New York, NY, September 3, 2003 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to support a joint ADL/United States Holocaust Memorial Museum training program for law enforcement professionals. The grant will enable ADL to expand the initiative to three additional cities in 2004.
ADL's Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust brings law enforcement officers to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., for an intensive program that challenges them to examine their relationship with the public and to explore issues of personal responsibility and ethical conduct. Launched in 1998, the program has reached more than 14,000 officers in nine Washington, D.C. regional law enforcement agencies and is currently part of the mandatory training for all new FBI agents.
"By witnessing firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust, police officers can better understand how their personal decisions can have life-or-death implications," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "Community police officers are the frontline protectors of America's Constitution and guardians against a repeat of the horrors of the Holocaust."
The program was conceived in 1998 after ADL invited Washington Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey to visit the Holocaust Museum. Profoundly moved by the experience, Chief Ramsey asked ADL to develop a program using the museum as a centerpiece to help law enforcement officers to think through issues of responsibility and administering authority in an ethical manner. The program is run by the League's Washington D.C. Regional Office.
"Community policing is based, in part, on law enforcement officers understanding the cultural norms and needs of the specific communities they protect, and serving the citizens of those communities in an unbiased manner," Carl R. Peed, Director of COPS, said in announcing the grant. "This program reinforces those professional values, and can be of great benefit to law enforcement agencies."
