The Effects of the Media and Police Corruption on Community Policing

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The Negative Portrayal

There is efforts always underway to help eliminate police corruption and misconduct within police departments across the nation. Despite the positive associations that social media has there is the negative. Unfortunately, there has been questions raised on what seems to be an uprising on police misconduct. The news media and social media sites have become one of the major sources that contribute to the opinions elevated on police legitimacy (Surette, 1998). The media can often portray the failed attempts law enforcement make to control crime and fail to actually cover all the positive crime control efforts that are being made on a daily basis (Graber, 1980). Social media can have a bias affliction on public opinion and hinder the effects of successfully community policing.

One of the biggest factors that can contribute to the loss of trust in our law enforcement is police misconduct. According to (Lawrence, 2000) Police departments have the main goal of promoting positive images of their police during any type of crime coverage by the media, though this can all be destabilized by crisis events that involve law enforcement. During the recent lethal violence acts that involved law enforcement in Baton Rouge, Dallas and Falcon Heights this has heightened the mistrust between citizens and law enforcements. In return this has hindered the ability to have successful community policing and relations with the community in these areas. The citizens feel that the minority groups are being target by racial tendencies by police. This had led to the rise of Black Lives Matter Movement (Nagin, 2016).

Police corruption as well as the excessive force amongst the African American communities have the inclination of being covered in an extensive manner by the media over small time periods. When there is an intense coverage of issues of police misconduct it can convert the way people perceive our law enforcement across the nation. When you see a video that is being circulated by the media of an officer gunning down a man who is evading arrest, a person cannot deny the facts that are presented. The incident in North Charleston prompted the African American minorities to see this as another instance of misconduct by our police.

Before and right after September 11, 2001 the police department has an undeniable trust in the men and women that protect and serve our communities. Since the rise of smartphones there has been an increase in the use of social media this trust has declined. The public now has the tools to be able to document, report and share all forms of incidents of police misconduct. The Law enforcement are now concerned that video recordings of their interactions with the public are being used to show them in a negative light, creating a “YouTube effect”. This is having a negative impact on how they are able to perform their jobs and the outreach in the communities. When you have a civilian record their interactions with the police department on social media it can be misrepresented (Noble, 2015).

Sir Robert Peel (1829) stated ”The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police existence, actions, behavior and the ability of the police to secure and maintain public respect”. This can only be done without negative impacts of social media. It is important to mention that anytime there is stories that involve police corruption and deviance behavior it is always deemed to be social media worthy. Now-a-days when there seems to be police misconduct that is covered by the main stream media is causes an uprising of protest in communities across the United States. Since the rise of social media many citizens feel that there is a lack of law enforcement accountability and that is the reason for all police misconduct. They also feel that community policing will no longer be able to address this issue. The negative impact has led to people assuming that an officer will bit be punished in accordance of the law if he chokes a suspect to death or shots him. Neighborhoods that are effected also feel that community policing doesn’t bring them comfort as it used to and gives the feeling their neighborhoods are just being occupied (Starr, 2015).

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References

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