Abstract

Encounters between the police and citizens with migration background are prone to conflict. In order to guarantee intercultural competent policing, police services are staffed with officers who have a family migration background. Drawing on conflict competence literature, we examined the resulting benefits and costs for police-ethnic minority conflict management by employing personnel with an ethnic minority family background. The sample of our interview study comprised 14 German police officers. The interviewees reported on the role of colleagues with a Turkish family background as either conflict resolvers or conflict intensifiers. Data suggest that police officers with an ethnic minority background significantly contribute to intercultural conflict resolution. Minority police officers’ conflict intensification can be framed as being a point of friction. We conclude that minority police officers are beneficial to police-ethnic minority conflict management and suggest continuous monitoring of minority police officers’ roles by police authorities. This is the first study on intercultural conflict management in policing, explaining the conflict resolving and intensifying contributions of minority police officers.