Training Police Recruits for Service in the Urban Ghetto

Abstract

This article describes a social worker's experience in training a group of police recruits for the police department of a large eastern city. The group reflected a departmental recruitment policy directed toward both attracting personnel from outside the area and increasing the number of black officers on the force. The paper explores the implications of such recruitment for trainers and describes the author's efforts to operationalize them. Emphasis was placed both on the acculturation needs of officers recruited outside the local community and on the inter nal conflicts of the recruits (mostly black) from the city itself. With juvenile delinquency as its focus, training was directed primarily toward helping the men discover, identify, and practice appropriate patrol skills in dealing with juveniles. The trainer sought to encourage a more comprehensive view by introducing them to other components of the criminal justice system. Training methods were participative, concrete, experience- based, colloquial, and action-oriented; they including role-plays, field visits, buzz groups, a "ghetto glossary," outside interviews, and feedback, as well as lectures and readings. The dynamics of several of the approaches in this group are described and dis cussed. Recruits' feelings about their role, the department, and the community emerged vividly; of particular importance were the varied adjustments of black recruits to the opposing pulls of the ghetto and police cultures. Although the police system is not altogether sympathetic to ideal patrol functions, policemen will continue to require effec tive training in the exercise of the wide discretion inherent in their role.