Heather on Policing and Race Relations

Recent research has shown that the Canadian police has decided to not report a convict’s race in its crime statistics in a policy known as “whitewashing.” In fact, the only time these statistics are used is internally within the police department. They argue race statistics are not necessary. In addition, the police fear if they release the races of the people they arrest, people will notice the high numbers of African-American and aboriginal people and they might assume racism. In fact, in 2005 the Kingston Police were accused of racism when statistics were released that officers were four times as likely to pull over a driver who was African-American. However, critics of this policy argue whitewashing will make the police less accountable and race statistics tracking whether or not racism is actually occurring will be extremely difficult to obtain.

Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, the creator of the “whitewashing” term states, “Police agencies in this country spend millions of dollars a year on initiatives to improve relations with racialized communities and to reduce racial discrimination within policing. Without adequate information about the racial background of individuals who come into contact with, or are dealt with by the police, these initiatives cannot be accurately developed or evaluated for effectiveness." Race relations are not going to improve if the police decide to ignore it. In fact, the opposite will happen. Since race statistics are not being given to the public, the public will not actually know if the police are engaging in racist strategies. Police have less accountability to the public and this can result in abuse of power, the most notable example being the case involving Rodney King. By withholding these statistics, measures and attempts to resolve and actually improve race relations can’t be adequately measured. By denying transparency into police actions, they harm their relationships with the community and develop a negative image in the eyes of the public.

One of the huge problems with professional policing is its strict crime-fighting objective. Sklansky states “40 years ago, American law enforcement…was overwhelming, white, overwhelmingly male, and politically and culturally homogenous. That made the “go it alone” mentality of police professionalism especially unfortunate. It reinforced levels of insularity, arrogance and hostility that were already dangerously high, and it gave license to the police to act on forms of prejudice that received few checks inside law enforcement agencies.” Although, today the police are not as homogenous of a group a lot of these criticisms and concerns can be seen in this whitewashing policy. Street crime tends to be centered in more marginalized areas, where there is a high concentration of minorities- namely African American and aboriginal in Canada. Because these crimes happen in these geographical areas with a high minority population, police begin to develop a connotation between these racial minorities and criminals, resulting in further distrust and policing of them and creating a cycle that is incredibly difficult to escape. However, there is not just distrust on the police side, the minorities do not feel as if they can trust the police, and this loss of trust prevents law-abiding citizens from providing substantial aid and information to the police. Here is an example from Sklansky, “If we want to prevent attacks from Islamic extremists, our most important allies will be found among moderate, mainstream Islamic Americans, and the way to gain their trust and cooperation is by working with them in precisely the ways emphasized by community policing. Because citizens are a member of the communities where there is a high number of crimes, they are the most important people in being able to solve and prevent these crimes from happening in the first place.

By utilizing some principles found in community policing, a lot of the racial tension can be mitigated. For example, if the police were to develop partnerships and improve the relationship between community members in these minority communities, people may begin to feel they can trust the police again and will be more willing to report crimes, serve as witnesses or help the police in other ways. The community benefits because the criminals are handed over to the police and the police benefit in being better able to prosecute criminals. However, this will not happen unless the police actively and genuinely participate in the community and learn about their lifestyle, worries and fears. Another element of community policing that would greatly benefit would be finding the underlying cause of crimes in a particular area. For example, since street crime tends to happen in these marginalized areas, if the police were to find the causes as to why crimes were so prevalent they can attack those causes. If those causes were eliminated, crime would decrease and the police would no longer have to focus their time and energy in these communities, and tensions would begin to loosen.