Minorities in democracy and policing policy: From alienation to cooperation

Tense relations between the Israeli police and the Arab citizens of Israel have been a major concern in recent years. Policing provides a challenge in democracies with diverse societies where cultures, religions and competing national identities challenge the existing order, and where the police in many cases have yet to develop the capabilities to engage with diversity and overcome its own biases and prejudices in order to better serve minorities. While police officers and policy-makers may be aware of the need to initiate reform in order to succeed, they need to identify the actual needs of minorities. In this study of police reforms in Israel vis-à-vis the Arab minority we propose a bottom-up study of the potential impact of three types of reforms: recruitment of Arab citizens to the police, cultural training of police officers and institutionalising police-community relations. Our findings are based on two complementary stages of research, four focus groups and a comprehensive research survey of a representative sample of 1006 adult Arab citizens.