Police Training with Community Leaders in Cultural Competence for Enhanced Community Relations
Police Officers confront criminals, the mentally ill, and now potential terrorists, while serving in multiethnic, pluralistic, and linguistically diverse communities. Omnipresent is the reality that their
lives are at risk.
Police Academies prepare police for self-protection; train them in law enforcement and community surveillance. Then police are sent to communities that are often hostile to them.
The hostility is derived from the ‘experience’ of minority communities that feel besieged by police; e.g., Stop and Frisk. Minority sons and fathers have had ‘the talk’ to prevent them from the ‘pernicious’ police.
In such an atmosphere of mistrust and rancor, what can be done to pull back from the “tipping point” of violence, revenge or anarchy, which may be perceived or real? How can an environment of trust, reconciliation, and respect be developed?
The training of police with community leaders in cultural competence to enhance community relations is a start.
For more than thirty years, Nichols and Associates, has successfully conducted Cultural Competence Workshops for Police Officers, Law Enforcement Officers, and Judicial Authorities.
THE POLICE TRAINING PROGRAM
Police Training with Community Leaders in Cultural Competence for Enhanced Community Relations is a two-day interactive workshop. Participants are Law Enforcement Officials that formulate policy; Police Officers that daily patrol the community and Identified Community leaders.
Objectives:
Bring together Law Enforcement Officers and Community Leaders in an atmosphere of mutual respect to gain understanding and trust.
Create a learning environment to affect Cultural Competence, because Police Officers serve in multiethnic, pluralistic and linguistically diverse communities.
Develop a plan of action to enhance community relations, to de-escalate potential violence, to secure safe communities for both residents and police.
Day One
Every coin has two sides! Cultural Competence sees both.
What baggage do police and community bring to the table?
Fables, myths, lies, issues, experiences, facts, statistics, and the truth!
What neurophysiological changes take place in me when confronted with situations that evoke fear and anger responses? How does this affect my behavior and escalate violent confrontation?
How do my cultural biases, media socialization, and historical referent, affect my perception of others?
Social Psychological Research: Societal response to images of black men.
What is important for me to know about others and myself?
The essence of ethnic difference: The Philosophical Aspects of Cultural Difference
Day Two
It takes a village to raise a child. True, but it takes astute police and responsible community leadership to keep the child safe in the village.
What is the responsibility of police in the community?
What is the nature of police training and how does it affect their behavior?
What are the experiences and interactions of the community with police?
What behaviors de-escalate a potentially violent confrontation?
Tools for cooperative behavior between police and community to mitigate:
Criminal Behavior: Robbery, burglary, drugs, shootings, killings, and sexual abuse.
Terrorist Threat: Detection of The Lone Wolf type shooter or bomber.
Mental Illness: Appropriate interaction between police and the disturbed patient.
