Over-Policing Research Paper

Words: 599
Pages: 3

Canada has created a reputation for itself as a country where its citizens can live in a free, accepting and safe environment amongst a wide group of ethnic and non-visible minorities. Unfortunately, many minority groups in Canada do not agree with these notions when it comes to policing. Although the mandate of the police force is to protect its citizens and maintain social order, many racial injustices committed by police officers towards minorities have allowed the reputation of the police force to be severally tainted. Many regard police officers to be racist, prejudice and inherently corrupt when dealing with minorities which has opened the discussion on police reform and improving hiring practices. Under-policing and over-policing is …show more content…
If the police services recruit minorities solely for diversification and appearance, the quality of the police services will diminish. Including minorities at all ranks in police services is simply a method known as 'window dressing' that is meant to give the public an outward appearance of tackling the issue of racism without actually achieving much progress. As explained by a police officer to Cashmore (2002), “it’s just better for appearances” (Cashmore, 2002, 329). Police officers themselves believe that the hiring of minority officers are only being done to better their image rather than help minorities from police prejudice and biases. Police services hiring minorities as a tool to help strengthen relationships between police officers and citizens is a myth and has yet to be proven or effective. One of the main objectives behind hiring minorities into the work force is to get a better representation of the population they are policing, but it does not address or correct racial or prejudice mentalities that are pervasive amongst officers at all. In fact, racial or prejudice remarks are often made towards minority officers from