From my personal perspective of a foreign national who has found her home in the melting pot of London for over 15 years, policing of the multicultural community could never be an easy endeavour. I see the problem of the relationship between the police and minority communities, especially issues of trust and confidence, as a complex mosaic of intertwined stereotypes and expectations, which perhaps London is the best specimen of.
My first take on the subject of policing was with my university project in Poland. When I moved to London, I grabbed the opportunity to take part in the police volunteering programme with some training.
That experience gave me insight into police ethics and core values, as well as real life experience of how challenging it can be to apply them in the heat of the moment, when the contact with the public comes down to human to human exchange, eye contact, tone of voice, emotions, sense of being there for someone, gender, language, non-verbal communication, and so on. More recently, I have been working in yet another role, as an independent police interpreter, giving the suspects, witnesses and victims their voice, their Human Right. Currently, I am researching Polish women’s attitudes and
experiences of reporting domestic violence and abuse to the police in the UK.
I see the research in the subject of policing the minority communities as an opportunity to bring the benefit of deeper mutual understanding to the whole community we are living in. One person can make a difference, and everyone should try...
