Trust and legitimacy in the law enforcement profession are founded on the principles of fair and neutral decision-making, enforcement, and the actions of officers. This requires law enforcement professionals to be aware of the human decision-making process, and how personal assumptions, stereotypes, and implicit and cognitive biases influence their perceptions, which guide their judgment. A lack of self-awareness and implicit biases can lead to catastrophic effects on law enforcement agencies' ability to be successful, and garner trust and support from their community and leaders.
Police-citizen encounters require instant calculations in tense, rapidly evolving situations that demand reliance on cognitive shortcuts, or heuristics, that influence officer judgements, to include the decision to stop someone, make a physical arrest, or use force to effect a lawful command. This course focuses on providing officers and supervisor the tools to recognize cognitive influences that lead to perception and judgement errors.
This course was designed and is taught by a police officer, and it is designed for sworn law enforcement officers, law enforcement first line supervisors, law enforcement trainers, and law enforcement executives that deal with the public, and make decisions in public safety interactions.
