ATLANTA – State Representative Marvin Lim (D-Norcross) has developed a new training course with the Georgia Public Safety Training Center (GPSTC) to improve how Georgia peace officers interact with multicultural communities. The new GPSTC “Cultural Adeptness in Law Enforcement” course is offered as a Governor’s Initiative online course.
“Representing a district where almost 50 percent of people are immigrants, I see so many people who both fear police yet understand their vital role, such as responding to hate crimes,” said Rep. Lim. “This training will help officers better understand and build trust with the communities they serve, including my own community. I’m grateful to be able to contribute to community policing in our diverse state.”
This course is currently available for Georgia peace officers, who must complete minimum of two hours of community policing training annually.
Rep. Marvin Lim worked with area experts to develop this course, including Belisa Urbina with the nonprofit Ser Familia. Rep. Lim and Urbina designed the course to include content on cultural concepts across different communities and how they apply to various emergency and non-emergency settings in which law enforcement operate.
Rep. Lim started to explore the police training course following the Atlanta spa shootings on March 16, 2021, which particularly impacted Georgia’s Asian American Pacific Islander communities. During the 2021-2022 legislative term, Rep. Lim and other legislators introduced a legislative package to improve community policing among multicultural, multilingual groups, including House Bill 789, which would have required training for peace officers who serve in such communities.
This new course, along with other Governor’s Initiative training courses, can be found online here: https://www.gpstc.org/featured-training/governors-initiative-courses.
Representative Marvin Lim represents the citizens of District 98, which includes portions of Gwinnett County. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2020 and currently serves on the Agriculture & Consumer Affairs, Health, Retirement and Urban Affairs committees.
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