A Shared Vision of Positive Policing from Black Young People and Police: Supporting Transformation and Reformation Efforts

Enforcement-Related Contact

Enforcement-related police contact is associated with myriad developmental and health sequelae in young people. For instance, enforcement-related police contact is associated with poorer academic achievement (Gottlieb & Wilson, 2019), sleep problems (Jackson et al., 2020), worse mental health (Jackson et al., 2019), and poorer law-related attitudes and behaviors–including an increase in law-violating behavior (Alberton & Gorey, 2018; Del Toro et al., 2019).

The quality of police-youth contact is also critical. Negative contact (e.g., police encounters characterized as procedurally unjust, including intrusive police behavior) is more detrimental than positive contact. For instance, in a longitudinal study, youth who were dissatisfied with police-initiated contact had more negative future perceptions of police and more self-reported offending behavior compared to youth who had no police contact (Slocum & Wiley, 2018). These effects transfer to vicarious exposure to police (Harris & Jones, 2020). For example, youth who viewed a body-worn camera video of police personnel treating a driver poorly felt less willing to cooperate with police (Tom et al., 2022). Moreover, exposure to negative police-related social media is associated with negative perceptions of police (Cross & Fine, 2022). These associations between unjust police contact and poor outcomes for youth are often explained through procedural justice theory.

Procedural Justice Theory. Broadly, procedural justice theory focuses on the processes, procedures, and treatment during authority-community contact (Tyler, 1990; Wolfe et al., 2016). More specifically, procedural justice consists of four factors: respectful treatment, opportunity for voice, neutrality of decision-making, and trustworthiness (Tyler & Lind, 2001). When youth believe police treat them with procedural justice, they are more willing to engage in voluntary prosocial law-related behaviors, such as reporting crimes to police, feeling obligated to obey the law, and abiding by laws (Cohn et al., 2010; Jackson et al., 2012; Tyler & Jackson, 2014; Van Petegem et al., 2021). As such, procedural justice is considered the crux of police being able to effectively keep communities safe and promote a society in which community members feel normatively obligated to obey societal laws and rules (Tyler & Blader, 2003).

Beyond the positive law-related attitudes and behaviors associated with procedural justice, such treatment is ethically important. Youth deserve to feel as though the authority responsible for their safety treats them with fairness and justice during enforcement encounters. While procedural justice during enforcement is vital, fostering positive police-youth relationships may also require proactive efforts in non-enforcement contexts. Indeed, the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing (2015) encourages police to engage with community members in non-enforcement contexts to enhance their relationship with community members.

Non-Enforcement Interactions

Non-enforcement interactions with police includes any contact unrelated to potential law-violating or offending behavior (Development Services Group, 2018). Such contact may include police engaging in wellness checks, looking for a lost pet, going to the wrong address, or other informal community policing efforts (Tapp & Davis, 2022).

While the perceptions and outcomes of specific unstructured non-enforcement contact have not been studied extensively, researchers have examined structured programs that engage police and youth in non-enforcement activities, with promising results for youth and police (e.g., Fine et al., 2021; Leroux & McShane, 2017; Padilla et al., 2022). Importantly, examination of programs implemented in the U.S. police agencies intended to reduce ethnoracial inequities in policing suggest they fall short (Pan et al., 2025). Ultimately, equitable, respectful treatment that stems from command or leadership in police agencies is likely foundational to program effectiveness and youth trust.

Beyond structured non-enforcement programs for youth and police to build relationships, non-enforcement contact that occurs between police and youth also has the potential to be positively influential. Positive non-enforcement police contact may be relevant when considering the broader socialization processes through which young people develop their understanding of the law, authority, and societal norms, termed legal socialization (Tapp, 1976, 1991; Tapp & Levine, 1974).

Legal Socialization. Legal socialization is the process through which individuals develop their understanding of the law, legal systems, and legal authorities (Tapp, 1976, 1991; Tapp & Levine, 1974). This developmental process starts during adolescence and continues through young adulthood (Fagan & Tyler, 2005; Piquero et al., 2005), and is shaped by multigenerational factors like narratives and family discourse (Morgan & Giuffre, 2025). Legal socialization theory recognizes that while the role of family, school, and community factors serve critical functions in the socialization of young people, the legal system also significantly impacts their socialization (Cohn & White, 1990; Tapp & Levine, 1974; Trinkner & Tyler, 2016). That is, youths’ experiences with the law and legal system are critical components in the development of their understanding of how individuals and society interact (Fagan & Tyler, 2005).

