Racial tensions between civilians and police officers hit close to home July 7 when a shooter killed five Dallas police officers and wounded about 12 other officers and protesters.

The shooting, which occurred during a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas, came after two police-involved shootings in Minnesota and Louisiana where officers killed black men.

Since the Dallas shooting, police departments and legislators across the country have been pushing for more diversity training for officers. In Frisco, the police department has designed its own diversity training that all department employees are required to go through.

The training, called Bridging the Gap, was tailored specifically to the city’s demographics. Four instructors walk Frisco Police Department employees through an eight-hour training covering a range of diversity groups, including the African American, Hispanic/Latino and LGBT communities.

The training also addresses the growing Asian population in the city. Frisco’s Asian population has grown steadily during the past few years to 11.6 percent in 2014, which is the third highest demographic in the city, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Lindsey Belcher, a Frisco police officer and one of the Bridging the Gap instructors, said she has seen how diverse Frisco is becoming from her years as a school resource officer for Frisco ISD.

“Whenever you’re in the school, you see how big of a melting pot Frisco is,” she said. “You talk with kids from literally all over the world.”

While discussing different cultural groups, the instructors go over how customs and religious practices differ from American culture. For instance, wearing shoes in certain places of worship is offensive in some cultures.

Sometimes, officers just do not know how to respond to different cultures, said Avery Jones, an instructor and school resource officer. Simply understanding the differences in cultures can go a long way when officers interact with the community, he said.

“That way, you don’t get the misinterpretation of the body language, which leads to escalation instead of being able to de-escalate the situation,” Jones said.

The department also wants to eventually invite community leaders who represent different cultures to talk to employees about how police officers are viewed in their culture, instructor and patrol Sgt. Jon Skaehill said.

Sarah Arizpe, an instructor and school resource officer, said growing up as a Mexican-American, she was encouraged not to interact with police officers.

“In the Hispanic culture, there is a huge divide between law enforcement and that community,” she said. “A lot of it just stems from wanting to handle things within the family or within the neighborhood. There’s a lot of reasons why they don’t communicate with the police or don’t cooperate with the police.”

Arizpe said she wants to help build trusting relationships in the community through this training.

Connecting with the community is especially challenging because the demographics of the police department do not match the city’s demographics, Jones said. The proportion of Asian, black and Hispanic officers in the police department are less than the demographics that shape the city.

“We have to understand that we are here to provide a service to all our citizens,” he said. “In order to do that, we have to understand our citizens and what their cultures are. Just like they have to assimilate to our culture in America, we have to somewhat bridge that gap so that we can help them become a part of our city.”

Belcher said once all department employees have gone through the training, the instructors will focus on training new employees who come in and developing a refresher training for all employees next year.

Skaehill said it is impossible for officers to know every detail of a certain culture, but officers can learn to be tolerant.

“I don’t think we have the same issues here that some other agencies may have, but it’s there,” Skaehill said. “We’re only one call away from being the next Ferguson or Baton Rouge just the way circumstances can happen.”