Recommended Best Practices
Recommendation 2.2 Ensure officers are trained in bias-free policing.
Officers should be trained inbias-free policing in order to put bias-free policies to work, and officers should know how to recognize implicit biases before taking action. Bias-free principles and tools should be taught during training in bias-free policing and in other subjects as well. For example, use-of-force training should instruct officers to identify and combat biases when deciding to use force.
Departments should ensure that officers are trained in:
- The impact of arbitrary classifications, stereotypes, and biases, including subconscious, or implicit, biases.
- How to minimize the effects of bias when officers recognize it.
- Cultural competency, including cross-cultural communication skills (so officers can understand and appreciate cultural and ethnic norms and traditions).
- The negative effects of discriminatory policing on police legitimacy.
- Constitutional and other legal protections that safeguard against unlawful discrimination.
- Identification of key decision points when bias can influence actions.
- Data collection protocols to evaluate patterns of discriminatory policing.
- Strategies for defusing conflicts.
- The history of racism and discrimination in the United States and around the world.
- Procedural justiceprinciples, including: respect, bias-free decision-making, explaining processes during interactions, and allowing people to express themselves during interactions with community members (e., allowing community voices to be heard).[i]
- How to intervene to prevent and stop misconduct.[ii]
Bias and discrimination are difficult topics to discuss and sometimes trigger defensive responses. For this reason, trainers should create learning spaces that are open and engaging. Department leaders should carefully select officers to teach this sensitive subject matter and train them to do so in a non-threatening, non-accusatory way so that it does not lead to disengagement. What’s more, trainers should not be forced into the job; they should be willing participants who volunteer for the assignment and who do not have records of misconduct complaints.
Department leaders should regularly review and evaluate training programs and curricula to ensure they reflect new developments in the field, and they should analyze data (e.g., the number of complaints alleging discriminatory treatment) to measure the effect of training on police practices.[iii]The Center for Policing Equity also recommends rigorous post-training testing to determine whether officers’ perceptions and attitudes change as a result of training.[iv]Supervisors should maintain accurate attendance records to ensure that officers complete required training.
[i] See Baltimore Police Dep’t, Draft Policy 317: Fair and Impartial Policing 3-8 (Aug 24, 2018), https://www.baltimorepolice.org/317-draft-fair-and-impartial-policing;New Orleans Police Dep’t, Operations Manual Chapter 41.13: Bias Free Policing 1-5 (eff. July 10, 2016), https://www.nola.gov/getattachment/NOPD/Policies/Bias-Free.pdf.
[ii] Newark Police Div., General Order 17-06 Re: Biased-Free Policing 5 (Sept. 19, 2017), https://npd.newarkpublicsafety.org/assets/docs/consent_decree/approved_policies/bias-free-policing-1706.pdf.
[iii] Tom James, Can Cops Unlearn Their Unconscious Bias?, The Atlantic (Dec. 23, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/implicit-bias-training-salt-lake/548996/.
[iv] Tom James, Can Cops Unlearn Their Unconscious Bias?, The Atlantic (Dec. 23, 2017), https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/implicit-bias-training-salt-lake/548996/.