VCU PD Column: Police Training

How police officers treat a person during traffic stops, arrests, pursuits and other interactions has been an issue that’s dominated national headlines. At Virginia Commonwealth University, police officers and police administrators are keenly aware that community members have concerns about how they personally will be treated by law enforcement, should they be stopped.

Officers have the responsibility of treating all individuals, whether they are suspects, victims or passersby, with dignity and respect during incidents and investigations.

Recently all 92 VCU Police officers completed a course on fair and impartial policing. This is distinctly different from diversity training because participants learn that everyone, no matter who they are, has biases. Taught by instructors with Fair & Impartial Policing LLC, officers learned how to recognize human biases, how biases affect behavior and how biased policing negatively impacts a department and the community.

According to Anna Laszlo, the chief operating officer of the company, bias is a normal human attribute. Her research-based training explores how some biases are explicit (openly expressed by an individual) while others are implicit (feelings or snap judgements lingering below a persons’ consciousness).

Biases about how people look, what they’re wearing or how they act can lead to a misinterpretation of an individual’s intentions. Laszlo’s goal for VCU PD officers was to have them recognize when bias is kicking in and to override it with controlled behavioral responses.
Laszlo’s training uses a well-known, pop culture example of how biases can be extremely misleading. A YouTube clip from 2009 shows the introduction and performance of Susan Boyle on the television show “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Boyle is judged on her looks and how she speaks; she’s clearly not taken seriously by the audience or judges. However, when she starts singing opera, everyone’s reactions reverse. One judge later admits to being cynical upon first seeing Boyle; another calls Boyle’s performance “stunning.”

The message Laszlo’s in training for officers? “Beware: gut reactions might be based on your biases.”

The fair and impartial police course also drove home a key point for VCU Police, one that Chief John Venuti feels very strongly about: procedural justice and the fair treatment of every person leads to police legitimacy – the core of community trust.

Law enforcement agencies usually offer this type of training after an alleged bias-based incident occurs. However, it can also be offered without an incident to prompt it. For VCU, it’s the latter.
Since 2010, when Venuti became chief, the department has had dramatic decreases in the number of complaints against officers, use of force by officers and a decrease in bias-based complaints. He considers these stats as positive indicators of an overall organizational change.
Relationships between police departments and communities are under a microscope and a national movement is underway to make agencies more transparent. VCU Police is actively a part of that movement and, in addition to training, is looking at broader ways to serve VCU in the best ways possible.

Earlier this year, President Barack Obama issued a task force report on 21st Century Policing. VCU Police is implementing ideas from the president’s report into actionable items for the academic year and beyond.

Boosting the department’s website (police.vcu.edu) has been one of the ways VCU Police is making task force recommendations a reality. The main page on the site has quick links for visitors to make a suggestion or complaint, report hate crimes and report a bias based incident by an officer.

Visitors can also review a breakdown of the demographics of sworn officers, review a copy of the department’s annual biased based policing review and access numerous department policies.

Venuti has a theory about the future of American policing: Departments will have to track operations by collecting accurate data on themselves and use the information as performance indicators. Law enforcement agencies can no longer tell communities what they’re doing — they need to tell people what they’re doing and prove it with valid, accurate data.

The chief has made it a cultural expectation within VCU Police to rely on data. Here are a few examples:
A few years ago VCU PD initiated a bi-annual perception of safety survey for VCU students, faculty and staff. The latest results show that more than 96 percent of respondents feel “safe” or “very safe” on VCU’s campuses. Feedback is used to deploy patrol officers to where respondents feel less safe and to plan for outreach programs and operations in the months ahead.
People who have contact with officers receive surveys on their experience; the feedback is routinely reviewed by supervisors and officers are given feedback on their job performance.
The department routinely receives requests for crime stats, not only from the media, but from student journalists and researchers. Crime stats are reviewed by the chief and his executive staff every week to determine the best ways to deter and prevent crime and how to help community members boost their personal safety.

Policing is a two-way relationship between the individuals who serve as officers and the individuals who make up VCU and the surrounding communities.
Through training, partnerships and developing best practices for community policing, the VCU Police Department wants to make sure every interaction with an individual is fair, impartial and positive. Ideas from our students, faculty, staff and neighbors are always welcome.

Column by: Corey Byers, public information officer, VCU Police