Blue Views: Qualitative Interviews with Police Officers on Recent High Profile Cases and their Views of the State of Police-Community Relations

• In Event: Police-Community Relations and Engagement

Abstract

Police and community relations have historically been tenuous. Prior literature points to a police socialization that occurs whereby police officers develop and utilize a suspicious or cautious orientation when they interact with citizens. Recent high profile events in Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore, Maryland, and New York City, among others, appear to have galvanized relations between police and citizens -- particularly minority citizens -- even further. What is often left out of the public discourse and commentary on high profile instances of police use of force against citizens is the perspectives of police officers. This study utilizes qualitative interviews conducted by virtue of a snowball sample of one author's police contacts at different locations throughout the nation. The focus of the study is police officer reaction to the public discourse that follows these high profile cases.

Authors

• Elizabeth Gilmore, Prairie View A&M University

• Kevin Buckler, University of Houston - Downtown