RCMP Gazette Human Rights and Policing - Alberta Hate Crimes ...

huMAN RiGhTS AND POliCiNGRCMP COVER(widespread racism in policing). Clearly theequation was impeding change.More recently an African-Americanresident attended one of my police-residenttrainings on this topic. He listened to mycoverage of the science of bias and myclaim that even well-meaning people mightmanifest it.About halfway through the firstmorning of training, he surprised us all bysaying, “I came into this thinking all policewere racist, and now I don’t think so.” Hebelieved in the right side of the equation(that racially biased policing exists), and,until that day, had no other explanation but“widespread racism in policing.”The implication of this science is that eventhe best officers, because they are human,might practise racial bias and therefore eventhe best agencies, because they hire humans,must be proactive in promotingfair and impartial policing. Thoseproactive efforts must target boththe ill-intentioned and the wellintentionedpeople.A comprehensive policedepartment program to promotefair and impartial policing wouldaddress policy, recruitment andhiring, education and training, supervisionand accountability, outreach to diversecommunities, analysis of institutionalpolicies and practices, and measurement.Training, for example, is a keymechanism for promoting unbiasedbehaviour on the part of well-meaningofficers. Although we cannot easilyundo the implicit associations that takea lifetime to develop, training can makeofficers aware of their unconscious biasesso they can counteract them. Indeed,social psychologists have shown that, withinformation and motivation, people cancarry out controlled (unbiased) behaviouralresponses that override automatic (biaspromoting)associations.Training to curb biasThe U.S. Department of Justice has fundeda project to develop curriculums basedon this science for recruits and patrolofficers, and for first-line supervisors.With my partners at Circle Solutions, Inc.and with experts in policing, training andthe psychology of bias, we are producingrecruit/patrol curricula based on thefollowing fundamental principles:• All people, even well-intentionedpeople, have biases;• Biases can be explicit or implicit(unconscious) — influencing choicesand actions without consciousthinking or decision-making;• Policing based on biases or groupstereotypes is unsafe, ineffectiveand unjust;• Officers can learn skills tocounteract their normal biases tocontrol their behaviour.The training does not focus just onracial/ethnic bias, but on other typesof biases as well. Through a series ofThe recognition that racial bias is a human frailtyof good, well-meaning people can promote amore constructive discussion of the problemof racially biased policing and it can direct ustoward effective interventions.interactive exercises, recruits experiencehow implicit bias can negatively impact ontheir policing decisions.One example is the “Woman/Man witha Gun” role play exercise that has beensuccessful in showing recruits and officershow policing based on stereotypes (in thiscase, gender stereotypes) is unsafe. Studentrole players generally frisk the man whoreportedly has a gun, but do not frisk thewoman even though the facts are otherwisethe same. Recruits reflect on how biasedpolicing affects officers, the departmentand community members, and learn skillsto perform fair and impartial policing.To reinforce this training and facilitateadherence to anti-biased policing policy,the second curriculum will help first-linesupervisors promote fair and impartialpolicing.The training will help supervisorsidentify employees who may be acting in abiased manner including those well-meaningofficers whose biased behaviour may notbe consciously produced. It will challengesupervisors to think about how implicitassociations might manifest in the employeesand themselves, and provide guidance onhow they should respond to officers whoexhibit biased policing behaviours.Identifying the appropriate supervisoryresponse to biased policing can be difficult.Not only is biased behaviour very difficultto prove through the traditional complaintreview system but, for the officers whosebiased behaviour is not intentionalor malicious, disciplinary action isinappropriate.Since, in many instances, there willonly be indications and not proof, it willbe important to convey when and howsupervisors can intervene to stop whatappears to be inappropriate conduct whilekeeping in mind the ambiguous nature ofthe evidence and the sensitive nature ofthe issue.Adopting this science-basedperspective that recognizes thatgood, well-intentioned policeofficers and therefore gooddepartments might producebiased decisions can generatea more constructive police–community discussion and guideour efforts for promoting fair and impartialpolicing. Police defensiveness around biascan be reduced if employees hear, not thatthey are all racists, but that they are allhuman like the rest of us.Community stakeholders can and shouldstop “profiling” police — stop charging thatall police engage in discrimination in callousdisregard for the rights of minorities. Bothgroups should set aside simplistic notionsof good and evil and instead recognizethe frailties of human nature and work cooperativelyto promote fair and impartialpolicing. ▪Lorie Fridell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professorin the Department of Criminology at theUniversity of South Florida. She consultswith police departments and providestraining for command-level personnel andcommunity stakeholders. She has workedwith a number of agencies, including theLos Angeles Police Department, TorontoPolice Services, Austin Police Dept. and theInstitute on Race and Justice.Gazette Vol. 72, No. 3, 2010 25