Non-enforcement experiences can serve as critical “teachable moments” (Tapp, 1991), shaping youths’ legal attitudes by demonstrating fairness, trustworthiness, and community commitment outside of enforcement contexts. By offering early, frequent, and salient positive interactions, police may contribute to more favorable legal socialization, promoting perceptions of legitimacy. In this way, non-enforcement interactions could buffer against negative experiences in enforcement-related contexts, fostering more resilient legal orientations over time.

Extracurricular Interactions Between Police and Young People

Most young people, and particularly male participants, described at least one experience with police who engaged them in a positive way through extracurricular activities. Young people and police personnel shared similar stories about these positive encounters, such as moments where, “everybody just having a good time with the police” [yp CC]. Many such encounters involved police-youth interactions through sports and other community-based activities.

One young person recalled, “Back when I was younger…They'd come play basketball with you… come throw the football around with you, spray the water gun, dance to the music… they'll come have fun [yp ST]. Police personnel also described, “[working patrol], just throwing the football and some basketball with some kids” [po JL].

A consistent theme throughout all of these experiences was the lack of an enforcement context. A young person noted, “[The police] chill, hung out, not on no police stuff. Regular person type stuff. Stuff like that” [yp LC]. For both young people and police, the ability to see one another as individuals was key.

Young people and police also shared a vision of police positively influencing young people through guidance and mentorship. For instance, one young person imagined an ideal encounter, “where officer come around here, chilling… talking to us, giving us some advice…Not being disrespectful. And just understanding where we coming from, too” [yp KE]. Multiple police personnel shared stories that mirrored those of young people.

Emphasizing the importance of increasing positive, non-enforcement interactions to reduce enforcement-related contact and harmful outcomes therein, a police participant who worked patrol [po PB] shared, “I've actually established a lot of good relations with the adolescents, because I don't want to see them up on the corner. I don't want to see them going to jail.” Police personnel reflected on how the opportunities through established relationships with young people in the communities they patrol in non-enforcement contexts have helped them avoid traditional enforcement tactics during enforcement-related encounters.

Police Assistance

Many young people shared examples of police helping them. Police helping young people manifested in two ways. These were (a) addressing well-being of young people, largely economic hardship and food insecurity, and (b) helping young people who were survivors of trauma.

Addressing Wellbeing of Young People. Addressing the needs of young people, including providing food and social support, was one way police personnel offered assistance. One recurring theme was police buying food for young people, a gesture mentioned by both young people and police personnel. One story, in particular, stood out–one adolescent recalled when an individual working police patrol went out of their way to show kindness.

One day me and my mans…we was just playing basketball, the police had pulled up on us…He played basketball with us for a little bit, and he was like, ‘Alright, I'll get back’…He came back with pizza…He was like, ‘Yeah, just stay in school’… That's when I realized, ‘Oh, yeah, all the police out there are not bad,’ but there's some police that's out there that really care about us. [yp JA]

Helping Survivors of Trauma. Many young people shared experiences of childhood trauma and described how police personnel provided support and assistance during times of distress. One young person shared how police checked up on him several times after his friend died and brought him resources to help, “Make sure my mind wasn't on what I seen” [yp ML].

Another young person [yp KM] who was formerly incarcerated shared an experience he had with police when they assisted his sister following a car accident. He shared how the police were respectful and essential to supporting his family as first responders. And an adolescent spoke about police supporting them when they ran away from home to escape violence and abuse in their household.

Two years ago, I had ran away from home and a police officer was like, they understand my situation. It was just very nice, offered me therapy, offered it for me to talk to somebody, just very open and was willing to hear and actually understand what I was going through. [yp ZA]

During focus group discussions, several police personnel described working with survivors of trauma. One detective shared the importance of bringing survivors to a safe place before asking them questions about their traumatic experiences specifying, “a sex offense, or a homicide, or a shooting” [po JE].

