Description

Community Conscious Policing (CCP) is a public-health response model intended to end unnecessary law enforcement violence. It is designed to augment and enhance existing continuing education for law enforcement, students in social justice-related fields, advocates involved in police accountability, and organizations seeking to increase their outreach capacity. This innovative training curriculum is designed with the input of sworn police trainers and thousands of diverse community participants that Training 4 Transformation, LLC (T4T) brought together during very polarizing times to design a new training curriculum based on experiential learning. CCP is a culturally responsive, trauma-healing approach to public involvement based on the founders’ conscious leadership principles. They include emotional intelligence, experiential learning, decolonizing strategies, and mindfulness practices that transcend traditional barriers.

Who is this class for?: This course is designed to support, educate, and inform members in communities most impacted by law enforcement violence and systems of oppression about Community Conscious Policing, which includes training and accountability of law enforcement. The class will work through the text Community Conscious Policing: A Guide for People’s Justice and Law Enforcement Solutions. Each week, the instructor will facilitate the class by unpacking a chapter from the book and revealing its real-life motivation. (*The instructor is an educator with lived experience. He is not a member of law enforcement nor an attorney).

This course’s secondary function is to support scholar-practitioners in becoming change agents in their respective communities and/or deepen their activism related to police accountability. Principles of Community Conscious Policing have been implemented to establish the Latino Advisory Commission for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, the Portland Committee on Community-Engaged Policing, and the Southern Oregon Racial Equity Liaison Program between the oversight committee and local law enforcement of Jackson County.

Why is Community Conscious Policing important? There is no other training curriculum in the marketplace based on indigenous initiatic wisdom related to law enforcement training and (re)building community relations. This class is important because it applies traditional, nature-based principles to modern problems related to racial profiling and unnecessary law enforcement violence. Additionally, the co-founders, instructor, and facilitators are educators with lived experience and deep community affiliations rather than retired police.

Who would this class benefit? This class would benefit anyone seeking innovative ways to hold local police accountable through training, leadership coaching, and policy reform. Participants will research and discover how to participate in proactive, preventative measures such as community oversight of law enforcement boards and police-community integrated training and education (P-CITE) workshops.

Instructor’s Bio: The course instructor is Shenmiakhu Pernebsati (more widely known as Brandon Lee). He has a Master of Arts degree in Teaching (M.A.T.) English to Speakers of Other Languages from the School for International Training and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Policy and Spanish from Houston Baptist University.

Shenmiakhu’s professional experience consists of teaching English as a Foreign Language at the University of Mexico (UAEH), teaching Harvard Business Case Studies to international adult professionals earning a Masters in Business Administration (M.B.A.) at Oregon State University and the University of Delaware, leading as a teacher trainer at the University of San Diego, and serving in Higher Education Administration as the Inaugural Director for the Center of Fraternity and Sorority Life at Oregon State University. He led as the Retention and Multicultural Center Coordinator at Portland Community College and recently graduated from the Business Evolution Program sponsored by the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce.

ShenmiAkhu supported the Coalition of Police Accountability in Oakland, CA, in funding the Citizens Police Review Board, which later evolved into one of the most robust police oversight commissions led by community in the country. He also won a settlement against a police department for police misconduct, resulting in a monetary settlement and disciplinary actions against the officers involved. During national protests and states of emergency, ShenmiAkhu led a team that trained law enforcement organizations beside the diverse community members they served as co-participants in Community Conscious Policing Workshops.

Textbook:
Community Conscious Policing: A Guide for… by Lee, Brandon (amazon.com)

Location: Virtually via Zoom

Term:
– 1 day per week / 10-week term / 90 – 120 minutes per class with a break
Class is available any day between M-Thurs from 6:00 pm – 8 pm PST or Saturday mornings

Course Evaluations consist of:
● Attendance
● Weekly reading & participation
● Reflection Writing Journals/Drawings/Recordings Follow-up Assignments

Equipment and Supplies
● A textbook
● Computer/Internet/Zoom Access
● A relatively quiet place to attend the class virtually
● *Commitment outside of class:  30min each week to meet with another cohort participant about the integrated
learnings between classes via Zoom, Phone Call, Facetime, WhatsApp, etc