Black America bruised in black & blue

Abstract

Police-community relations between law enforcement and Black communities are and have been further damaged due to a series of controversial events involving recent use-of-force measures initiated by predominantly White police officers and applied to predominantly Black men, women, and children across a thirty-year span. Law enforcement agencies cite legal non-compliance as the source of escalated actions. Simultaneously, communities of color attribute racial discrimination as the primary factor towards police misconduct and have subsequently initiated calls to action, in the form of civil and uncivil protests, to local, state, and federal government sectors for immediate reform. In response to shared concerns raised by law enforcement and communities of color, in 2011, a task force created by the Obama Administration confirmed lack of diversity and lack of consistent cultural competency training as major influencers and recommended increasing Black police enrollment percentages - as a potential solution towards mitigating racial tensions and legitimizing policing efficacy. In conjunction with these findings, the 116th and 117th Congress proposed several bills addressing police accountability, training, independent review, and data transparency. However, there is an ongoing debate in academia regarding whether an association between the increase of Black police officers and officer-involved shooting reduction exists. Therefore, using a phenomenological approach to interview 10 Black Boston police officers, findings revealed an association between Black police officer's involvement in police diversity initiatives and officer-involved shooting reduction exists.--Author's abstract