NCJ Number
197241
Date Published
2002
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This training video and lesson plan are intended as teaching aids for instructors or facilitators who wish to provide information to police officers on the issue of mutual respect in policing.
Abstract
The format for the video is a police roll-call training session in which the supervising officer shows a video with five scenarios of officer interactions with citizens. The officers attending the roll-call then comment on how officers in the scenario handled the interaction with citizens. In the first scenario a white patrol officer makes a traffic stop of a vehicle driven by a young Black man. The driver has a hostile attitude toward the officer, and the officer gives commands to the driver that indicate the officer considers him a threat. In the second scenario, a Black couple visiting a house for sale in an upper-class neighborhood is approached by two patrol officers. Initially the couple expects that the officers are going to hassle them, but the officers defuse the interaction by courteously explaining that they are the beat officers for the neighborhood and wanted to introduce themselves in case the couple should become new residents. The third scenario involves two different two-man patrol cars stopping two vehicles, one with a Black driver in a sports car and the other with a white man in a sports utility vehicle. Both cases involve traffic stops for minor violations, but the outcomes are very different. A fourth scenario involves two officers helping a young man who has suffered an injury after falling off his bike. As the officers bring the boy home to a lower class neighborhood, observers assume the officers beat the boy. In the fifth scenario, a young white boy and a Black friend playing together react differently to a patrol car coming into the neighborhood. Although the white boy seeks out the officers who are paying the boys a friendly visit, the Black boy hangs back based on the way he saw officers treat his dad in a vehicle stop. After each scenario, the officers at roll call comment on the scenario, and the video itself displays statements of instruction that draw lessons from each scenario. The lesson plan booklet provides instructors guidance on how to use the video in an instructional setting with police officers.