Especially if it's very traumatic, I take them to… a forensic psychologist and support staff, and they get them in an environment [with]… toys there for all ages. There's snacks, there's drinks… there's sofas and stuff. And… it's just more a therapist or someone they feel comfortable with just talking to them…about the event. [po JE]

Limit Harmful Police-Youth Encounters

There was a mutual interest among both young people and police personnel that limiting the number of enforcement encounters would be ideal. “Just not dealing with them [police], that'd be a good experience” [yp RA]. First and foremost, to ensure procedurally just encounters, it is important to minimize such contact between young people and police whenever possible. Not surprisingly, young people who had experienced an arrest or incarceration, or who knew individuals with a history of incarceration, were most keenly invested in limiting the amount of contact they had with police. One adolescent had not had any positive police encounters–they described only seeing police locking people up or arresting people including themselves. They shared, “I really don't call the police locking them up good, I don't see it as good. I recommend that is like bad because like everybody don't belong behind bars” [yp DK]. Multiple other young people shared parallel perspectives, advocating for fewer harmful interactions with police.

Yet, many noted they did not want fewer police in their communities. Such responses included expressed desires for less direct and vicarious police violence and for police to avoid making arrests whenever possible. Instead, recommendations for diversion and support were prominent. A young woman shared, “Taking young people back to school and not locking them up” [yp TT]. From police personnel, sentiments like, “Being able to call a state's attorney and release the kids and put them on the correct path” [po JS] and, “we have a whole intricate underground railroad of help and resources” [po AN] were shared.

Reduced Use of Force. Many young people's visions for positive police encounters included reducing violence and more broadly limiting use of force. One young man stated, “Why y'all need guns? It's too much. Too much. They shoot too many bullets. Fuck that. Why you got to shoot one man 19 times? Just shoot him in his leg or something. Throw the boxing gloves on with a nigga or something. That'll get you a lot of respect” [yp DC]. Another young person contrasted what police could do with descriptions of behaviors that police should avoid. They shared, “They could just be more friendly, be more out in the community, more welcoming, less violent, less aggressive” [yp KA].

Policing Skills to Promote Procedural Justice

Respect and Transparency. Young people consistently noted the importance of mutual respect during police-youth interactions. In contrast, police personnel did not mention mutual respect but instead focused on the importance of young people showing deference to police. Several young people shared positive experiences during vehicle stops. In brief, what made these encounters positive for young people was first that the police personnel were respectful during the encounters and second that the young people were not arrested, charged, or ticketed during the encounter. As one example of both elements, YP ML shared how police were respectful when they pulled their friend over, “My homeboy, when he got pulled over, he made out when he didn't have his license on him, they just made us change seats because of me having my license.”

Another young person described an incident during which police personnel intervened to deescalate the reactions of a policing colleague toward her. She focused on how the intervention prevented her from being arrested or jailed, which was a potential outcome.

[I was] on a train and the police had pulled me over and was like, ‘You can't smoke on the train basically.’ And it was just one officer who was just like, ‘Yo, chill yo.’ He was just being nice and the other one, he was just ready to put me in jail basically. So, when that one was just good, respectful, was just trying to tell me to just be cool so I can go home and stuff and the other one was just a regular nasty cop. [yp ZA]

Additionally, young people wanted clearer communication and warnings during police encounters. One participant shared, “[Police should] come at it different, asking what's the problem or what's going on. They'd try to talk to us before doing anything… Or give us warnings or prompts” [yp MR]. “Say if somebody get pulled over and they're compliant and the police not being rude and they just give them a warning or something, just let them go” [yp MA]. A detective affirmed select approaches–encouraging respectful communication from community members to deescalate encounters–are effective in improving police interactions.

At work outside of enforcement activities, just talking. I have relationships with juveniles that are doing bad things, but they're smart enough to know that if they're cool and respectful, that most of the time I’m not going to give them any trouble. [po DR]

Interpersonal Skills. Multiple focus groups of police personnel working patrol discussed the importance of having strong interpersonal skills when engaging with young people in the communities they patrol. For example, one explained, “You have to have incredible people skills, because you're dealing with people oftentimes at their worst, and sometimes people that don't want to interact with you” [po SP]. And one supervisor spoke about how much they love their job primarily because it requires good interpersonal skills, “it's always something new every day, which I like. And just interacting with people especially. It's definitely a people person job and I love that” [po EM]. Further, the importance of effective communication skills noted by members of both participant groups cannot be overstated. Participants emphasized the need for consistent communication, transparency, and developmentally appropriate language.

