The Community Immersion Program

The Community Immersion training program was designed by the Austin Police Department to build relationships between police officers and the Austin community. The program requires officer trainees to spend time with a specific community group, engage in dialogue with members of that group, learn about these individuals’ motivations and values, and then teach what they have learned to their peers.

This 7-day program has three components: classroom, fieldwork, and presentation of lessons learned. In the classroom, participants engage in small group exercises to learn about diversity, social tolerance, and human rights. The fieldwork component assigns groups of officers to a specific cultural group; officers spend time in the community and conduct videotaped interviews. Cultural groups have included: African American; Asian; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender; Homeless; Mental Health patients; Mexican; Physically disabled; and Undocumented immigrants. The program concludes with trainees presenting what they learned to their classmates and learning from the other groups.

The mission of the program is to develop cultural understanding and to forge relationships between police officers and citizens of Austin in order to provide better community service.

The program has received high praise from participants and the Austin community, and recently has received national recognition by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.