Programs
Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute (KY RCPI)
The Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute (KY RCPI) is part of the national training network created in 1997 by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (OCOPS) dedicated to providing comprehensive and innovative community policing education, training, and technical assistance to law enforcement and community partners. As one of 31 institutes throughout the nation, the KY RCPI develops innovative cutting edge curricula on emerging law enforcement issues to challenge and improve traditional training. The KY RCPI provides training and technical assistance to Kentucky law enforcement personnel and citizens.
The mission of the KY RCPI is to encourage and enhance the implementation of community policing in Kentucky in order to create safer communities through training and technical assistance. Training is centered on the development and delivery of quality training on a number of topic areas for law enforcement and community members throughout Kentucky. The KY RCPI’s goal is to further the OCOPS’ vision of institutionalizing community policing and improving relationships within communities across the U.S.
Training focuses on collaborative partnerships and problem-solving strategies for criminal justice practitioners, local government officials, business leaders, and community members – including youth volunteers, city/county employees, elected officials, and social service agencies. Training is delivered using adult-learning principles via interactive classroom instruction, CD-ROM’s, community forums, teleconferences, and the Internet. The KY RCPI also strives to administer these forums in a way that enables law enforcement and community members to discuss sensitive issues. Current initiatives include:
- Police Ethics and Integrity Training
- On-Site Community Assessments
- Terrorism Awareness Training for Communities and Law Enforcement
For more information on the Kentucky Regional Community Policing Institute, please contact Co-Director Cindy Shain at:
Kentucky
Regional Community Policing Institute
Eastern Kentucky University
448 Stratton Building
521 Lancaster Avenue
Richmond, Kentucky 40475-3102
859-622-2362
URL: www.kycops.org
E-Mail: CindyShain@aol.com.
Police Ethics and Integrity Training
The KY RCPI provides ethics-related community policing training to law enforcement agencies and community stakeholders throughout Kentucky. Ethics training has been designed to provide learning opportunities to all levels of law enforcement, including the members of the communities they serve when possible. Current training initiatives include Ethics for the Individual Officer: a Self Assessment and Ethics for Law Enforcement Executives.
Ethics for the Individual Officer: A Self Assessment
Key to transforming a law enforcement agency is the full participation, buy-in, training, and performance of its line officers. Ethics for the Individual Officer: A Self Assessment is a nationally-developed 24-hour curriculum that provides the individual officer with an ethics framework, skills in ethical decision-making, and an opportunity to apply those skills in scenario-based ethical dilemmas. Through personal introspection, the course guides participants through a process of self-assessment that requires them to take a closer look at their personal and professional ethics. The training culminates with the development of a personal and confidential action plan for each participant that addresses areas the officer wishes to change or improve.
This course consists of the following four modules: (1) Foundations, (2) Decision-Making, (3) Application, and (4) Assessment. Foundations takes the line officer/first line supervisor through a learning and self-assessment process to provide participants with definitions and insights on ethics, misconduct, and ethical dilemmas with the goal of giving them a standard from which to measure their own ethics, beliefs, and attitudes. Decision-Making provides participants with information on moral development and ethical decision making focusing on Kohlberg's six stages of moral development. It also covers various decision-making tools and discusses critical thinking. In the Application module, students process case studies defining the misconduct, dilemmas (complexities and pressures), and defining moments (those deeply personal moments when we make decisions that define who we are). The Assessment module provides the opportunity to develop a personal ethics action plan.
Ethics for Law Enforcement Executives
Using nationally-developed curricula as a basis for the structure and delivery of ethics and integrity training for executives, the KY RCPI conducts training for chiefs, sheriffs, and upper level law enforcement managers. Four critical issues have been incorporated into two companion courses for Kentucky chiefs, sheriffs, and other law enforcement managers/leaders that meet the required 40 hours of accredited training mandated by the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council (KLEC). These courses include Ethics: Force, Complaints, and Profiling, and Ethics: Early Warning Systems. An additional 40 hour course, Situational Leadership & Ethics for Police Executives, is also available through the KY RCPI.
Ethics: Force, Complaints, and Profiling is a 24-hour course focusing on current important topics in ethical management. One topic area involves Use of Force Issues in a Community Policing Environment, which identifies key areas of concern both within the law enforcement agency and the community. The instructors present a multi-faceted model of inter-related components with discussion about use of force, including beliefs, alignment and balance, training, accountability and communication, and leadership with integrity. The case study method allows attendees to identify action steps for their own departments to implement the recommended model. A second topic area, Citizen Complaint Intake and Investigation Issues, identifies the value of open citizen complaint intake and investigation processes. Participants discuss a sample process as a tool to design new processes for a specific department as well as to review and strengthen current processes at their own department. The third topic area involves Racial Profiling: Issues and Dilemmas, which presents a multi-dimensional model focusing on definitions of racial profiling, data collection and analysis, internal agency issues, and community concerns. These elements are balanced against the pressing demands from criminal activity and laws in a democratic society. The case study method helps participants to examine customized action steps to address racial profiling issues within their departments and the community.
