It is vital to cultivate healing, inclusion, and empowerment when a bias-related crime occurs in the community. When a community is impacted, it is crucial for law enforcement and community members to collaborate in order to build bridges and initiate the healing process. The U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) provides resources and assistance for law enforcement agencies and communities in the prevention and investigation of hate and bias-related crimes.

The available COPS Office funded resources are organized below by audience and purpose:

Law Enforcement Training

• Lessons from a Hate Crime Detective Police Detective (film, 7:25) is a roll-call film about lessons learned for law enforcement, demonstrating how to identify, investigate, and address hate crimes before they escalate to violence.
• Lessons from a Hate Crime Detective: A Guide for Law Enforcement is designed as a tool to help law enforcement representatives facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film, Lessons From a Hate Crime Detective.
• Lessons from a Hate Crime Detective: A Guide for Community Screenings is designed as a tool to help community groups facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film, Lessons From a Hate Crime Detective.
• Problem Oriented Policing Guide: Hate Crimes describes the problem and reviews factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions to help police analyze local hate crime problems and reviews what is known about responses to the problem from evaluative research and police practice.

General Community

• Building Stronger, Safer Communities: A Guide for Law Enforcement and Community Partners to Prevent and Respond to Hate Crimes offers leadership strategies and actionable tactics to help law enforcement agencies work with community partners.
• Building Relationships of Trust toolkit details information law enforcement officers and community members should consider when trying to build trusting relationships.
• Waking in Oak Creek (film, 33:38) profiles a suburban town rocked by hate after six worshippers at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin are killed by a white supremacist. After one of the deadliest hate crime attacks in recent U.S. history, the film highlights a community and law enforcement agency working together to overcome tragedy, stand up to hate, and create a safe town for all.
• Waking in Oak Creek: A Guide for Community Screenings is designed to help community groups facilitate discussions and training sessions.
• Waking in Oak Creek: A Guide for Law Enforcement is designed to help law enforcement representatives facilitate discussions and training sessions.
• Waking in Oak Creek: Hate Crimes – Important Facts for Officers Leading Discussions of the Film is a compilation of facts about hate crimes that complement the film Waking in Oak Creek and its accompanying guide.
• Manhattan Beach (film, 13:08) is a portrait of a community grappling with a suspected hate crime after an African American family’s home was set on fire in Manhattan Beach, CA. This film explores the unique aspects of addressing the needs of the victims and healing of communities in the aftermath of hate violence.
• Not In Our Town: On the Ground with Law Enforcement (film, 9:18) is a series of three films focused on the importance of creating relationships between law enforcement and communities to deter and take a stand against hate violence.
• Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness – A Guide for Law Enforcement identifies discussion questions and community policing best practices for law enforcement representatives organizing internal agency screenings or community screenings of the PBS documentary film Not In Our Town: Light in the Darkness, which profiles a town taking action after anti-immigrant violence devastates the community.

Youth Specific

• Preventing and Addressing Bullying and Intolerance: A Guide for Law Enforcement is intended to be a primary resource for law enforcement officers who play a large role in helping to educate and support children and adults about: the problems resulting from bullying, teasing, and all forms of bias; ways to prevent and intervene in bullying situations; and how to break cycles of bullying and transform student behavior.
• Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer (film, 17:00) focuses on conversations in law enforcement agencies, schools, and communities about the role SROs can play in improving relationships between students and law enforcement and mentoring and supporting young people as they navigate conflicts and interactions with the justice system.
• Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Office – A Guide for School Communities is meant to help community groups facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer.
• Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer – A Guide for Law Enforcement is meant to help law enforcement representatives facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film Beyond the Badge: Profile of a School Resource Officer.
• Moses Robinson: School Guardian (film, 9:50) is part of a series of films focused on helping law enforcement and students work together on improving relationships and building trust.

College Communities

• A Bowling Green Legacy (film, 13:12) follows the actions of students working with administrators, law enforcement, and community members to forge new bonds after racially charged actions shake their community.
• A Bowling Green Legacy: A Guide for Law Enforcement and Communities is designed as a tool for law enforcement and community stakeholders to facilitate discussions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film, A Bowling Green Legacy.

Other Partners

• A Prosecutor’s Stand (film, 21:13) follows a prosecutor bringing hate crime charges against perpetrators who brutally attacked a Mayan dishwasher, an African-American homeless man, and a transgender woman.
• A Prosecutor’s Stand: A Guide for Community Screenings is designed to help law enforcement representatives facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film A Prosecutor's Stand.
• A Prosecutor’s Stand: A Guide for Law Enforcement is designed to help law enforcement representatives facilitate discussions and training sessions in conjunction with screenings of the Not In Our Town film A Prosecutor's Stand.
• A Prosecutor’s Stand: Hate Crimes – Important Facts for Officers Leading Discussions of the Film is a compilation of facts about hate crimes that complement the film, A Prosecutor's Stand, and its accompanying guide.

By working together, law enforcement and community members can build bridges for healing.