ST. LOUIS — A two-hour lesson on the history of policing in minority communities in America will be added to the curriculum for all recruits at Missouri police academies, a state police board decided Tuesday.
The measure was approved by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission after it was spearheaded by commissioners that included Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak and Lincoln University police Chief Gary Hill.
Topics like police enforcement of racist Jim Crow laws and recovering escaped slaves in early America will likely be part of the course in an attempt to give recruits a deeper understanding of the relationship between minority communities and law enforcement, commissioners said in meetings this fall.
Marshak told the Post-Dispatch that he was convinced of the need for the training after visiting the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., during a police convention in the nation’s capitol. He said he subsequently had discussions with minorities in law enforcement pointing to the need for such training.
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“There needs to be some acknowledgement of our history as a profession so that we can learn from that and hopefully improve relationships in the future,” Marshak said in September.
The course will not add any hours to the required police academy curriculum, but instead will replace two out of the three hours now dedicated to informing recruits about the rules and procedures of the academy.
After the design of the course is finalized, academies will have six months to begin teaching the lessons, according to POST spokesman Mike O’Connell.