Judicial Watch: Records Show ‘Diversity Workshop’ Instituted by South Bend Police Department

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced it received 127 pages of records from the South Bend, Indiana Police Department which show the Department offered diversity training in 2017 which includes a “cultural competence” rating for personnel. The training material also names various classes of prejudice, including “languageism” and “sizeism.” The Mayor of South Bend at that time was Pete Buttigieg.

The South Bend Police Department training material claims all personnel have a measurable Cumulative Perceptual Index (CPI) rating, which measure their “cultural competence.”

“The CPI theory posits that our behaviors and biases today may well be rooted in our individual measurable CPI rating,” the training material says. “Its base assertion is that we all have been exposed to bigotry and biases at various stages of our lives. What and with what levels of intensity those exposures took place is an important variable in our past, current and future interpersonal interactions. One thing that the CPI theory holds certain is that none of us were born with prejudices and biases. It also posits that all of us have had some prejudice or bias get dispelled in some way over time and it is that factor that can facilitate measurable adjustments in our CPI ratings.”

In SBPD anti-discrimination police training materials, one slide under the title “The Future of Policing” notes that “Black lives do indeed mater, but no more, and certainly no less than the lives of every community within law enforcement’s jurisdictions. The perceptual proof of that belief is unquestionably not universally present today because such a Vision is not yet universally shared by law enforcement.”

The SBPD’s diversity workshop creators have deemed the term “Deaf and dumb” to be offensive, “implying that if an individual lacks the sense of hearing, they are therefore intellectually deficient.” This definition completely ignores the historical meaning of the word “dumb” in this context, which is “mute” or “unable to speak.” Another supposedly “inappropriate” and “offensive” term is “hearing-impaired”, which apparently implies that “their hearing is broken, and needs to be fixed.” The term “racism/colorism” is, per their definition, “an attitude, action, or practice” emphatically “backed by institutional power”.

Judicial Watch obtained the records as in response a June 27, 2019, Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request seeking:

• Complaints against the SBPD related to bias of any kind (racial, religious, sexual orientation, etc.) from 2015-present.
• SBPD policy documents relating to discrimination on any basis, and training materials used by SBPD relating to discrimination of any kind.

“These documents show how South Bend police under Mayor Buttigieg had to contend with politicized ‘training’ that had nothing to do with the public safety,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Additionally, Judicial Watch filed an Access to Public Records Act (APRA) lawsuit against the City of South Bend for tapes of conversations that reportedly contain racist remarks by certain SBPD police officials. (Judicial Watch v. City of South Bend (No. 71C01-1911-MI-000793)).

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