UTM campus Public Safety officers are spending April 19 – April 21 in the University Center Legislative Chamber participating in a new training brought by the UT Law Enforcement Innovation Center (LEIC), which is an agency of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.
This three-day certification program is being offered to help Public Safety officers increase their cultural awareness and reduce any bias-based policing in order to better serve the UTM main campus and surrounding area. The training is a new program implemented by the UT system in response to many recent events, that will eventually be launched nationwide.
This training is being offered by the LEIC through a partnership with the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles to meet the need of minimized bias-based policing and increased diversity and cultural competency. Rick Scarbrough, LEIC Executive Director, says this training will not only increase diversity in law enforcement, but will also examine perceptions, stereotypes and cultural assumptions.
Monte Belew has spent his first year as Director of Public Safety searching for new ways to give our campus a more community oriented approach to policing and he believes trainings such as this will be the first step towards that. “We’re here to show respect, to serve the students and faculty of UTM and make the campus an even better place than it already is,” he said. “This training will help us recognize effective ways to build greater trust with those we serve.”
The UTM Department of Public Safety was awarded full accreditation by the Tennessee Association of Chiefs of Police in December 2013 by meeting standards of professionalism and accountability to the publics they serve. The department has stayed committed to maintaining these progressive standards set by the association and given that accreditation is an ongoing process, the department received its second award in 2018.
