PRESS RELEASE: Beyond Us & Them announces new partnership with DOJ’s COPS Office enhancing compassion to improve Police-Community relations.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) announced on April 4, 2022 the creation of a series of new partnerships that will contribute to the advancement of community policing and serve as vital resources for law enforcement agencies across the country. Among these partners is Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, Beyond Us & Them (previously Center for Council).
Beyond Us & Them offers innovative and award-winning programs that teach self-awareness and reinforce skills to manage stress, cultivate positive communication, and strengthen community relations. These training programs are offered in a wide variety of settings, including law enforcement agencies, community-based organizations, and prisons.
“I am thrilled to be partnering with the COPS Office in raising awareness around this critically needed evolution in law-enforcement training and practice,” Beyond Us & Them Executive Director, Jared Seide, shares. “We want officers to embody fierce compassion, critical discernment and true kindness – and there are resources and practices that science and practical experience has shown us improve their wellbeing, self-awareness and self-regulation. We know that training in these resources bolsters
officers’ health and morale, improves their performance and enables them to embody compassion and kindness with the communities they protect and serve. I’m eager for this collaboration with COPS to foster a nationwide conversation on innovative approaches to improving officer wellbeing, performance and sustainability, as well as enhancing their interaction with the public.”
The COPS Office and Beyond Us & Them will work together to increase law enforcement awareness of the intersectionality of wellness, compassion, procedural justice and community building through their POWER (Peace Officer Wellness, Empathy, and Resilience) program, which is built around science-based strategies for optimizing physical, emotional, mental and relational health and explores strategies for
addressing empathy fatigue, moral distress, pathological altruism, depersonalization and burnout. Ultimately, the skillful integration of high ethical standards, personal well-being and sustainable practices for navigating the professional demands of police work will help officers enhance compassion toward both themselves and their communities.
Piloted in 2018 with officers from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, POWER is now being offered to several cohorts of officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), as well as other law enforcement agencies. The program is also certified by the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training and provides professional credit to police and correctional officers throughout California. This
partnership with the COPS Office highlights POWER’s efficacy as a resource to equip officers with the skills of self-awareness and self-regulation that are essential to improved police-community interactions.
The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) is the component of the U.S. Department of Justice responsible for advancing the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and grant resources.
Details on the program and video of LAPD officer testimonials can be found here .
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