Duke Police Hold Community Relations Training
Sessions focus on interactions with Latinos and deaf people
Friday, January 12, 2001
The training is being led by Ben Reese, assistant vice president for cross-cultural relations in Duke's Office for Institutional Equity, and Lt. Sara-Jane Raines, who is an investigator and the department's minority relations specialist.
"The university and surrounding community are becoming more and more diverse each year," Reese said. "This increases the likelihood of misunderstandings, which makes community relations and cultural sensitivity training more important than ever before.
"It's especially appropriate that we're focusing on Latinos this year because they're the fastest-growing minority group in North Carolina - not to mention in Durham."
The sessions, each of which is four hours long, are not aimed at promoting specific behaviors, but instead seek to convey information, increase awareness and provide a forum for the development of strategies and approaches for handling the sometimes complicated issues of cross-cultural communication. The training is being held from 8 a.m. to noon each Tuesday in January.
Consultant Iris Ramirez-Reese of La Conexióatina, a firm that provides bilingual marketing and communications services, has been brought in to give presentations and participate in discussions concerning the Latino population.
Her presentations have included what she regards as "useful generalizations." For instance, many Latinos avoid making extraneous eye contact with authority figures and instead tend to look down as a sign of respect, she said. Also, Latinos tend to be comfortable with less social distance and so might stand closer to a police officer than people of other backgrounds.
The training on interacting with people who are deaf or hard of hearing is being directed by Raines, who has led police academy workshops on the topic. Her presentation has included the sharing of the sign language alphabet as well as observations such as the importance of looking at a person when speaking so they can read lips.
Raines also taught the officers several sign language phrases commonly used in police work, such as "Stop," "May I have your license" and "Are there any witnesses?"
Other elements of the training have focused on how to recognize the distinctions between facts, perceptions and stereotypes. Even the best-trained officers are influenced by their own personal background in responding to different people and situations, Reese said.
"I try to emphasize during every session the notion that none of us has reached the point where we're totally free of the potential for bias," Reese said. "Professional development in this area is ongoing."
Written by Noah Bartolucci.