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Course Outline

A page within Human Rights Policing

Human Rights Policing Course Outline

  • Provides conceptual and practical understanding of human rights, distinct from civil rights and the requirements of law
  • Goes beyond implicit bias and cultural diversity training, providing a broader context for understanding and implementing fair and impartial law enforcement
  • Centers experience and expertise of working law enforcement personnel as fundamental to effectively address the challenges, opportunities and realities of daily police work
  • Learn the concept of human rights and its origin, understand the role of human agency in policing, learn the history of policing and its relevance to current police and community relations 
  • Engage with community members to explore how those outside the field of law enforcement understand and define human rights as related to policing
  • Use personal on-the-job experience to develop practical ways of applying human rights to daily interactions with members of the community
  • Peter Marina, UW-La Crosse Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice and Pedro Marina, retired lieutenant, New Orleans Police Department
  • Instructional team provides both an academic and first-hand law enforcement perspective to the course 
  • 6-week, fully online, asynchronous
  • May be completed around officers’ work schedule

Full Course Syllabus

Benefits for New Officers

"I enjoyed being exposed to more information I wouldn't necessarily have searched out and read. As a person who is pretty new to this career field I think it is important to be immersed in as much information and different options as possible. This will make me a better correctional officer and person in general."

—past course participant

"The content is outstanding in this course. There is a lot of opportunity for the student to learn new information and take in new content. This is a course that especially people new to the career field should be taking. It reinforces the idea we shouldn't have an "us vs. them" mentality and law enforcement is there to serve the community." —past course participant

Who would benefit:

Field Services

  • Uniformed Police Officers
  • University Campus Police 
  • Bureau of Indian Affairs Police
  • First Nations Police
  • Sheriffs and Sheriff Deputies
  • State Patrol Officers
  • Supervisors
  • Law enforcement chaplaincy
  • S.W.A.T.

Professional Standards/Community Services

  • School Resource Officers (SROs)
  • Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) personnel
  • Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) personnel
  • Adult School Crossing Guards
  • Police Information Officers

Investigative Personnel/Detectives

  • Homicide
  • Special Victims
  • Property
  • Aggravated Assault
  • Family Violence
  • Cold Case
  • Forensics
  • Robbery
  • Financial
  • Intel unit
  • Cybercrime

 Departments of Corrections (all levels)

  • Probation and Parole agents
  • Social workers
  • Teachers
  • Nurses
  • Psychologists
  • Guards
  • Administrators

 Members of Court system

Request information regarding the
Human Rights Policing Certificate of Completion