Modern Officers and Past Issues

While the officers were also visiting, they mentioned in a comment about different events that have changed a lot of things about the police department in general. One thing that had me wondering was during training at the Police Academy, do they learn about these different events that change police policy? When taking exams at the Academy, do they take them about the Rodney King Riots? Or the Watts Riots? And if so, what do they learn about them? Like how to diffuse a situation or just what about them has changed the way officers act and are trained.