NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Several Newport News police officers completed a two-day course called "Train the Trainer" to prepare them to teach implicit bias training.
The 10 officers can now teach the course to the entire Newport News Police Department, according to a news release.
Implicit bias training teaches officers to expose their unconscious biases that can affect their attitudes and actions.
The training is gaining traction around the country with law enforcement agencies. Newport News police said this particular course is currently being suggested before the Genera Assembly for all Virginia law enforcement agencies.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew had initially wanted to get officers trained last year but was unable to get it scheduled. Drew said the course is being sought all across the country and the department was grateful to be able to get trained.
"This training is so vital, not only to our agency but to law enforcement as a whole," he said in the news release. "We all have biases; however, this training helps us identify and recognize our own biases, and manage them, so they don't affect how we interact with citizens and each other."
Chief Drew said the department has sent a few people a year to get implicit bias training, but they haven’t had the training across the board. The Chief wants to entire department trained on implicit bias.
That includes 459 sworn officers and 170 civilians.
"I don't want to wait for situations to happen, I want to be a progressive police department," Drew said. "I want to be proactive and not wait for situations to happen, and then we need to do A, B, and C; I want to do A, B, and C [now] and when something happens, we're already there."
There were 160,595 calls for service in 2018. Of those calls, there were 108 complaints, and six use of force complaints. In 2019, there were 181,989 calls for service. Of those, 86 citizen complaints, and three use of force complaints.
The department expanded its Use of Force Review Board about two months ago. They now have an equal number of citizens and officers (four to four).
"What we can't do is allow those biases to impact how we police our communities," Drew said. "I want this to be a core element of what we do."