Law Enforcement Partnership Program (LEPP)

The Law Enforcement Partnership Program LEPP was founded in 1999 to bridge the cultural divide between law enforcement and the Sikh American community. LEPP is designed to provide law enforcement with critical tools in working and communicating with Sikh Americans.

The goal is to increase understanding between the community and law enforcement, and eventually increase levels of trust and partnership between the two groups. The purpose of the Law Enforcement Partnership Program is to:
1 - develop local relationships between minority communities and law enforcement to develop and sustain meaningful communication
2 - increase awareness and protocol about both communities
3 - provide tools for investigations and recruitment and
4 - develop strategies for successful engagement between both groups.

Over the past two years, the number of trainings SALDEF conducted was limited only by a lack of resources. As LEPP trainings are offered to law enforcement agencies at no cost to the agency, SALDEF must rely on other sources for funding. Whereas, in the past, SALDEF received government funding for travel, lodging and the cost of producing resources, such funding is no longer readily available. Therefore, and unfortunately, SALDEF has recently been forced to turn down invitations to conduct LEPP trainings in cities across the U.S.

The goal of SALDEF is to continue to deliver live presentations to supervisory law enforcement officials and to expand SALDEF’s reach to allow more agencies around the country to benefit from LEPP. Our goal is to visit 6 cities in 2012 and to update and improve materials and resources used during the trainings.

The costs associated with such trainings will be travel, lodging, and the cost of reproducing literature. Based on past expenses and estimating for a slight increase in cost, we anticipate per training travel costs of $350 (inclusive of round trip airfare and cab fare); lodging cost of $150; and material production and staff preparation time costs of $200, for a total cost of $700 per training.