The COPS Office and the Simon Wiesenthal Center Museum of Tolerance (MOT) are partnering to create an immersive law enforcement leadership program. This training uses the unique experiential setting of the MOT by integrating the museum experience with classroom dialogue and workshops. The goal of the program is to understand how events from the past bridge to present-day and future policing, focusing on individual as well as organizational leadership and contemporary community policing. Woven throughout the training program are adult learning principles, participatory exercises, personal testimonies, speaker engagement forums, self-reflection, and the opportunity to build concrete action plans for both personal and organizational goals in policing.

The curriculum design was created with a two-pronged approach for two distinct leadership development courses: one for law enforcement executives and command staff and the other for first-line supervisors and sergeants. The executives attend the training first, setting the organizational tone. Executives can then provide support for first-line supervisors and officers in constructing individual and organizational changes to improve the efficacy of policing and advance community policing in their agencies. Buy-in is crucial at the executive level, as both courses culminate in a multi-tiered, structured action planning session in which participants will create a concrete plan to implement new ideas and mind shifts into their agencies’ practices, policies, and culture. Participants will exit the course not only with new ideas and frameworks but also with the tools and structure to execute them. Both courses are three days in length and take place in Los Angeles, California, at the MOT.

Many of the MOT’s exhibits are used throughout this training program, including the following:

• The Holocaust Exhibit
• Confronting Hate in America
• POV Diner
• Civil Rights
• We The People history Wall
• Finding Our Families, Finding Ourselves

In addition, various exhibits include a multitude of video and multimedia assets that are used throughout the participants’ journey. Their museum experience is supplemented by present-day law enforcement videos and multimedia assets in the classroom.

For more information on the training and to inquire about becoming a participant, contact Rachel Salamanca, Director, Tools for Tolerance® for Law Enforcement by phone at 310-772-7615 or email at rsalamanca@museumoftolerance.com.

About the Museum of Tolerance

The Museum of Tolerance (MOT) is the educational arm of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international human rights organization. The MOT is dedicated to challenging visitors to understand the Holocaust in both historic and contemporary contexts and confront all forms of prejudice and discrimination in our world today. Through interactive exhibits, special events, and customized programs for youths, adults, and front line professionals, including law enforcement, the MOT is a dynamic hub, challenging patrons to assume personal responsibility for positive change.

The 165,000-square-foot facility features three floors of exhibit space plus classrooms, auditoriums, theaters, and conference amenities. The MOT’s professional development department has served more than 200,000 professionals such as law enforcement, educators, corporate groups, and public servants in customized experiences and training aimed to introduce new perspectives, create paradigm shifts, motivate and inspire action, and equip participants with effective tools for ethical leadership and socially just practice.

Rachel Salamanca
Director
Tools for Tolerance® for Law Enforcement
Museum of Tolerance

Melissa Bradley
Senior Policy Analyst
COPS Office

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