Friend Not Foe? Reconsidering Race, the Police, and Community Relations

• Date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368719849486
• Author: Cheryl Lero Jonson,Hannah D. McManus,Velmer S. Burton,Francis T. Cullen,Amanda Graham
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: Articles

Friend Not Foe? Reconsidering

Race, the Police, and

Community Relations

Hannah D. McManus

1

, Amanda Graham

2

,

Francis T. Cullen

1

, Velmer S. Burton Jr

3

,

and Cheryl Lero Jonson

4

Abstract

Given the complicated historical and contemporary relationship between law

enforcement and African Americans, academic and popular commentary have focused

intently on the existence of conflict between the police and the Black citizenry in the

United States. The current project, however, seeks to broaden understanding in this

area by exploring the extent to which African Americans know the police in positive,

informal ways. Based on a 2017 national-level survey of 1,000 African Americans, this

project explores the extent of survey participants’ association with police officers as

well as potential predictors of those relationships. Specifically, binary logistic regression

is used to analyze the relationship between the survey respondents’ social bonds,

demographic characteristics, and their relationships with police officers. The analyses

reveal that respondents’ ties to the police were common, with nearly one in four having

a police officer as a family member and a majority having some relationship with officers.

Those with stakes in conformity were more likely to have bonds to officers, although

racial homophily likely also accounts for knowing police officers. Importantly, this

project demonstrates the complexity of African Americans’ relationships with the

police and identifies further lines of inquiry that might profitably be explored.

Keywords

police, police–community relations, stake in conformity, social bonds

1

University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

2

Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA

3

University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Little Rock, AR, USA

4

Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, USA

Corresponding Author:

Hannah D. McManus, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210389, Cincinnati,

OH 45221, USA.

Email: mcmanuhd@ucmail.uc.edu

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368719849486

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2022, Vol. 12(1) 47–69

Article

In the United States, the complexity of police–race relations has motivated a

hyperfocus in mainstream and academic literature on the nature of police interac-

tions with the Black citizenry they serve. Supported by observations of police use of

aggressive enforcement tactics in minority neighborhoods (Engel, Smith, & Cullen,

2012; Gelman, Fagan, & Kiss, 2007; Johnson, Wilson, Maguire, & Lowrey-Kinberg,

2017), a string of highly publicized police-involved shootings of unarmed Black

men (Sherman, 2018; Sparrow, 2016; Weitzer, 2015; Zimring, 2017), and the pro-

liferation of a national movement asserting the presence of systemic racial biases

and injustice within the criminal justice system (Cobb, 2016; https://black

livesmatter.com), these writings lend substantial attention to the crisis in public

confidence in the police within communities of color across the nation. Scholars

have invested significant effort in unpacking police–citizen relations, using quali-

tative research to develop the complex stories of Black citizens’ experiences with

the police (e.g., Brunson, 2007; Brunson & Weitzer, 2009; Gau & Br unson, 2010)

andsurveyresearchtotapintothevariousconstructs that appear to be the building

blocks of Black citizens’ opinions of the police (e.g., Ekins, 2016; La Vigne, Fon-

taine, & Dwidevi, 2017; Weitzer, 2000; Weitzer & Tuch, 2002, 2004, 2005). Col-

lectively, this literature highlights the overall negative experiences of Black citizens

in their encounters with the police, as well as general feelings of dissatisfaction and

distrust among this population (Peck, 2015).

This prior research provides an important foundation for any understanding of

police interaction and relations with community members of color within the United

States. Still, the concentration on conflict—including the negative experiences and

emotions that arise between the police and Black citizens—appears to have had the

unanticipated consequence of diverting attention from a key aspect of officer–citizen

relationships: the prevalence of informal interpersonal relations between Black citi-

zens and the police. Indeed, the extant literature focuses primarily on African

Americans more formal, negative encounters with the police as opposed to their

potential positive, informal associations (Peck, 2015).

In this context, the aim of this project is to assess the extent to which African

Americans know the police as a “friend” as opposed to the stereotypical “foe.”

Specifically, using a 2017 national-level survey of African Americans, this

project examines whether Black citizens are isolated from and, as such, have

little informal contact with officers or whether they interact with officers in ways

ranging from being acquaintances to family members. As a prelude to this

analysis, the following section discusses the mainstream and academic com-

mentary highlighting the contentious nature of police relations with Black citi-

zens in the United States. The impact of these writings on the overall

understanding of police–community of color relations is also discussed. Finally,

two theoretical models pertaining to African Americans’ interpersonal associa-

tions with police officers are presented.

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Race and Justice 12(1)