The mistrust of law enforcement appears to be at an all time high. But how did we get here and how do we fix it? My police friends and co-workers clearly do not accept blame and most do not even see it as a problem. Most of these men and woman see themselves as being on the right side of a two sided fight.

On one side, you have the police, the good, the moral, the just. On the other side, you have the bad, the criminal, the law breaker. Unfortunately, for most officers there is no in-between, you are either with us or against us. This brings a very adversarial tone to the job for many officers and that tone is often resented by the public.

For me, the people I serve with aren’t bad people. Often, they make great neighbors, are loving parents who grew up to make their own parents proud. These men and woman want to do a good job. Most live clean cut lives and have high moral codes.

The problem is not the officers. The problem is systematic. In my department of thirty, nearly every officer comes from the same background. We are white males, raised in rural Michigan by middle class parents. The people we serve are mostly white middle class, but not everyone is in the same demographic. We also have a very large class of poverty stricken people, as well as Hispanics, Blacks and some GLBT.

The mistrust is great among minority groups and it’s not unreasonable. Like many people, the officers I work with have preconceived beliefs and even fears of other groups that they are unfamiliar with. As police, unfortunately, we deal with people on their worst days, who struggle more than average. Our cultural bias and societal prejudices are further confirmed with each dealing we have with people who fit the stereotypes we already have.

Like so many in society, most police aren’t aware of their own prejudice or even the fact they have racist tendencies. How would they know? Many officers have little to no life experience with people outside their demographic.

A year or two at the local community college and a sixteen week police academy does not come close to preparing one for dealing with the culturally sensitive situations that we find ourselves in as police officers. When I went through the police academy, we had four hours of diversity training. Despite, the efforts of the presenters, it was quite obvious to me, that many of my fellow classmates found this topic a waste of time and something that the left wing members of society were jamming down our throats.

What should have been beneficial to these young cadets was actually treated as a waste of time. So what should we do as a society? For starters, leaders in law enforcement need to push for yearly diversity and sensitivity training.

Over my tenure as an officer, I have had hundreds of hours on how to shoot a gun and a total of 0 minutes on coming to terms and recognizing my own bias. Education in law enforcement has to redirected, firearms training is good and needed, but so is training in how to treat others and communicate with others outside of our demographic.

Lastly, and most importantly, we need prayer. Pray for your local department. These people desire to do good and want to keep you safe. Many police have the best intentions. A little extra education would make us all proud and help bring respect back to a respectable profession.