Continued from last blog, DiversityTraining and Police: Ten Success Strategies
- Importance of moving beyond awareness and knowledge. Unfortunately, much police training in the area of diversity focuses solely on recognizing and understanding different dimensions of diversity; instead of using these competencies to develop a repertoire of usable and effective skills. In the case of police work, such skills might include the ability to uncover and manage unconscious biases, shift realities and perspectives, communicate more effectively with individuals who are mentally ill, and collaborate with fellow male and female officers of varying generations and ethnic backgrounds.
- Assessment. Auburn University Montgomery partners with the Southern Poverty Law Center to offer an online hate-crime training course for law enforcement personnel. The value of a course such as this can only be determined through rigorous assessment. For instance, what knowledge and understanding is acquired? What skills, if any, are learned and developed? And what attitudes are altered in some way? Assessing changes in performance on the job might require input from supervisors, fellow officers, and members of the community. Any evaluation of training must examine tangible outcomes, and how they improve policing.
- It’s not all about race. Quality police training is interdisciplinary; that is, it draws on subjects such as history, sociology, cultural anthropology, and psychology. Developing a knowledge base that ignores the interconnection of economics, politics, and law enforcement will prove counterproductive. For example, New York Police Commissioner William Bratton recently described the frustration and public outcry over policing in NYC, Ferguson, and elsewhere as “the tip of the iceberg.” “The issues go far beyond race relations in this city.” Bratton continues, “This is about continuing poverty rates, the continuing growing disparity between the wealthy and the poor.”
- Follow through. This, I think, is one of the greatest challenges confronting law enforcement. Unlike some other forms of training, diversity education is more complex and abstract. It requires a continuous commitment to deeper learning, reflection, application, and change. Change, especially significant personal and organizational change, can be painful. And training is only part of the process. The effectiveness of training hinges in large part on recruitment and promotion, community outreach, leadership, and other internal and external aspects of policing.
- Lastly, it’s not all about diversity. Diversity trainers should help law enforcement personnel distinguish between diversity and diversity consciousness. Diversity refers to the mix of people’s differences and similarities, a mix that represents potential waiting to be tapped. On the other hand, diversity consciousness refers to the development of competencies that allow individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to respect and embrace differences, and put that mix to work. Diversifying a police force does not, by itself, ensure interactive and productive pluralism; rather, it represents raw potential that needs to be engaged and respected, trained, developed, and leveraged.