Bloomfield Police Dept. Rolling Out New Training For Officers

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Police Department is rolling out new policies and training in an effort to limit potential bias and “escalated” incidents among its officers, authorities announced Thursday.

The new training covers “recognizing implicit biases” and “de-escalation” during tense encounters. The bias training includes lessons on “diversity awareness, seeing how stereotypes impact relationships and effectively engaging diverse communities.”

Over the past year, local officials have held multiple community meetings on policing in Bloomfield in an attempt to improve the BPD’s relationship with residents.

“We are taking the concerns of the community extremely seriously and are working hard to make sure that every interaction we have with the community is both fair and positive,” Public Safety Director Sam DeMaio said.

“By providing these trainings to our officers, we are giving them all of the necessary tools to handle a diverse group of residents and limiting the potential for unconscious bias,” DeMaio said. “Our department will continue to lead the way on these critical reforms.”

“Director DeMaio and our entire Bloomfield Police Department have done a phenomenal job at instituting new policies and training that will lead to positive outcomes within our community,” Mayor Michael Venezia said. “We want to ensure that our officers understand the potential for bias and that they have common sense tools for de-escalation.”

• See related article: New Report Claims That Race Impacts Bloomfield Traffic Stops

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