The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Police officers undergo intensive diversity training

By Justin Berton

In what is perhaps the most powerful and expensive training program ever required by the Sunnyvale Public Safety Department, every officer and employee will complete an intensive weekend training on tolerance and racial diversity by year's end.

Last week a group of 30 employees from the 350-person department returned from the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles, where department officials hope employees can "find the link that makes us all similar," Capt. Don Johnson said.

The weekend training course at the museum focuses on the Holocaust in Nazi-controlled Europe between 1933 and 1945. Employees also attend courses on sexual harassment in the workplace and racism in America, and listen to speakers from various cultures.

Johnson said the department jumped at the chance to visit the museum when state officials announced $2 million in grant monies would help fund a portion of the costs for any department willing to visit the center. The Mountain View Police Department is the only other department in the county to send all of its officers.

"This is a huge leap for public safety," Johnson said of the scope of the training commitment.

For 124 patrol officers to attend the weekend-long session, the cost is $120,000. The state refunds $38,000.

Lt. Doug Sims, who completed the training earlier in the year, said the weekend changed his perception of history. "I never really got involved in something so intensive," he said.

Sims said the one image that stands out in his memory clearly is the lasting impression of walking into a replica of a concentration-camp gas chamber.

"I can sit here and explain it," Sims said, "but you have to experience it yourself to really understand it."

At the beginning of the day, each officer receives a passport from a child who lived during the Holocaust era. Throughout the day, the officer is updated on the well-being of his faux personality. By the end of the day, the fate of the child is revealed to the officer.

"It is a humbling experience," Johnson said.

Officers also learn about mass, ethnically motivated murders that have taken place in Rwanda and Bosnia.

Officer Terri Wiebold, who also completed the course, said she was astonished to learn the extent to which genocide still takes place. "I knew a lot about the Holocaust, but it surprised me later to learn about current world leaders that are establishing similar patterns in their society--that it is happening today, all over the world," she said.

Besides the Holocaust, the Museum of Tolerance also features exhibits on the dynamics of racism and prejudice in America. One program pinpoints more than 250 hate groups that exhist in the country.

By September, all employees of the department will have gone to Los Angeles.

"I think we will be giving the people of Sunnyvale better service because of the better understanding we have of what has happened in the world," Johnson said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 8, 1998.
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