The Black and White Reality: Historical and Post-Ferguson Era Perspectives on Public Attitudes Toward the Police
Historically, police have struggled to build trust and legitimacy in communities of color where the tumultuous relationship between the police and community have created contentious encounters, some ending in police use of force. Events in recent years, s
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t 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a White police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri. Following an investigation into the incident, a grand jury declined to indict officer Wilson on charges for the death of Brown. The shooting of Michael Brown by police and later announcement of the grand jury decision led to protests, rallies, and riots, which lasted for weeks following each of the events. The protests expressed the anger and pain of the communities affected by this young man’s death and sparked increased media coverage of similar instances of police officer shootings of young Black men in the U.S. These forms of social outcry reflected public outrage over the lack of institutional response to these events (Thomas & Blackmon, 2015). People of color mobilized and came together to amplify their voices in a time when they felt unheard. Social movements like Black Lives Matter developed in response to the spate of police killings of unarmed Black individuals and the increased media attention they garnered in 2014–2015 (Kahn & Martin, 2016). Police are the gatekeepers at the forefront of modern legal systems, representing the initial point of contact for those who enter. Yet, unlike other legal actors and representatives of the justice system, police function in the community where the public is exposed to police personnel and policing practices on a daily basis. As a result, most citizens have had some experience with police in their lives, whether
L. M. Cole (*) Department of Psychology, Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma City, OK, USA e-mail: [email protected] K. April Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA R. J. Trinkner Department of Criminology, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 M. K. Miller, B. H. Bornstein (eds.), Advances in Psychology and Law, Advances in Psychology and Law 5, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54678-6_8
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directly or vicariously through others, that shapes their opinion of and attitudes toward the police. Public distrust in the police is not a new phenomenon, nor are the issues that often precipitate, exacerbate, and maintain it. While many communities maintain generally positive and productive relationships with the police, others have more contentious and complicated relationships. Historically, police have struggled with their relationships with racial/ethnic minority communities and communities that are economically disadvantaged or disenfranchised. Racial and ethnic disparities in police contact with and treatment of minority citizens have resulted in distrust of police in these communities and increased perceptions of police as adversarial instead of helpful. When citizens do not trust the police, it becomes difficult to effectively police those communities; people will fail to report crime when it occurs, cooperate with police, and assist in police inves
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