Ethics: Early Warning Systems is a 16-hour course that discusses the definition, purposes, and components of early identification intervention systems (EIIS). It reviews a process to identify, intervene, and follow-up with officers who exhibit problematic conduct. The review of data collected by such a system will include supervisory, management, and systemic organizational issues and problems. Attendees have an opportunity to develop a strategy for implementing EIIS in their departments.
Since leadership and ethics continue to be priority training topics for law enforcement leaders, Situational Leadership & Ethics for Police Executives is a 40-hour course focusing on these important subjects. This course combines 16 hours of executive level ethics training, based upon nationally developed curricula, with 23 hours training on Dr. Paul Hersey’s Situational Leadership™ model. This course focuses on helping law enforcement commanders to select effective leadership strategies to increase productivity, and to develop specific skills that will assist them in identifying their personnel’s performance needs while focusing upon ethical dilemmas and other law enforcement considerations.
Community Policing to Reduce Domestic Violence
This 16-hour course integrates the principles of community policing with the law regarding domestic violence. The Kentucky RCPI has customized a nationally-developed standardized curriculum by integrating issues and laws for our state. Course modules include: Community Policing to Reduce Domestic Violence, Facilitation Skills, Dynamics of Domestic Violence, Community Policing to Reduce Domestic Violence in Tribal Communities, Evidence Gathering, Full Faith and Credit, Safety Planning, Presentation Team Skill Workshops, Accessing and Sharing Information, and Predominant Aggressor. The standardized course was developed by The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center through an interagency agreement with the COPS Office.
Pictured Above (L to R): Ed Brodt – KY RCPI Associate Director, Carl
Peed - Director of the Office of Community Policing Services, and
Cindy Shain – KY RCPI Co-Director
Community Safety Initiatives
A new emphasis on anti-terrorism training and awareness demonstrates the need for changing the mindset of each citizen that “It won’t ever happen in my town” – an attitude prevalent in rural and small communities. The KY RCPI’s method to educate citizens and make communities safer involves a community safety and awareness initiative. The goals of these initiatives involve:
- Enhancing neighborhood security and heightening individual citizens' powers of observation by encouraging community involvement and expansion of the Neighborhood Watch programs throughout Kentucky.
- Building more effective partnerships between the KY RCPI, Kentucky State Police, Kentucky Crime Prevention Coalition, local agencies, and citizens through improved methods of community interactions.
- Developing a cadre of law enforcement community trainers to conduct citizen safety and awareness presentations throughout Kentucky.
On-Site Community Assessments
The purpose of the On-Site Assessment Process is to provide an integrated approach to the adoption of community policing through training, technical assistance, and applied research. This process provides organizational development and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies and their communities through a trained Assessment Team. The KY RCPI’s staff and contract instructors are certified to develop, train, and coordinate Assessment Teams and On-Site Community Assessments for Kentucky communities and law enforcement agencies.
The On-site Assessment Process identifies the status of community policing within the department as well as the understanding and support of community policing by local government and community members. The information assembled by Assessment Team members through meetings, surveys, interviews, observations, and document review are organized into comprehensive written reports that provide strategic recommendations to assist in the enhancement of community oriented policing efforts. The KY RCPI trainers lead this comprehensive assessment process by utilizing the expertise of law enforcement and local government professionals and involved community members to assist law enforcement agencies interested in enhancing community policing and problem solving.
Terrorism Awareness Training for Communities and Law Enforcement
Terrorism Awareness for Communities and Law Enforcement
is a training initiative of the KY RCPI designed to provide law
enforcement personnel with high quality presentations to raise the
awareness of citizens and community groups about domestic and
international terrorism. Citizens learn what terrorism is, what to
look and listen for, and how to report suspicious people or
circumstances. All training includes a strong ethics component
interwoven throughout each presentation. Training focuses on
behaviors, as opposed to ethnicity, in determining what is or is not
suspicious activity.
Presentations include information to help citizens:
- Recognize typical terrorist methods of operation and criminal violations.
- Define the anti-terrorism roles and responsibilities of citizens.
- Understand and describe different types of domestic and international terrorist/extremist groups.
- Identify likely terrorism targets, and recognize and understand various indicators and warning signs.
- Provide information to assist in community fear abatement and reduction of ethnic and religious tension.
- Know how and to whom to report suspicious activities and/or persons.
Presentations are available in modular format and cover five different topic areas: Overview of Terrorism, Domestic Terrorism, International Terrorism, Terrorism Indicators, and Community Engagement.
Law
enforcement instructors, selected from geographically-diverse areas
throughout Kentucky, are certified by the KY RCPI through attendance
of a Train-the-Trainer class. Each instructor is provided with Power
Point™ presentations, lesson plans, and background reading materials.
Each module is approximately one hour in length, and is designed for
small to medium sized groups, such as neighborhood watches, civic
groups, PTA’s, etc. Modules can be presented as stand-alone topics or
as part of a series.
