SALDEF Expands Law Enforcement Partnership Program
This fall, SALDEF expanded its Law Enforcement Partnership Program (LEPP), which was established in 1999, by holding its first “Train the Trainers” program in Washington D.C. at the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the first major PD to allow Sikh Americans to serve with their articles of faith. There, SALDEF certified 15 new Law Enforcement trainers, quadrupling the organization’s ability to provide Sikh Awareness trainings to law enforcement around the country.
VIEW: Photos of Train the Trainers
The LEPP graduates hail from California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio. The one-day program was led by SALDEF Regional Director Navtej Singh (Florida) and participants also heard from MPD Assistant Chief Patrick Burke and Department of Justice Assistant Director Ben Lieu.
The new LEPP class has the ability to cultivate cultural competency and introduce officers to the Sikh articles of faith and the Sikh way of life, using SALDEF created-curriculum, such as On Common Ground, which was used to train more than 40,000 employees at the TSA in one year. These trainers also learned how to employ the new anti-Sikh hate crimes tracking form, which the FBI and police around the country will use in 2015. We thank the newly-anointed trainers for their seva (selfless service) and hope you will contribute to SALDEF so we can continue to build on these efforts. About SALDEF’s Law Enforcement Partnership Program (LEPP)
LEPP began as the first formalized cultural awareness training program for law enforcement about Sikh Americans in 1999. The curriculum has expanded to reach 100,000 officers and agents throughout the country. Resources created by SALDEF in partnership with federal law enforcement agencies include On Common Ground, the cultural awareness film produced with the Department of Justice; A Guide to Sikh American Headcoverings produced with the Department of Justice; and a Guide to the Kirpan (a Sikh article of faith) with the Department of Homeland Security. In recognition of its more than decade long partnership, SALDEF was recognized with the TSA’s first Community Partnership Award at their National Conference in 2013.