Police–community relations and cultural competency: Important means of countering violent extremism
Cultural competency may be helpful to police in fighting violent extremism. Perceived cultural competency of security officers may directly affect citizens responses, especially individuals from vulnerable communities. Police often need to depend upon citizens’ cooperation to identify those who may be engaging in activities of violent extremism. Therefore, officers must be trained in cultural competency to help reduce feelings of citizen alienation. Participants from three Canadian cities completed an online survey concerning perceptions of police cultural competence in several areas, including national security. Results were discussed with focus groups. With cultural variations, citizens were mostly satisfied with police–citizen interactions. However, some felt they were singled out because of race and religion. Participants stated better police training in cultural competence would lead to greater police–citizen cooperation. All would contact police if the security of Canada were in danger. However, there are those who will never trust police.