Does ethnic composition make a difference? Citizens' assessments of Arab police officers in Israel

Remarkably little research has been conducted on policing in Israel. This is a major omission in the scholarly literature, given the security situation in the country and the role of policing in the control of the minority, Arab population. One specific deficiency in the literature is the limited research on police officers who come from minority ethnic groups - in Israel and elsewhere. According to the conventional wisdom and official policies in many multiethnic societies, ethnic diversification of a police force should improve police relations with minority populations - either because it will improve the overall treatment of the minority or because of its symbolic value. Yet this assumption has rarely been tested empirically. This article addresses this issue by examining survey data on citizens' attitudes towards Arab police officers in Israel.