International Association of Official Human Rights Agencies - Civil Rights Compliance - Newark, New Jersey, Reel 4

• NCJ Number: 83634
• Author(s): L Brown
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 0 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; International Assoc of Official Human Rights Agencies
• Publication Format: Film
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Videotape, 67 minutes, color, 1 inch - For the entire series on workshops held by the Association in 1975 in Boston, Seattle, and Newark, see NCJ-83625-836466.

Annotation

In an unstructured discussion session, workshop participants query a black female police officer from the Dallas Police Department regarding the experience of her threefold minority status in her personal and professional life.

Abstract

Questions concern police recruitment, training, advancement, and patroling policies; police educational requirements; dangers in policing; peer relationships on the force; and personal and professional relationships in both black and white communities. Officer Brown emphasizes the importance of college as a maturing experience necessary for police work. She talks of the black community's social stigma against a black police officer and of male rejection of a woman in police work. She admits to the pitfalls of empathizing with black suspects early in her work and learning to function as a police officer without bias. She also testifies to a rejection of her authority in white neighborhoods and to internal discords with racial overtones in the department. The Dallas Police Department has accepted considerable numbers of minorities and women, but its equal opportunity commitment remains to be proven through advancement and promotional policies as these minority officers acquire seniority. The speaker lauds a cadet program which introduces minority youths to police work before the qualifying age of 21.