NCJ Number
164304
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 63 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1996) Pages: 56,58,60
Date Published
1996
Length
3 pages
Annotation
This article presents the methodology and findings of a national survey of police training officers regarding their opinions on the future role of cultural awareness training for police officers.
Abstract
Surveys were mailed to the Nation's 56 State police/highway patrol training institutes, the training institutes located in the 50 largest cities, and a random sample of 100 municipal and county police training institutes. The overall usable return rate for the survey was 68.7 percent. Of the 138 respondents, 122 (88.4 percent) predicted that cultural awareness training would be at least as important in the future as it is today. As a whole, the training officers who offered negative opinions about cultural awareness training -- either as it is currently being taught or in reference to its anticipated emphasis in the future -- consider it either politically driven or of secondary importance to other training topics. For the training officers who anticipated that cultural awareness training would be at least as important in the future as it is today, the most common rationale for this belief is that police officers must be able to perform their role in an increasingly diverse society. The second most common rationale relates to the increasing popularity of community-oriented policing. Most survey respondents apparently understand that the assimilation of minorities into American society is no longer a reasonable expectation. As a society of many cultures, police agencies must recognize the value of cultural awareness training. 7 footnotes