← Back to Vol. 06 Issue No. 01 — February
Abstract
The national discourse on police-community relations suggests public trust in law enforcement, particularly from the perspectives of minorities, has continued to decline in recent years. La Vigne, Fontaine, and Dwivedi (2017) describe this trust as “tenuous at best” (p. 1). However, distrust of law enforcement among African-Americans is not a new phenomenon given the violence they have experienced from the police since the founding of this country. From slave patrols in the early eighteenth century to the modern police force of the twenty-first century, racially-biased policing has persisted. As a consequence, it has created a “legitimacy crises” (Nix, 2017, para American policing) through diminished public trust in law enforcement among minorities, especially in African-American communities. The literature suggests more training is required for law enforcement personnel to be more efficient, effective, and responsive to individuals in the communities they take an oath to serve and protect. The purpose of this survey study was to assess the climate of police-community relations and training needs of Kentucky Law Enforcement Agencies (KLEAs) to improve perceptions of legitimacy. The survey was administered to a random sample (N = 72) of agency administrators among KLEAs. Of the respondents (n = 25) who returned the survey, results indicated that from the perspectives of KLEA administrators, continuous training is needed in specific areas, notably, pertaining to race issues. Through continuous training across a spectrum of topics meaningful to law enforcement and the community, such as use of force, race relations, situational encounters, racial profiling, and ethics, police-community relations can be strengthened and perceptions of legitimacy held of law enforcement by the community strengthened.