Regaining the trust of the American public: a law enforcement initiative

Abstract

While Americans remain confident in law enforcement, there are profound fractures in the relationship between the police and certain communities across the United States. Law enforcement shootings of unarmed individuals--particularly African Americans--inadequate police response, and the subsequent civil unrest raise disturbing and often volatile concerns for public safety. This thesis asserts that, as an industry, law enforcement is experiencing a nationwide crisis. Although law enforcement has been unable to successfully navigate the dynamics of reputation management during a crisis, companies in the private sector have identified effective frameworks, paradigms, and best practices for successfully regaining--and, more importantly, maintaining--the public's trust. Consequently, this paper seeks to determine how law enforcement can apply crisis and reputation management techniques developed by the private sector to effectively regain the trust of the American public. The thesis provides law enforcement executives with an opportunity to learn from the private sector and put the most critical lessons learned in crisis and reputation management into practice.