Throughout the history of the United States, there has been racism, concerns over immigration policies, and corruption that led to people fearing the police, and ultimately led to a negative connotation toward the police. However, like all stereotypes, there is a smidge of truth. Over the years, a small percentage of the police have abused their power, leading people to believe that all police are tainted. It is through sources such as media, to cause naïve people to believe that the police are “out to get” one group of people, or that police are corrupt individuals who cover up for each other. However, through techniques such as community involvement, the police can ease theses stereotypes placed on them and eventually get people …show more content…
Many of the programs were established to create a positive relationship between the community and police. Often, the only time people interact with the police is through traffic violations (Gallagher, 2001). Therefore the police have created programs such as citizen’s police academy, DARE, and interaction through crime prevention techniques.
Citizen’s Police Academy: The Citizen’s Police Academy gives citizens of a community the right to know how the police operate and is designed to build trust between the police and the community. By understand how the police operate, people of the community can understand and respect policing in the community. In addition, people who attend the police academy can relay learned information to other people in the community, resulting in an increased acceptance of the police. According to an article released by the United States Department of Justice, after graduation of the Citizen’s Police Academy, civilians are more likely to become advocated of police policy, spreading it amongst the community (U.S. Department of Justice, 2006). In addition to the Citizen’s Police Academy, several police agencies also have internal affairs citizen review boards, in which the citizens are responsible for handling complaints regarding police. This is another beneficial program because it will allow citizens to immensely trust police …show more content…
program, although not as successful at preventing drug use, has been beneficial for both the youth and the officers involved in the program. According to an annual report released by Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement, DARE has successfully taught youth refusal skills and different life skills that can help prevent them from using drugs (Bailey, 2013). While learning these skills, children in the community become more comfortable with the police, which could also help in the reducing the juvenile crime rate. In addition to helping children, according to FDLE, the D.A.R.E. program has also helped officers communicate more efficiently with the community and led to better people skills (Bailey, 2013). Consequently, a program such as D.A.R.E. would help officers deal with juvenile delinquents, and give officers better ways to relate to a