Ways To Improve Police Legitimacy in Poor, Minority Neighborhoods

Michael Sierra-Arevalo’s policy brief for the Scholars Strategy Network (SSN) looks at ways to improve policing in poor neighborhoods. Using a 2003 City of Oakland case concerning police misconduct as one example of many lawsuits filed against the police in the United States, he suggests several key steps that can be taken to build the perception of police fairness.

“Damaging relationships between disadvantaged communities and the police are not inevitable,” Sierra-Arevalo writes. “Studies of policing and the procedures used in the justice system find that police gain legitimacy when their interactions with community members are perceived as fair.”

Read SSN Policy Brief