Jeannie She¹, Brooke Ellison²

¹Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02138, ²Center for Compassionate Care, Medical Humanities, and Bioethics, Health Science Center, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794

*Editors: Alyssa Kim, Jacob Han, Jessica Guo

 

Racial tensions between Latino residents of Suffolk County, New York, and the Suffolk County Police Department (SCPD) reached national exposure after an extensive delay in adequate investigations for the murders of two Latino individuals: Marcelo Lucero in 2008 and José Fermín Sánchez in 2010. Following Lucero’s murder, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) opened an evaluation of the SCPD in 2009 based on “discriminatory policing allegations.”^[1]Although an agreement for more equitable policing was reached and following DOJ assessments confirmed progress, a lack of trust and demonstration of improvement persists on the local level, according to Irma Solis, the Suffolk County director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.^[1] The SCPD has already established generalized anti-bias policies,^[2]hired an Ecuadorian immigrant (Lizbeth Carrillo) into the department council,^[3] and created Spanish-language social media,^[4] but this action has proven to be insufficient. Instead, measures that are specific to the Latino community in Suffolk County should be implemented as they may lead to more effective overall policing.

 

The proposed community-oriented reform for the SCPD has four components: establishment of an understanding of local issues and utilization of community-tailored solutions,^[5] reduction of deportation fears and rhetoric to promote communication and respect, increased awareness of endemic health issues, and collection of empirical data and increased transparency on new policing measures.

 

First, the SCPD should take note of the housing conditions, employment rate, and other factors within the community that directly correlate with frequent incidents. A familiarity with the community demographics could lead to more appropriate, tailored solutions that prevent crime proactively rather than reactively. Second, deportation fears have been cited as reasons to interact minimally with the police.^[6] This concern is a barrier to improving the protection of the community and must be addressed. Third, amongst various physical health issues, mental health stigma is a pressing issue amongst the Latino community due to the favoring of privacy in social culture, as well as the fear of being labeled locos, or crazy.^[7] Furthermore, obstacles like language barriers, lack of culturally competent care, and absence of healthcare negatively affect the community’s mental health.^[7] Considering the impact of mental health on crime, recognizing and overcoming these obstacles and stigma is imperative. Fourth, “active solicitation of input from neighborhood residents and civic organizations” ^[6] could largely increase trust and transparency between the two parties, again promoting communication and accountability on both ends. Consequently, detailed data should be collected following the establishment of new regulations and methods in order to evaluate their true impact on the community and crime.

 

Further research will entail a deeper dive into each facet of this proposal and the elucidation of connections between Suffolk County-specific issues and the past, current, and future work of the SCPD. Effective policing must be done with the community in mind, and Suffolk County is no exception.

 

References

[1] “Report shows Suffolk PD has made progress with Latinos since Lucero case.” News12 Long Island, 18 Oct 2018. Web. 05 Aug 2020.

[2] Lane, Charles. “Suffolk Struggles To Reform Discriminatory Policing Against Latinos.” WSHU Public Radio, 29 Feb 2016. Web. 05 Aug 2020.

[3] Dasio, Stephanie. “Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart hires Hispanic liaison officer.” Newsday, 27 Oct 2018. Web. 05 Aug 2020.

[4] Goldberg, Jodi. “Suffolk County police using social media to improve relations with Latino community.” Fox5NY, 2 Jan 2020. Web. 06 Aug 2020.

[5] Reisig, Michael D. “Community and Problem‐Oriented Policing.” Crime and Justice, vol. 39, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1–53. JSTOR, doi: 10.1086/652384. Web. 6 Aug 2020.

[6] Peddie, Sandra. “Despite progress after hate crime, SCPD and Hispanics struggle with trust.” amNY, 2 Nov 2018. Web. 04 Aug 2020.

[7] “Latinx/Hispanic.” National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d. Web. 04 Aug 2020.