Assignment:
The Final Project is a stepwise process, and its goal is to leave you well-prepared by the end of this course to execute on your qualitative research study plan.
You will complete Step III of the Final Project. For Step III of the Final Project, you will do the following:
- Conduct the interviews
- Take notes during the interviews
- Debrief in your workshop thread your reflections on the two interviews
- Complete both interviews and complete your audit trail notes.
Interview Guide
Victims Interview Guide
1. To begin this interview, how would you define police brutality and what is your take on the same issue in the United States?
2. What are the main circumstances surrounding the issue of police brutality? What is your perception of the motivating factor behind police brutality?
3. This interview being about sharing experiences with police violence and brutality, could your share with us your experience on the same?
4. What would you say motivated the issue to escalate to the point where it became violent?
5. Did you think about reporting the police officers involved to their seniors from their respective police departments?
6. What were the measures taken by the police department after you reported the incident? Did the police officers receive any reprimand, suspension, or did the department just brush of the issue?
7. Did you suffer any emotional or physical torture after the ordeal?
8. Do you think that the state and federal governments and the criminal justice system care about the racial minority groups (Moore et al., 2018)? Do you think it is enough what they are doing about the issue of African American males being victims of police brutality at disproportionate rates?
9. What would you like to add about the entire issue?
Police Interview Guide
1. I am concerned about the safety of America's African American male population who have become disproportionate targets of police brutality. What are the protocols, if any, have been put in place to ensure that this kind of egregious police brutality does not occur?
2. What type of racial sensitivity training do you as a police officer have to undergo before beginning active service? Is this mandatory for all officers?
3. Does any type of racial sensitivity training spur feelings of resentment? Do the police officers believe that racial sensitivity training is necessary and how does the attitude get reflected throughout the police department?
4. At what rates does the police department you are currently working under punish police officers who use racial slurs or engage in activities that indicate racial bias?
5. Do police officers at your department send emails containing race related memes or jokes (Deterding& Waters, 2018)? Are these kind of jokes and behaviors laughed off or are they treated as indications of deeper systemic issues?
6. What percentage of officers on patrol in your department are actually from the neighborhoods they patrol? How many African American police officers are there on the force?
7. Has any effort been made to ensure that patrol troops have at least one person of color aboard when patrolling neighborhoods that are predominantly being inhabited by people of color?
8. How often do you as police officers get mental health checkups?
9. Have you undergone trainings about how to look for signs of agitation and stress? Does the senior police officers recognize stress and agitation as serious issues?
10. How does your police department deal with reported cases of police brutality by one of the department's police officer?
11. What would you like to add about the issue?
References
Deterding, N. M., & Waters, M. C. (2018). Flexible coding of in-depth interviews: A twenty-first-century approach. Sociological methods & research, 0049124118799377.
Moore, S. E., Robinson, M. A., Clayton, D. M., Adedoyin, A. C., Boamah, D. A., Kyere, E., & Harmon, D. K. (2018). A critical race perspective of police shooting of unarmed black males in the United States: Implications for social work. Urban Social Work, 2(1), 33-47.