The Cedar Falls Public Safety Department held implicit bias training sessions for their police division September 4, 10, and 25, 2019. The sessions were conducted by Drake University Instructor Scott Law and were held at the Cedar Falls Public Safety Building.
An implicit bias is the unconscious attribution of particular qualities to a member of a certain social group.
“The goal of these training sessions is to help our team identify specific areas of implicit bias, how it may impact the relationship with our community, and strategies to mitigate implicit bias,” said Cedar Falls Training Lieutenant Marty Beckner. “This allows us to perform our jobs more effectively and better serve the people of Cedar Falls.”
The training sessions consisted of exercises and discussions, as well as individual action plans and goals. These action plans were completed by each officer.
“It is important for law enforcement to be able to recognize areas of implicit bias so that they can ensure they are treating all people as fairly as possible,” said Instructor Law. “Everyone has their own areas of implicit bias. If we don’t recognize them, it can hurt our actions. We applaud Cedar Falls for taking the initiative to understand the importance of implicit bias and provide their team with training on how to diminish it.”