CROSS-CULTURAL AGILITY IN LAW ENFORCEMENT: TYING IN THE INTERLOCUTORS CRAFT
Abstract
Cultural diversity is an enduring feature of Americas complexion. This leads to dynamic and culturally-diverse environments that impact Americas law enforcement community from federal and military investigative agencies to state and local police. The social dimension in policing, the chaotic and non-linear nature of dealing with human behavior, and cultural complexities all contribute to how contextual and specific the policing profession tends to be. Slight changes or shifts in variables can make law enforcement activities unpredictable, escalatory, and disorderly. As a result, law enforcement requires more intellectually-sound, sophisticated and improved cultural skills for engaging diverse populations. This paper introduces a Venn diagram to illustrate the interconnected associations amongst community policing philosophies, cultural competencies, and diplomacy-minded negotiation techniques. Law enforcements optimum balance for a successful intercultural one-on-one engagement resides at the confluence of these parts. This includes the ability to be better cross-culturally skilled in interviews, interrogations, and liaisons, as well as in recruiting and handling informants. Much is written on community policing and the need for cultural competencies. But, literature on operationalizing this concept is hard to find. Which conceptual cross-cultural negotiation techniques are useful when preparing to engage dissimilar cultures? The rising need for cultural agility demands additional ideas and options. The Venn diagrams third component ties in concepts associated with Trust, Information, Power, and Options analysis; Wheel of Culture; Zone of Possible Agreement; and, the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. Within this frame, Iran is used as an extreme case of a culturally intense policing environment with the intent to work through the explored negotiation concepts as an example of how the principles might be transferrable to another diverse environment
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 10, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1038121
Entities
People
- Brian M. Alexander
Organizations
- Air War College