Three subthemes–flexibility, relatability, and inherent interpersonal skills–emerged as essential interpersonal skills for creating policing environments where young people feel heard, respected, and treated justly. Participants suggested that by cultivating these qualities, police can promote positive police-youth interactions, reducing the likelihood of escalated conflicts and enhancing trust in the policing process. Each is discussed below.

Flexibility in Policing Approaches. Police working across roles spoke about the need for adaptability and flexibility in their work. This aspect of interpersonal skills was couched in the context of the job requirement to, “deal with each person as an individual, as they come” [po RI]. Flexibility was also described as being able to individualize approaches to and communications with young people during encounters.

You also got to be able to read the situation. So, me deescalating or talking to a kid ain't going work for the next person. You got to adapt to the situation and what you got. [po CH]

Leaning into Relatability. Police personnel noted that when they were perceived by young people as more relatable, it was easier to have positive non-enforcement interactions. Factors like language choice and shared physical features were viewed as contributing to relatability. A participant stated, “When they see you, it's almost like they see themselves… Whoever has tattoos, they feel like, ‘Okay. He's probably one of us’… they also see the skin color, too, sometimes, and that helps them” [po AV].

By contrast, several groups of police working patrol, and quite a few young people, outlined the importance of police making efforts to relate to the experiences of young people. Several police noted that reflecting on their own experiences as young people helped foster these connections. “I try to think back to when I was a kid and how I was. Because I was pretty wild when I was younger, so I try to put myself in their position” [po AD]. And for personnel who had not “been there,” working to understand as best they can was still perceived as worthwhile. “I sometimes try to engage in a conversation with them, to let them understand that although I may not have been there, I can understand how this can happen” [po RR].

Moreover, police described how their uniform reduced relatability. “When you make a basketball game, or whatever [the uniform] kind of get in that way. But I show up to the game outside of my uniform, [reactions are more positive]” [po SR]. Mirroring this observation, many young people described how “the badge” can get in the way of procedurally just encounters. However, all examples from young people depicted harmful and negative police encounters.

Interpersonal Skills as Inherent. Multiple focus group discussions with police included comments demonstrating beliefs that the most effective policing skills are innate and not learned. During a patrol focus group, one participant said training cannot help most people in policing do a better job because, “if you're a good person, you're just going to do what's right. If you're a shitbag, you're a shitbag. And that's the way it is” [po CH]. Others in the group nodded or verbally demonstrated agreement. Supervisors held similar sentiments, “You just bring the morals and values, if you had it. The job don't give you that” [po NI].

Checking Police Attitudes. Many female police personnel described their job as both an emergency response position and a customer service role. Several shared that interacting with young people requires a present-focused approach, coupled with emotional intelligence. “For me, I think it's the mindset… I bring the positive and the attributes from my home with me to work… I have to make a conscious decision” [po NW]. In line with this, several group discussions highlighted to the importance of, “not bring[ing] any other stressors from home to work” [po DA]. Separating the personal from the professional was viewed as essential across various police roles (e.g., patrol, supervisor, detective). One participant described how promoting positive encounters with young people requires the right worldview. “I'm a person that believes that there's more good people in this world than bad” [po RB]. However, this perspective was not the norm among participating police.

Importance of Police Having Systems of Social Support. Discussions among patrol police and patrol supervisors turned to the importance of having a life outside of policing. Moreover, participants emphasized the need for social support in promoting positive police encounters. “[Being] grounded with [your] family… you really got to have another life outside of this job than just this child” [po RP].

Better Outcomes Following Procedurally Just Enforcement

Some young people suggested that procedurally just encounters with police can lead to positive long-term outcomes. A few young people shared how they experienced lasting behavioral changes following an arrest. A young woman reflected on her experience being arrested as an adolescent and its wide-ranging positive effects.

[Being arrested] definitely affected me in a good way because stealing is not good…It really opened my eyes… I now choose wisely people who I want to be around. I set standards for myself – I’ve been going to school since then. [yp TT]

Most of these positive reactions appeared to stem directly from police employing procedurally just practices during the arrest. In one unique case, an adolescent reflected on how being arrested and detained shifted their self-perception. “[Being arrested has] changed the way I looked at myself. I don't want to ever go back to jail” [yp DK]. For them, the trauma of incarceration and the fear of returning to the carceral system appeared to be a deterrent. However, it is important to note that for most individuals, incarceration does not function as a deterrent but rather increases the risk of recidivism (Loeffler & Nagin, 2022).