People’s attitudes toward law enforcement have a lot to do with how the community they live in feels about the police. For instance, those that see the police as something akin to serve and protect are going to be inclined to call upon the police whenever they perceive a real need to do so; whereas, those that see the police as something akin to an occupying force they are therefore not going to be inclined to call the police, even when there is a real need for their assistance. The difference between these attitudes has a real effect in communities because whenever a community does not believe that the police will be fair, impartial, considerate, or of aid to that community then this is going to create a vacuum, and because of the real lack of an effective law enforcement agency within that community this thus lends itself to alternatives, such as gangs, which typically aren’t going to be all that good or healthy for that community.
In actuality, policing has its place, but when that place isn’t tenable, because the community does not feel that calling upon the police would not, in and of itself, serve to do anything constructive about the real issue at hand, but rather would often serve to create even more havoc, because of the potential of a needless arrest, harassment, or the interference into that which should not concern the police, means that the community will have to resolve what needs to be resolved not through an agency which is meant to be of service to them, but rather reverts to being dealt with by those that have agency within that community and who are themselves not untypically the type that aren’t actually good overall or beneficial for the community.
The fact that we find that a significant portion of the members of certain communities do not call the police when circumstances would seem to dictate that they should, and therefore do not welcome the police into their neighborhood is a sad reflection that not all is right, because when the police aren’t able to engage a given community in a way and manner in which each party can see the benefit in doing so, then it just makes for a bad construct, which means that problems and troubles that should be addressed aren’t going to be addressed, and for a certainty they also aren’t going to go away, either.
The bottom line is that there needs to be more of a community outreach between the residents of a given community and the authorized police force assigned to that community, which needs to have a platform in which the citizens and the police can sit down and ultimately break bread together so that they can come to some sort of agreement which makes sense for all parties involved, because communities do need the police to address things that should be addressed as well as being given the space to conduct police business, and the community needs to feel that the police presence serves them fairly, which when done right will make for a better community outcome.