Newport Beach Police Undergo Anti-Racial Bias Training

Newport Beach police officers took part in an anti-racial bias training program this week at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training -- POST -- program presented by the California Department of Justice is the first course of its kind to focus on procedural justice and implicit bias, state Attorney General Kamala D. Harris said.

A second course will take place Thursday at the California Highway Patrol in Sacramento.

Officials from the police departments of Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Diego, along with the sheriff’s departments of Los Angeles and Orange counties, the Los Angeles Airport Police and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, have enrolled, Harris said.

The program is designed to strengthen the “relationship of trust between law enforcement and the communities we are sworn to serve,” she said. “This course is the result of a true collaboration with law enforcement, community partners and academics to bring evidence-based concepts into practice.”

The training program, titled “Principled Policing: Procedural Justice and Implicit Bias,” consists of six areas that focus on policing approaches that emphasize respect, listening, neutrality and trust, while recognizing and addressing implicit biases that can be barriers to those approaches, according to Harris.

Following the daylong course, participants -- including more than 90 attendees from 30 agencies throughout the state -- will receive a certificate and are expected to complete a survey which Stanford University researchers will use to conduct an evaluation of the program.

The course aims to create a broader awareness in order to build trust and improve public and officer safety.

“The high enrollment is a testament to California’s law enforcement leaders recognizing that California’s communities deserve the highest levels of professional service and that they are committed to making every effort to accomplish this goal,” said Bob Stresak, executive director of POST.

“We are pleased to have contributed to this new, research-based training,” said Stanford professor Jennifer Eberhardt. “Our aim is to improve the ability of law enforcement executives across the state to recognize and address common implicit biases -- biases that can be barriers to neutral policing.”

City News Service