NCJ Number
173156
Journal
Law and Order Volume: 46 Issue: 4 Dated: April 1998 Pages: 24-30
Date Published
1998
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article describes the Boise Police Department's (Idaho) program for improving communication and interaction between police and refugees who are living in the Boise area; general suggestions for improving police performance in refugee and immigrant contacts are included as well.
Abstract
Boise has more than 2,000 refugees from cultures as diverse as Iraq, Kurdistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Vietnam, and Rwanda. The department's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) made contact with the Mountain States Refugee Center. Three years later, COPS orientation sessions with new groups of refugees are a regular part of the agenda at Mountain States. A key resource is the Outreach to New Americans program. This was established in 1993 by the National Crime Prevention Council in partnership with the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement. The outreach program assists communities in building collaborative relationships between police and refugees. It also sponsors an annual Best Practices Conference for police/refugee partnerships. Outreach staff also provide on-site, telephone, and written technical assistance to refugee programs and law enforcement agencies. Some examples of police-refugee programs are refugee/immigrant hiring by police departments, police instruction for refugees about laws and Neighborhood Watch techniques, refugee/police sports activities, and police/refugee social activities. By increasing police-refugee/immigrant contacts and communication of information, both the police and the refugees learn about cultural differences and the meaning of various cultural behaviors and language.