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ant for such conversations between police and civilians
to occur in a place where everyone feels safe to speak
their minds.
WHAT WE HAVE NOW AND WHY IT’S NOT ENOUGH
Officers on patrol rarely have the time or the appropri-
ate environment to have lengthy, detailed discussions with
community members on topics that are often divisive and
complex. These conversations, however, are an essential
pillar in repairing police and community relationships.
Officers need not only to be brave in the face of physical
danger, they also need to be trained in discursive engage-
ment, and provided time to have courageous conversa-
tions. Courage in these conversations is often manifested
in vulnerability, empathy and affinity. Intergroup settings
offer an opportunity for these exchanges. Programs such as
Coffee with A Cop have provided some valuable platforms
for police and community engagement; however, spaces
need to be created for civilian community members and
police to engage in a bilateral, facilitated dialogue on topics
that are often tense and divisive in nature. Topics such as
implicit bias, immigration enforcement, and use of force
policy are at the pinnacle of public debate. Police officers
who patrol neighborhoods need to be at their community’s
table for this conversation.
As implicit bias is increasingly part of our daily dia-
logue, opportunities for intergroup contact have shown
promise in reducing even unconscious bias (Saad, 2016),
with affinity being an essential characteristic for creating
necessary bonds between police and public. Relatedly and
many decades ago, August Vollmer, a reformer from the
Professional Era of policing, identified sympathy as a special
quality required of a police officer (Vollmer, 1936). In this
vein, he wrote:
The citizen expects police officers to have the wisdom
of Solomon, the courage of David, the strength of Sam-
son, the patience of Job, the leadership of Moses, the
kindness of the Good Samaritan, the strategical train-
ing of Alexander, the faith of Daniel, the diplomacy of
Lincoln, the tolerance of the Carpenter of Nazareth,
and finally, an intimate knowledge of every branch of
the natural, biological, and social sciences (p. 222).
The term, social contract, has been used to describe the
consent civilians have given police in an effort to achieve
a greater level of safety than if police protection did not
exists. When segments of the public begin to doubt they are
safer with police protection than without, the legitimacy of
law enforcement begins to erode. In discussing the loss of
net gain by the public in this contract, Jeffrey Reiman (1985)
wrote that “… if law enforcement threatens rather than
enhances our freedom, the distinction between crime and
criminal justice is obliterated” (p. 241). As tense pressures
are placed on the hinges of this social contract, increased
intergroup dialogue promises to help redefine how law
enforcement communicates with the public, and restores
legitimacy where it has been lost.
FORGING CULTURAL CHANGE
Non-traditional events, formal and informal, are begin-
ning to surface which demonstrate cultural shifts in how
law enforcement engages with the communities they serve.
Recently, in an editorial for the Santa Barbara Independent,
community member, Matt Lowe (2017), wrote about a Sun-
day morning gathering of two congregations, Jewish and
Christian, which were joined by four police officers in an
intergroup setting, focused on law enforcement and people
of color. When describing the outcome, he wrote: “…rela-
tionships were built with folks who might not usually cross
paths: Jewish folks with Christians, Christians with Police
Officers, Jewish and black folks, black and white folks. This
was great. There was dialogue; the ice was being broken,
something great was being built.”
Another example provides evidence that police accred-
itation agencies are embracing the value of intergroup con-
tact between law enforcement and community members.
Recently, California Peace Officer Standards and Training
(POST) certified a course, Aligning Percep-
tions (Adaptive Policing), in which
officers are embedded in a
Santa Barbara City College
Justice Studies class with
students, and as stu-
dents. The students
and officers engage
in intergroup con-
Programs such as
tact as they work
Coffee with A Cop
together through
a critical thinking
have provided some
exercise where
valuable platforms for
they are required
police and community
to act as a judge
and sentence a
engagement…
convicted person.
The groups (ingroup
and outgroup) must
form a consensus on
the court sentence, using
California Rules of the Court
emphasizing mitigating and
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