Training and Education, Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
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The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties recognizes that one of the most important ways to ensure protection of civil rights and civil liberties is through training and education.
Civil Liberties Institute
The Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties helps to support the Department’s commitment to the protection of civil rights and civil liberties through the development of distributed learning training materials. This initiative takes a proactive approach, helping the Department’s front line officers integrate respect for civil liberties by teaching best practices for compliance with the Constitution, statutes, and Departmental policies protecting individual rights. Eleven training courses currently available include:
- Asylum Seekers Overview. This new online and CD-ROM-based training provides DHS law enforcement personnel with essential information related to asylum seekers. The course serves as a resource to support the Department's commitment to securing America while providing established protections for asylum seekers.
- Common Muslim American Head Coverings and Common Sikh American Head Coverings Posters. These posters provide guidance to DHS personnel on the appropriate ways in which to screen and, if necessary, search Muslim or Sikh individuals wearing various types of religious head coverings.
- Employment of People with Disabilities: A Roadmap to Success. This training provides DHS managers and supervisors with strategies, techniques, and resources to enable them to successfully hire and manage employees with disabilities, as well as meet the Department’s important organizational goals.
- The First Three to Five Seconds. This training introduces law enforcement officers to basic principles of the Arab American and Muslim American cultures.
- Guidance Regarding the Use of Race for Law Enforcement Officers. Provides basic training on the Department of Justice (DOJ) racial profiling guidance, which is binding on all federal law enforcement officials.
Additionally, the courses below are available as indicated:
- Introduction to Arab American and Muslim American Cultures for DHS Personnel. This hour-long training DVD, released in the Fall of 2006, provides insights from four national and international experts, including an Assistant United States Attorney who is a practicing Muslim; a member of the National Security Council who is a practicing Muslim; a scholar of Islamic studies; and a civil rights attorney who advocates on issues of concern to Arab American and Muslim American communities. The training assists law enforcement officers and other DHS personnel who interact with Arab and Muslim Americans as well as individuals from the Arab or Muslim world in carrying out their duties.
- National Detention Standards (NDS) Training. This online and CD-ROM-based training, produced in cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Detention and Removal Office (ICE DRO) in 2006, provides managers, supervisors, line staff and contractors at facilities that house immigration detainees with information about the NDS to enable these personnel to effectively fulfill their duties. The NDS training is available on the ICE Virtual University for ICE employees.
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Supervisory Communications: Supporting the Cornerstone of Professionalism. This highly interactive CD-ROM-based training, designed in cooperation with CBP’s Office of Training and Development, is targeted to all CBP managers and supervisors with an emphasis on the basic elements of professionalism, integrity and communications with employees. A number of video scenarios help equip managers to earn respect from their employees by effectively demonstrating personal accountability, positive communications skills, coaching, teamwork, conflict resolution and stress management.
- No FEAR Act Training (Notification and Federal Employee Antidiscrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002). This Act requires that employees receive information regarding their rights and remedies under federal antidiscrimination, whistleblower and retaliation laws. In 2005, in collaboration with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the DHS Chief Human Capital Officer, CRCL developed three web-based training lessons that summarize these employee rights and remedies.
- TSA Screener Training on Travelers with Disabilities. With CRCL support, TSA has developed several initiatives to enhance the screening of people with disabilities, including the following: (1) an in-depth training video for screeners who interact with travelers with disabilities; and (2) a “Z card,” a pocket-sized card with basic instructions and quick reference points for screeners who interact with travelers with disabilities, such as wheelchair users, travelers with service animals, and people with various complex medical conditions.
Educational Materials
Posters depicting common Muslim American and common Sikh American head coverings were produced by the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in conjunction with the Department of Justice:
Constitution Day information and training materials about the U.S. Constitution provided to all federal employees.
This page was last reviewed/modified on April 29, 2008.
