICA, New York: The Free Press, 1969.

BENNETT, CAPTAIN RICHARD F., Correspondent, PoliceVisitation Program, Project description in Crimeand Delinquency Abstracts, Youth Unit, KansasCity Police Department, 1125 Locust Street, Kan-sas City, Missouri, 64106, 1968.

BLACK, ALGERNON, THE PEOPLE AND THE POLICE, NewYork: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1968.

CARRUTH, E.EANORE, Our War Was with the Police De-partment, 77 FORTUNE, 195-197 (January, 1968).

The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society: A report bythe President's Commission on Law Enforcementand Administration of Justice, Washington, D. C.:U. S. Government Printing Office, 1967.

CLaRY, JOHN P., Isolation of the Police: A Comparison ofthe British and American Situations, 56 JOURNAL OrCRIMINAL LAW, CRIIMINOLOGY AND POLCESCIENCE, 307-319 (1965).

COR ACK, J. A., A Plan of Action in Police CommunityRelations, 34 PoLCE CHIEF, (9) 50-51 (1967).

CUMMNG, ELAanI, CUiING, IAN M., AND EDELL,LAURA, Policeman as Philosopher, Guide andFriend, 12 SOCIAL PROBLEMS, XII 276-286(Winter, 1965).

ENNiS, PHILLIP H., Crime, Victims and the Police, 4TRANSACTION, (7) 36-44 (1967).

EPSTEIN, CHARLOTTE, INTERGROUP RELATIONS FORPOLICE OFFICERS, Baltimore, Maryland: Williamsand Wilkins Company, 1962.

EPSTEN, DAVID, The Treatment of the Police by theNegro Press, CRRh!INOLOGICA, (30) 37-59 (1967).

FERGUSON, FRED R., Police Chief, Creativity in LawEnforcement: Field Experiments in Preparation forthe Changing Police Role, Mimeographed paperissued by the Covina Police Department, Covina,California, 1968.

HAINES, RUSH T., The Aftermath of Sheppard: SomeProposed Solutions to the Free Press-Fair TrialControversy, 59 JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW,CRIMNOLOGY AND POLICE SCIENCE, 234-247(1968).

HEINICH, CHAPLAIN W. C., Director, Crime PreventionDivision, Project Description in Crime and De-linquency Abstracts, Tampa Police Department,1710 Tampa Street, Tampa, Florida, 33602, 1966.

International Association of Chiefs of Police, CurrentApproaches to Police Training and CommunityRelations; Survey Supplement Washington, D. C.:

* A supplementary and a more extensive list of ref-erences can be obtained from the author at the Instituteof Human Ecology, 720 St. Mary's Street, Raleigh,N.C., 27605.

[Vol. 62


Report of a Study by the Association and theUnited States Conference of Mayors, The Assod-ation, no date.

International Association of Chiefs of Police, Police-Community Relations: Policies and Practices, Na-tional Survey, Washington, D. C.: The Association,no date.

JAFFE, CAROLYN, The Press and the Oppressed-A Studyof Prejudicial News Reporting in Criminal Cases,Part I: The Problem, Existing Solutions and Re-maining Doubts, 56 JOURNAL oF CRIMINAL LAW,CRImooGY AND POLICE SCIENCE, 1-17 (1965).

JAFFE, CAROLYN, The Press and the Oppressed-AStudy of Prejudicial News Reporting in CriminalCases, Part 1I: Some Speculations and Proposals, 56JOURNAL oF CRIMINAL LAW, CRIMoIoGY ANDPOLICE SCIENCE, 158-173 (1965).

KITAY, PHILLIP, CORRESPONDENT, The CommunityRelations Workshop, Project Description in CaIMA DELINQUENCY ABSTRACTS, Adelphi Univer-sity, Garden City, New York: 1966.

LEVY, BURTxON, Cops in the Ghetto: A Problem of thePolice System, 2 AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST,(4) 31-34, (March-April, 1968).

LIBERIIAN, ROBERT, Police as a Community MentalHealth Resource, 5 COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTHJoURNAL, (2) 111 (April, 1969).

LipsiTT, PAUL D., AND MAUREEN STEINBRUNER, AnExperiment in Police-Community Relations: ASmall Group Approach, 5 CoMMUNITY MENTALHEALTH JoURNAL, (2) 72-80 (April, 1969).

McILEAN, L. DECKLE, Psychotherapy for Houston Police,23 EBONY, (12) 76-82 (October, 1968).

MILANDER, HENRY, Local Police Department-SchoolSystem Interaction and Cooperation, 9 POLICE, (5)72-75 (1967).

MiSNER, GORDON E., The Urban Police Mission, 3ISSUES AND CRMINOLOGY, (1) 35-46 (1967).

NAEGEIE, TIMOTHY, Civilian Complaints Against thePolice at Los Angeles, 3 ISSUES AND CRIMo oGY,(1) 7-34 (1967).

The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders,THE REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COM-MISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS, New York: E. P.Dutton and Company, Inc., 1968.

PACKER, HERBERT L., The Courts, The Police, and theRest of Us, 57 JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAW, CRiM-iNoLoGY AND POLICE SCIENCE, 238-243 (1966).

PARNAS, RAYMOND I., The Police Response to the Do-mestic Disturbance, WIscONSIN LAW REVIEW 914-960 (1967).

RIGGERT, JOE, Cop Out on Community Relations? 89COmmONWEAL, 305-6. (November 29, 1968).

SCHONNESEN, LT. WI~isam, Correspondent, Police-School Liaison Program, Project Description inCRIME AND DELINQUENCY ABSTRACTS, Minne-apolis Police Department, Juvenile Division, Min-neapolis, Minnesota, 1968.

SILvERMAN, HAROLD, Director, Division of Education,Project Description in CRIME AND DELINQUENCYABSTRACTS, Wright State Campus, Dayton, Ohio,45431, 1968.

SxousEn, W. CLEoN, Sensitivity Training-A Word ofCaution, 15 LAW AD ORDER, (11) 10, 12, 70 (1967).

SPINA, DOMINICK, Director of Police, Newark PoliceDepartment, Police-Community Relations Train-ing Program, Project Description in CRn ANDDELNQUENCY ABSTRACTS, 22 Franklin Street,Newark, New Jersey, 1966.

SULLIVAN, CAPTAIN JEREMIAH, Program Coordinator,Boston Community Relations Workshop, Projectdescription in CganI AND DELNQUENCY AB-STRACTS, Police Headquarters, 154 Berkeley Street,Boston, Massachusetts 02116, 1968.

Taking a Chance on Love, 93 TME, (March 28, 1969).TEALE, THoirmS, Deputy Chief, Department of Police,

Des Moines, Iowa, Correspondent, High SchoolLaw Enforcement Program, Project description inCRIME AND DELINQUENCY ABSTRACTS, 1968.

WALLACE, LT. D. B., Project Director, Crime Preven-tion Program for Businessmen and Women, Projectdescription in Cruim AND DELINQUENCY AB-STRACTS, Police Academy, East First and Court,Des Moines, Iowa, 50309, 1968.

WooDsON, MAJOR PM w, Correspondent, PoliceCommunity Relations Unit, Project description inCRINE AND DELINQUENCY ABSTRACTS, DirectorPersonnel and Training Office, Bureau of Police,1014, East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia,23219, 1968.

1971]

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology1971

Police-Community Relations in the United States: A Review of Recent Literature and ProjectsDeborah JohnsonRobert J. GregoryRecommended Citation

police-community relations in the united states_ a review of rec

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