Results from an effectiveness evaluation of anti-bias training on police behavior and public perceptions of discrimination
Policing: An International Journal
ISSN: 1363-951X
Article publication date: 29 September 2023
Issue publication date: 7 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The authors evaluated the impact of an anti-bias training intervention for improving police behavior during interactions with community members and public perceptions of discrimination.
Design/methodology/approach
Fifty patrol officers from a diverse municipal agency were randomly selected to participate in an anti-bias intervention. Before and after the intervention, a random selection of Body Worn Camera (BWC) videos from the intervention group as well as from a control group of officers was coded using a validated tool for coding police “performance” during interactions with the public. Discrimination-based community member complaints were also collected before and after the intervention for treatment and control group officers.
Findings
The treatment group had a small but significant increase in performance scores compared to control group officers, F = 4.736, p = 0.009, R2ß < 0.01. They also had a small but significantly reduced number of discrimination-based complaints compared to control group officers, F = 3.042, p = 0.049, p2 = 0.015. These results suggest that anti-bias training could have an impact on officer behaviors during interactions with public and perceptions of discrimination.
Originality/value
Although these results are from a single municipal police department, this is the first study to suggest that anti-bias trainings may have a positive behavioral impact on police officers as well as the first to illustrate the potential for their impact on community members' perceptions of biased treatment by officers.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant number 2017-R2-CX-0024.
Citation
James, L., James, S. and Mitchell, R.J. (2023), "Results from an effectiveness evaluation of anti-bias training on police behavior and public perceptions of discrimination", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 46 No. 5/6, pp. 831-845. https://doi.org/10.1108/PIJPSM-01-2023-0014
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited