LR police plan ‘cultural IQ’ test as training tool

Funds sought for addition to agency’s diversity courses

The Little Rock Police Department plans to begin testing the “cultural IQ” of its officers this year.

Cultural intelligence is defined as the ability to work and thrive across multiple cultures.

The department wants to add an online assessment of officers’ cultural intelligence to the cultural competency training they receive yearly. Officers will receive personal reports, and the department will receive an overall report of officers’ self-assessments.

The testing plan comes at a time when the department is struggling over issues of race. Last month, four black officers filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the city over racial and age discrimination within the department, and three police recruits — two black and one white — were fired over racially insensitive social media posts.

The new test would be in addition to the cultural competency and diversity training already provided to recruits at the police academy and to officers once a year during “in-service training.”

This year, the training captain wants civilian employees of the Police Department to receive the diversity training, too.

“This was the third-highest [ranked] out of 17 classes we taught,” said Capt. Marcus Paxton, training division commander, in reference to a survey about officers’ training.

“Black, white, brown, everybody seemed to respond positively to this class, which is something in the past we haven’t had,” Paxton told the Little Rock Board of Directors last week.

The board must approve spending $8,800 to add the cultural IQ test. In all, the 2018 contract with Colorado-based Global Perspec-

tives Consulting LLC for the competency training would total $61,780.

The board is to vote on the contract at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Little Rock City Hall, 500 W. Markham St.

Last year was the first in which the Global Perspectives firm provided the diversity training to the Police Department. For three years before that, Just Communities of Arkansas did the training.

Officers repeatedly gave Just Communities negative scores. In 2015, 52 percent of officers rated the training from that group as “unsatisfactory.”

Before 2014, the Police Department provided its own training to recruits and officers.

In a survey of officers about their 2017 in-service training, 190 answered the question: What was your favorite class?

The vast majority responded with the active-shooter course. Eight responded with the cultural competency training, making that class the third-highest rated overall.

“It actually dealt with understanding cultural differences rather than the usual ‘cops are racist’ rhetoric that has been pushed for years,” one officer wrote.

Another officer said: “The diversity instructor was very good. That was the best diversity class I’ve ever attended and I have attended a lot!”

The course is taught by Robert Strauss, owner of Global Perspectives. Strauss grew up in the Dominican Republic. He has a doctorate in intercultural studies from Biola University in Los Angeles. He’s traveled to 20 countries and speaks English and Spanish.

Strauss’ cultural diversity and competency course discusses religion, race, nationality, sexual orientation and more through the lens of how to celebrate diversity and promote inclusiveness. It also asks “how can a solid understanding of culture contribute,” he said.

The cultural intelligence test is a product of the Cultural Intelligence Center. Strauss said it is based on research into the qualities of people who do well in cross-cultural situations. It measures four capabilities: drive, knowledge, strategy and action. It has yes-or-no and multiple-choice questions.

Results might describe the test taker as having high motivations in cross-cultural settings or it might say: “You said you would like to learn more. You may lack knowledge,

but would like to learn more.”

“We use it as a mechanism to create robust discussion about motivation: What do I know about others who might be different than I am? What sort of plans, strategies do I have to enhance communication? And then literal action steps,” Strauss said. “We’re not using it as some sort of scientific method, but we’re using it for discussion purposes, where they have said about themselves particular things, and I facilitate discussion of that in the in-service training.”

“It’s quite helpful. It’s a way to open up the conversation. It’s not threatening anyone, it’s not labeling anyone. It’s more disarming than that,” he said.

It’s common practice nationwide for police departments to provide cultural-awareness training for officers.

Such training, in an attempt to teach police to be more sensitive to different ethnic groups, races and lifestyles, began to increase in the mid-1960s and early 1970s amid the increased emphasis on civil rights for black Americans, according to a 2001 report on the history of cultural training for police in the U.S. by Stephen Hennessy of the Phoenix Police Training Academy.

“This interest in cultural awareness and sensitivity training intensified after the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles in the early 1990s,” the report said, referring to the 1991 beating of a black man by Los Angeles police.

Last year, 72 percent of people arrested by the Little Rock Police Department were black. About 30 percent of sworn officers at the end of 2017 were black, and a little more than 64 percent were white.