The Thin Blue Line

They enter the room like overgrown schoolchildren, both hesitant and curious. Asked to speak, some are overcome with shyness and have to be prodded. Eventually, all will be required to participate in a session with a single goal: to open their minds.

Far from being schoolchildren, the 20 men and women in the room are Santa Monica police officers. They’re taking part in cultural sensitivity training called Tools for Tolerance, a state-subsidized program offered through the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance just across the street.

Essentially, the four-day program asks those who guard our streets to be more understanding of the diverse cultures that constitute California; to show patience in dealing with different racial and ethnic groups that make up their beats.

Police departments throughout the country have come under intense scrutiny in recent years due to complaints by minority groups of mistreatment.

That attention continues in Southern California from Santa Barbara to San Diego, probably dating to the beating of Rodney G. King by four L.A. policemen nine years ago.

In response to that growing concern among citizens groups, Tools for Tolerance was created in 1996. To date, 28,000 police officers from every corner of the state have participated in the training.

No one knows for sure how much good it all does. You can’t measure human attitudes. But I’m betting that it makes cops at least think about what it is they’re supposed to be doing.

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Each of the 200 programs a year begins with a tour of the museum, its exhibits bringing to mind in graphic terms the brutality humans have committed upon one another throughout recent history. It includes the Jewish Holocaust, the killings in Rwanda and the savage “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo.

It’s a sobering trip for the officers. Silence prevails as they sit in a circle to consider what they’ve seen. They talk about horror in general terms until the conversation, led by a program “facilitator,” evolves to the question: “Do we have the right to say things that cause violent reactions?”

While it is never said, the question clearly concerns the use of racial or ethnic slurs. The officers seem reluctant to address it directly. “Who determines what is right to say?” one asks. “What level would I sink to to protect myself?” another ponders aloud.

The facilitator, Santa Monica Police Sgt. Mike Cortrite, puts it bluntly: “Hate speech causes violence.”

Later, an afternoon workshop begins with the subject of genocide and leads to questions of what they consider their job to be. The answers range from “being a social worker” to “reducing crime.”

“And who is protected when crime is reduced?” facilitator Josef Levy asks rhetorically. He’s a lieutenant with the Long Beach Police Department. “Our society is protected. Our way of life is protected. By reducing crime, you protect the very way you and I live our lives. You protect civilization.”

Each opening leads to larger issues, each step challenging the officers to consider who and what they are.

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The policeman as both soldier and educator is discussed. Winning respect through ethical stature is discussed. “As a protector of civilization,” Levy says, “the role of the cop must expand from soldier to educator, but society won’t always tell you when.”

On the question of personal values and codes of conduct, Sunny Lee, program coordinator for Tools for Tolerance, asks: “How much are you willing to endure to make your conduct, your ethics, live up to your values?”

The question is left sizzling in the afternoon air.

The session is divided into smaller groups. The groups explore the subjects within the group itself before sharing it with the entire room.

Throughout the day, I heard uncertainty and I heard fear. I heard essentially good people trying to define their role in a world that keeps changing the rules.

Almost palpable in each session was the thinking going on. You could hear the synaptic connections being made. The officers were being called upon not only to consider their jobs, but their personal lives, and whether or not their conduct earned respect.

“Our goal is to open minds,” Levy explained later. He created a diversity program in Long Beach nine years ago that is considered the standard by which other such programs are judged. “We teach patience and understanding.”

Does it work? “I hear many times that police departments involved in this kind of training show declines in citizen complaints. I’ve been told by veteran officers that after the training, they begin to see things differently. Their perspective changes. That’s powerful stuff.”

Indeed.

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Al Martinez’s column appears Sundays and Wednesdays. He can be reached online at al.martinez@latimes.com.