East Lansing City Council unanimously passed the East Lansing Police Department's DEI training proposal on Tuesday.
The training plan includes a survey to assess current DEI knowledge, followed by multiple learning sessions.
Video shows ELPD Lt. Adrian Ojerio and DEI Director Elaine Hardy speaking about the training plans.
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(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Since 2020, the City of East Lansing has provided Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training opportunities for city staff. And Tuesday, an important department presented their plan to the City Council.
"Here at the East Lansing Police Department, we recognized this even before the state did," Lt. Adrian Ojerio said.
An emphasis from the city of East Lansing continuing as the City Council unanimously passed the police department's proposal for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training. It's something that Lt. Adrian Ojerio says is often misunderstood.
"It's not just about race," Lt. Ojerio said. "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is much broader than race."
Lt. Ojerio says DEI has been a focus for the department for some time after suggestions were made by the city's Independent Police Oversight Commission, made up of 11 community members.
"We have been doing DEI-based training for years," he said. "And we do DEI-based training even in our annual training level."
But, some say there's still progress to be made.
"We committed to becoming a fully inclusive place to live, work, visit, and do business," Elaine Hardy said. "And in order for us to be able to live up to that, we've got some work to do."
East Lansing DEI Director Elaine Hardy has been working closely with the Police Department through this process as they've formed the training proposal. She says it's a means of furthering that mission of being an inclusive city for all neighbors.
"We don't automatically understand sometimes how our intentions impact people," she said. "And we can believe that we have done something in good faith with complete understanding and not really recognize the impact that it could have on another community member, or another person that we work with."
The training, which Hardy says will be funded entirely with city funds, will include a survey to determine the current DEI knowledge from department staff, and set up multiple learning sessions in 2025.
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