Implicit biases and police

Police officers take care of our communities and people. They keep our schools and neighborhoods safe.

But, as we see on the news, some officers’ implicit biases may have affected the outcome of situations. Implicit biases are unconscious attitudes or stereotypes assigned to a group of people and can be very dangerous when it comes to policing.

Though studies haven’t really come out with too much information on it, implicit bias training has been seen as a possible solution or possible way to combat biases. A KXLY article from June 2020 had Dr. Lois James from Washington State University explain ways to help minimize the negative impacts implicit biases may have on police officers. Implicit bias training was one solution Dr. James gave. Also, taking better care of our officers’ mental and physical health has been seen to correlate with a better and more empathetic performance.

Whatever the solution is, with the events of last year and the continued events of 2021, something needs to be done to prevent police brutality in our country and in our city.

Mackenzie Ediger

Spokane