The Community Policing Training for Small and Rural Jurisdictions program has offered several training and technical assistance options geared specifically for small and rural communities. One of these is Community Team Training, which stresses training for institutional change. It helps law enforcement agencies change their organizational culture, when their administrative systems and managerial styles are designed for more traditional models of policing. Through Community Team Training, police and other community members begin to build lasting partnerships by working together before, during, and after a custom-tailored, three-day training workshop.
The overall training approach is divided into three phases. The first phase involves helping jurisdictions to assess organizational progress and commitment to community policing or to refine existing community policing efforts. As a result of this assessment, an appropriate training approach will be recommended. Jurisdictions selected for Community Team Training are guided as they select multidisciplinary teams and prepare for a workshop. The workshop involves similar teams from six to eight jurisdictions in the same region or state and offers a unique training experience. Each team can actually work in and experience community policing. The third phase provides technical assistance to the teams as they implement the action plans developed during the workshop.