This fear can stem from experience with police abuse in their native country or a failure to understand the role of law enforcement in American society. Police can overcome communication and ethnic tradition barriers through cultural and sensitivity training, patient instruction, and information sharing. They can also call upon translators, interpreters, community liaisons, religious leaders, and other trusted members of an ethnic community. Schools can assist by including crime prevention techniques in ESL and other classes. Because many newly settled refugees and immigrants choose to stay within their own community, officers may have to hold meetings in neighborhood sites, religious buildings, or even family homes.
Ethnic leaders work with the department to report crime and resolve problems in their neighborhoods.
In Lowell, Massachusetts, police officers include a tour of the police station in their crime prevention program for newly settled refugees to help them understand how the police work. In nearby Revere, the police department promotes Operation Crime Watch in ethnic neighborhoods that have experienced crime.