Training for Police Prevention of Extremist Infiltration in Communities
Introduction
Targeted violence and violent extremism are on the rise in the United States and law enforcement personnel, specifically police officers and sheriffs’ deputies, are often the first line of defense in countering targeted violent extremist infiltration and recruitment attempts in their communities (https://www.splcenter.org/year-hate-extremism-2022). Law enforcement often have little training to effectively identify and intervene with these new challenges of individuals who are at-risk of radicalization, are being, or have already been radicalized; as well as to protect against community and policing infiltration attempts by violent extremist groups trying to gain access to vulnerable community members and to police training and weapons.
The International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE) is an internationally recognized and respected think tank for their research regarding the processes of radicalization, disengagement, deradicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration; prevention and intervention strategies; counter narrative videos and first-person video recorded interviews of over 800 terrorists and violent extremists. In 2022, ICSVE was awarded a US Department of Homeland Security Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention grant (Grant No: EMW-2022-GR-00076) to provide a comprehensive, evidence-based series of virtual and in-person multi-media trainings and follow-up briefs addressing law enforcement responses to violent extremism. The goal was for the trainings to be delivered to law enforcement and security professionals across the country and in the Washington, D.C. area to educate and prepare them for a new era of violent extremist radicalization and recruitment.
Creative and need-based approaches using multimedia presentations were developed by ICSVE based on actual case studies and research interviews to help police understand the psychosocial forces involved in radicalization to violent extremism, to prevent contributing to radicalization and to analyze psychosocial and policing perspectives on actual case studies of violent extremist events. The trainings took a whole-of-society view, taking into consideration systemic and developmental factors that make individuals highly vulnerable to recruitment, addressed the rise in online indoctrination and recruitment and the obstacles to detection for police and the factors which make exiting difficult for those already in such groups.
The project had two main objectives. The first objective was to provide American law enforcement with training and information that can be used to prevent violent extremist infiltration in their communities immediately and the second to provide proof of concept for the future development of a multimedia curriculum which can be disseminated to police and sheriff’s departments across the country and internationally as a virtual and perhaps even an asynchronous continuing education and training program.
Activities included developing six multi-media training modules delivered for law enforcement personnel followed by dissemination of related summary notes and research articles to all participants. Pre and post tests were administered, and the results were analyzed to verify that learning objectives were met. Likewise, the researchers collected participants’ reviews of the materials, trainers, and suggestions for future trainings. Additionally, 5-10 law enforcement participants from each training group were involved in short interviews to review the trainings, learn what was most useful for police, how to increase their accessibility and suggestions for improvements.
The six multimedia training PowerPoints are below. To view the research article click here.