Photo: NY Mag
If you were in the vicinity of 125th Street this morning you may have been swept up in what one LJ user described as “a sea of police.” No need worry, there was nothing to see, just the annual multicultural immersion training that takes place at the Apollo Theater. The trainings started as a way to ease community tensions after the tragic killing of Sean Bell. Read more after the jump.
OVER 1,100 NYPD RECRUITS UNDERGO COMPREHENSIVE MULTICULTURAL IMMERSION TRAINING
December 2008 Graduating Class is Fourth to Participate in “ACT Together for a United New York” Four-day Workshop; Training Kicks-off with Panel of Community Leaders at the Apollo Theater
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly kicked-off intensive multicultural immersion training for approximately 1,100 uniformed New York City Police recruits Thursday, Dec. 18. The recruits assembled for a muster roll-call and marched from the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, where they were addressed by a panel of community leaders invited by Commissioner Kelly to discuss issues concerning the police and community relations.
“We invited some of New York’s most prominent figures in religion, activism and the media to speak to you today in direct, unvarnished terms about the state of police and community relations,” Commissioner Kelly said. “The message that will be conveyed is important to the Police Department, and to the City of New York.”
Beginning with its June 2007 class, the NYPD introduced multicultural immersion training for police recruits. The Police Academy course, titled “Advancing Community Trust (ACT)-Together for a United New York,” culminates six months of comprehensive community relations and law enforcement training that police recruits undergo in the Police Academy, and is in addition to continued in-service community-relations training provided to all police officers.
The ACT multicultural immersion course is designed to motivate improved understanding by police recruits of the communities they’ll serve, to enhance professionalism and to foster mutual respect between the Department and New York citizens. Recruits attend presentations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Community Affairs Bureau, Commanding Officers and prominent community members from various precincts, as well as participate in interactive information sessions covering multiple ethnic, religious and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender communities, and youth perspectives. Lecture-based and role-play presentations extend over four days at the Apollo Theater and Police Academy, just prior to graduation ceremonies at Madison Square Garden.
A Community Concerns Panel begins each immersion course and focuses on the importance of good police and community relations, community perceptions and expectations of the police, strategies to help break down barriers between police and the community, panelists’ personal experiences and encounters with NYPD police officers, and ways to help prepare police officers to understand factors that contribute towards fear and distrust of the police.
The December 2008 Community Concerns panelists include:
* Commissioner Margarita Lopez, New York City Housing Authority
* The Rev. Al Sharpton
* The Rev. A.R. Bernard, Pastor and CEO, Christian Cultural Center, Brooklyn
* Errol Lewis, New York Daily News columnist
* Bob Law, community activist; founder National Respect Yourself Youth Organization, Save our Sons
* Dominic Carter, NY1 (moderator)
Previous Community Concerns panelists include:
Wyclef Jean
Rev. Al Sharpton
Bishop Lester Williams
Rev. Calvin Butts
Rev. Herbert Daughtry
Rev. Floyd Flake
Dominic Carter
Angela Martinez
Bob Slade
Jeff Fox
Bob Law
Margarita Lopez
Dennis DeLeon
Luis Garden Acosta
Richard Green
Gerson Borrero
Posted on December 18, 2008 by D. Bell