Multicultural Communication Training for Law Enforcement Officers: A Case Study

Abstract

This exploratory case study focused on multicultural communication training within the community policing context. Little research has addressed what constitutes effective content and delivery of multicultural training for law enforcement officers. Brislin and Yoshida's four-component multicultural plan was combined with limited law enforcement-related multicultural training literature to design a training program for a small city's police department. Two 4-hour training sessions were conducted by one of the investigators using a culture-general content approach and selected training methods to determine their usefulness for improving officers' multi-cultural competencies. The case included the training sessions together with pre-and posttraining activities over a period of approximately 3 months. Data were collected with selected test instruments and also from the field notes taken during the case activities. The results suggest that the culture-general model and interactive training methods and trainer qualifications may be key to yielding positive training outcomes.

Resident and Police Perceptions of the Neighborhood

“…Research indicates police legitimacy presents the strongest link to crime prevention within the community policing strategy (Eck & Rosenbaum, 1994). A proactive police force, however, will be most effective if officers have completed multicultural awareness training to overcome perceptions couched in racial bias (Cornett-DeVito & McGlone, 2000). Police officers who are involved in efforts of preventive patrol are more likely to be in the neighborhoods on a regular basis, and may be more likely to have interactions with the residents (Pate, 1986;Reisig & Parks, 2004).…”

Injustice in the Justice System: Reforming Inequities for True “Justice for All”

“…Promising work in the arenas of implicit bias and fair and impartial policing advance efforts to curb law enforcement personnel's role in escalation of conflict and use of deadly force (Fridell, 2017). Diversity training for law enforcement personnel has often focused on the development of concrete behaviors such as intercultural communication (e.g., Cornett-DeVito & McGlone, 2000) and affirming tactics (e.g., Israel et al, 2016). Intercultural communication includes skills when working with diverse populations, including expression of empathy and the ability to adapt to others' needs (Cornett-DeVito & McGLone, 2000).…”

“…Diversity training for law enforcement personnel has often focused on the development of concrete behaviors such as intercultural communication (e.g., Cornett-DeVito & McGlone, 2000) and affirming tactics (e.g., Israel et al, 2016). Intercultural communication includes skills when working with diverse populations, including expression of empathy and the ability to adapt to others' needs (Cornett-DeVito & McGLone, 2000). Across the varied training content, trainers must understand and attend to the context of law enforcement personnel's experiences, concerns, and organizational culture, as well as account for local and national attention on law enforcement personnel's treatment of marginalized individuals.…”

“…Law enforcement officers will become engaged through the provision of training that they perceive as relevant and effective (Coderoni, 2002). Recommended approaches for diversity training include the use of simulations, group exercises and problem solving scenarios, case studies, and minilectures; and the provision of job-relevant information (Birzer, 1999;Cornett-DeVito & McGlone, 2000). It may be particularly effective to have officers serve as trainers using a team-teach approach, with trainers representing different organizations (Hennessy, 2001).…”

Reactions of Law Enforcement to LGBTQ Diversity Training

“…Literature on diversity training for law enforcement has focused primarily on outcomes of intercultural communication training (e.g., Boulware-Brown, 2004 ;Cornett-DeVito & McGlone, 2000 ;Rowe & Garland, 2003 ) and recommendations for training content and format (e.g., Coderoni, 2002 ). There are good reasons to extend diversity training to prepare law enforcement to work effectively with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) communities, including barriers to LGBTQ people reporting crimes (Kuehnle & Sullivan, 2003 ; National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, 2011 ), biased treatment of LGBTQ people by law enforcement (Bernstein & Kostelac, 2002 ;Wolff & Cokely, 2007 ), and evidence of hostility toward sexual minority law enforcement (Collins & Rocco, 2015 ;Jones & Williams, 2015 ;Lyons, DeValve, & Garner, 2008 ).…”