Baltimore Police Academy Graduates Complete Community Peacebuilding Program

Baltimore residents and new recruits from the Baltimore Police Academy have something in common.

Both have recently completed community peacebuilding programs presented by Global Peace Foundation (GPF) and United Way of Central Maryland, designed to tackle the issues of race and human differences in the city.

“You graduate, but this is really only the beginning of the work,” Detective Ryan Diener of the Baltimore Police Department said after the end of the pilot citizen Baltimore Cross Community Engagement Program (BCCE). “We must be willing to listen, to continue to learn, and challenge our own preconceptions.  By doing so we can create a moral society that values justice, equality and respect for all.”

In June, Diener and other residents completed the pilot of the Baltimore Cross Community Engagement Program which consisted of 10 sessions over a six-month period. The project actively engaged participants in constructive dialogue and examined and tested the assumptions of race relations in Baltimore.

Gary Cordner, academic director of the department’s Education and Training Division as well as a stakeholder and host of the Baltimore Cross Community Engagement Project, added a community peace-building session as part of future police academy training after hosting two sessions with citizens at The Commons at the University of Baltimore.

“I am very pleased that we were able to incorporate this into a very important and meaningful session for the new recruits of the police academy,” said Alan Inman, senior adviser of the Global Peace Foundation. “With this and future sessions, the introduction of community peacebuilding to new recruits and having discussions about our shared humanity, fundamental rights and our value as humans will be instrumental for the recruits as well as the citizens of Baltimore as a whole.”

More than 40 recruits were trained as part of the inaugural peacebuilding session for the Baltimore Police Academy. Learning more about human differences and learning the importance of valuing all residents of a community were vital to the session.

The Rev. Dr. Kevin Slayton, senior pastor at Northwood Appold United Methodist Church, said at this year’s BCCE Graduation that psychologists tell us that violence is born of weakness and not of strength. In adversity, he said, those with weaker characters think of themselves and feel the need to hurt others to protect their ego, but an even stronger person sees humanity in others and does not seek retaliation.

Slayton closed his remarks with the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling, which talks of keeping your head through conflict, negative thoughts by others, and strife.

“After that, walk away from turmoil, “yours is the earth and everything that’s in it, and which is more, you will be a man,” Slayton said, quoting the poem’s closing stanza.

This second cohort of the BCCE Project consisted of 10 sessions over a six-month period where officials, faith-based leaders and other members of the community led discussions on various topics. As a follow-up, mediators in smaller groups facilitated healthy dialogue, making sure all were heard.  

“I hope you have other pop-ups in other cities and states because I really feel that communities need the opportunity to fellowship with one another, be able to see each other as a person but also operate out of a place of love,” said participant Nadya Ellis.  

The Global Peace Foundation works with community and faith-based leaders, and local governments in areas of conflict to establish dialogue, build trust and forge lasting relationships.  Since 2016, GPF has organized successful community peacebuilding projects in the communities of Billings, Montana and Jersey City, New Jersey.

For more information on community peacebuilding projects and the work of the Global Peace Foundation, go to https://globalpeace.org/cross-community-reconciliation/.