Is Fostering A Healthy Police-Community Relationship Important?

Does creating a healthy relationship between the community and law enforcement result in a safer environment?

Photo by Wesley Mc Lachlan on Unsplash.

Since the death of George Floyd, there are seemingly endless amounts of cases highlighting police officers abusing their power. There is no question whether or not the job of a police officer is complicated and stressful, but are police officers abusing their power, and why are relationships between the community and law enforcement important?

When looking at reports pertaining to the rate of misconduct committed by police officers, there is a seemingly low rate of occurrences. According to the Stroud Law Firm, one out of every 135.8 police officers across the nation will be implicated in the media for a criminal act or an act of misconduct, a rate of around 0.7%. While this rate does not seem high, due to the frequency of civilian-police interactions the number of misconduct occurrences quickly add up.

The University of Illinois Chicago found that in one year, there are more than 50 million persons in the U.S. who have come in contact with police during a traffic stop, street stop, arrest, traffic accident or resident-initiated contact.

With such immense amounts of contact between civilians and police, what can be done to lessen the amount of…