How Does Police Brutality And Community-Oriented Policing Affect Police-Community Relationships?

Introduction The use of force by police officers has been a huge concern in the United States. Excessive force refers to force more than what a police officer reasonably believes is necessary. There are lots of controversial uses of force by police officers in our world. Famous cases featured on the news such as George Floyd, Eric Garner, and Freddie Gray have brought attention to the need for police reform. Police brutality does not just occur in the United States. Police violence is not new in Latin America, but George Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States have drawn greater attention to police brutality and human rights abuses in the region. The U.S. and Latin America have experienced similar incidents regarding

Police agencies must work to improve relationships with their communities. This will reduce complaints of police misconduct and will positively affect police-community relationships.

Body, community and problemoriented policing have shaped the debate over the role of the American police for three decades. In the 1990s, the federal government provided billions of dollars via the COPS program to promote police reform. Community-oriented policing is a strategy of policing that focuses on developing relationships with community members. During this time, community and problemsolving practices became more common. Research focusing specifically on whether COPS grants directly resulted in reductions in crime remains mixed (Resing, 2010). The addition of community-oriented policing (COP) is an effort to improve community relationships with officers. It is important for the police to know residents and be visible in their communities. When there is no relationship between law enforcement agencies and communities, it affects society negatively. Community members tend to fear police officers and

In communities that are out of touch with their officers, crime rates increase, which leads to excessive force by officers. Before the wave of abuses by the police started in 2019, according to the 2018 Latinobarómetro survey, only 35% said they had faith in the police. The attitudes towards police in Latin America and the United States have always been low (Nice, 2021). Excessive force from the police can have profound and lasting effects on individuals' physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development. Trauma, anxiety, and PTSD are cognitive impacts from excessive force. These psychological effects are evident both in the United States and in Latin America, highlighted by events such as the death of George Floyd and the alarming number of police-related deaths in Brazil (Nice, 2021). There are socio-emotional effects such as skepticism and distrust of authority. Physical impacts are the harm and injury the person has experienced. In an attempt to improve police-community relationships, the Houston Police Department is developing community policing. Having community policing in certain areas, they wanted to see whether officers assigned to those areas would have more complaints than