Cultural Competency Law Enforcement

Diversity Builder has developed a highly engaging police diversity training program entitled Keeping the Peace: Policing Diverse Communities. It has been facilitated for several departments including the City of Akron, Ohio’s Police Department, the Birmingham, Alabama Police Academy, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Canadian National Police Service, Township of O’Hara Police Department, and St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Learning formats:

  • Online
  • Onsite
  • Webinars (Zoom, TEAMS, GoToMeeting)
  • Officer or Leadership Coaching

Diversity Builder customizes programs for law enforcement departments based on multicultural issues the officers and sheriffs face as well as the demographics of the communities served. Each law enforcement department is unique and requires specialized diversity and inclusion police training to equip officers, lieutenants, corporals, captains and chiefs of police with practical applications for use on the job.

Departments use this cultural awareness and skill-building training to meet in-service requirements and for employee development.

Training solutions include
Group Onsite Training
Individual Coaching (Onsite or Online)
Virtual Live Webinars

Online Police Diversity Classes

Cultural Competence and Diversity Training for Law Enforcement Officers

This online course was designed by Diversity Builder specifically for law enforcement professionals at the local, state, and federal levels to enhance their knowledge of cultural competency and build upon communication skills to better connect with the residents within the communities they serve. This course is logically structured, with relevant content, examples, and scenarios for law enforcement personnel.

Cultural Competence and Diversity Training for Law Enforcement Officers explores how recognizing and addressing bias and making the effort to become culturally aware can foster trust and confidence among the communities law enforcement protects and serves. The course extends beyond awareness and sensitivity and provides a foundational knowledge with tools and strategies to use in policing. When law enforcement practices align with community values and expectations, positive outcomes result.

What Officers Learn

Law enforcement professionals in this course will learn how perceptions based on biases involving an individual’s race, religion, level of ability, gender, ethnicity, immigration status or other characteristic can influence officer conduct and the behavior of suspects, witnesses or others during a law enforcement encounter. The course was designed to equip law enforcement personnel with strategies and skills to improve community relationships and engagement, resulting in a more positive perception of law enforcement.

The police online cultural competency training program was developed at the request of the Hartford Police Department’s Academy and Training Division to train its entire force and support staff. They wanted the training to include de-escalation, cultural competence techniques, and implicit bias training for police with examples such as how to address confirmation bias that is prevalent in law enforcement. Shortly after launching the cultural competency self-paced virtual training program, the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) added the course into its online continuing education class (CEU) catalogue.

Training topics include:

  • Cultural Differences
  • Cultural Competency
  • Microaggressions
  • Resolving Unconscious or Implicit Bias
  • Confirmation Bias
  • Policing within Diverse Communities

The class is an affordable option for many departments who have tighter budget constraints. It is priced by the number of participants and can be hosted on the department’s Learning Management System or hosted on our system.

Inquire about this training class

Resolving Implicit Bias

Bias can take on many forms. In policing, gender, cultural, and racial biases often emerge. Criminal Justice departments often request bias training as an area of focus. Diversity Builder approaches implicit bias resolution by reviewing data, science, studies and research on successes on reducing or eliminating workplace bias in the police environment.

One key topic in policing is How to Resolve Confirmation Bias.

What exactly is confirmation bias in policing?

Confirmation bias is a tendency to give greater attention and weight to information that confirms one’s own beliefs. Information that does not support one’s views is given less weight or disregarded. As humans, we tend to want to reach conclusions quickly.

Just as with other categories of biases, confirmation bias allows the brain to take mental shortcuts in processing information. Research has shown the brain works to be as efficient as possible and simplify information processing.

Key Goals of Police Diversity Training

Raise awareness and connection with the diverse communities served
Reduce and resolve unconscious bias
Elevate engagement with internal teams
Resolve multicultural issues
Build inclusive departmental cultures

Training Options

Training solutions include onsite and in-person programs as well as virtual remote classes.
Group Training In-Person
One-on-One Coaching
Online Training
Live Webinars


“The City of Akron’s Police Department contracted with Diversity Builder, Inc. to hold five full days of training classes on the topic of Keeping the Peace-Policing Diverse Communities to 185 of our officers and supervisors. The primary facilitator prepared to lead the discussion on diversity by researching and visiting Akron’s diverse neighborhoods.

The feedback I received from our officers was that the trainer steered the class through some tough conversations about internal police culture and gave them some skill sets to build competencies as they provide public safety to a diverse community. It was a pleasure to work with Diversity Builder, Inc.”

C.A. Brown
Assistant Chief of Police
Akron Police Department


Popular law enforcement diversity and inclusion topics
Introduction to diversity and inclusion
Diverse community demographic within law enforcement jurisdictions
Resolving unconscious bias in a policing environment
Inclusive communication
Cultural competence

Our trainers offer customized solutions and options to accommodate the needs of police departments.


Request Training


When police departments contact Diversity Builder, our trainers listen to the challenges, learn about local demographics, and goals of the leadership team to craft a personalized solution. We have led small group webinars, performed one on one coaching and developed group programs tailored for each individual department. The class below is one developed for the police training center in Birmingham. It is an example of some of the programs we create. Contact our trainers to discuss options using the form to the right.

Course Title: Keeping the Peace: Policing Diverse Communities, Cultural Competence for Law Enforcement

Cultural Competency Course Description: This training class is requested by Chiefs of Police, Chief Deputies, police and sheriff departments. The course is considered essential course to raise the level of cultural competence within law enforcement to improve community relations, teamwork, and overall job performance.

This course will explore how the elimination of bias and efforts to become culturally competent can foster trust and confidence among the various communities that law enforcement serves and protects. Law enforcement functions optimally when its practices align with community values and expectations, which requires awareness of who is in the community and the factors that can influence their relationships. Participants will learn how perceptions based on bias or lack of awareness regarding an individual’s religion, race, disability, gender, ethnicity, immigration status, or national origin can influence officer conduct, and how these same characteristics in turn can affect subjects’ behavior during a law enforcement encounter, or their perceptions about law enforcement in general.

Leadership will learn the value of expanding cultural diversity in policing environments.

Who Should Attend:  Law enforcement personnel of all levels, criminal justice system employees, diversity and inclusion leaders, detectives, state and local policymakers, and community organizations will learn the methods for overcoming the effects of bias, the lack of awareness during law enforcement encounters, and how to develop the trust and partnership between communities and law enforcement that is essential for effective policing.

Learning Objectives: Participants will explore the role of implicit bias in day to day law enforcement activities, the results of failing to confront and eradicate the role of bias in law enforcement, and methods for avoiding biased policing through improved awareness of how perceptions and behaviors can be managed from a culturally competent foundation.

Why Cultural Competency Police Training

Because law enforcement officers work with such a diverse public, including the poor and the wealthy, immigrants and rural residents, individuals with different genders and orientations, and individuals from multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds, it’s more important now than ever to have those in uniform recognize diverse backgrounds and cultural differences in order to foster trust among the community.

Fostering community trust positively impacts policing efforts in a number of ways. For instance, residents are more likely to report crime, share information to solve crimes, and will likely be more cooperative with law enforcement if they perceive mutual trust and respect.

With recent national events and with continued changing demographic shifts in the population, cultural competency among police officers is essential to fostering trust in the community and impacting policing efforts.

Policing and Criminal Justice Clients:

a few of our past clients are listed below:

Akron Police Department
St. Martin Parish Sheriff
Birmingham Police Department
Elkton Police Department

Police Officer Individual Coaching Sessions

Are you looking for training for an individual officer or supervisor? Has a violation of department policy occurred with regard to harassment or discrimination? Diversity Builder offers in-person and remote coaching with a live trainer. These sessions have proven to be highly successful by increasing awareness and changing behavior. Using an experienced third party to facilitate a customized coaching session is an effective solution chosen by many human resources departments. These sessions are ideal for new recruits, in-service staff, or command staff. The law enforcement staff will be paired with an experienced diversity trainer who will lead a session covering the key topics of interest. A progress report will be provided following the training session that will include the officer’s action plan, trainer’s comments, and recommendations. In many cases, brief follow up sessions are needed to fully implement action items from the plan created.

Live Webinars

Looking for a live instructor-led group webinar? Just ask. We customize webinars for small groups. Zoom, WebEx, GoToMeeting, and Microsoft Teams are some of the webinar software solutions used by our trainers.

“People are more likely to obey the law when they believe that those who are enforcing it have the legitimate authority to tell them what to do. The public confers legitimacy only on those they believe are acting in procedurally just ways.” – The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.

Inquire about Police Training Options