OU Police Department Participates in Managing Bias Training
In an effort to ensure biased policing or race-based violence does not occur at the University of Oklahoma, more than 140 police personnel with the OU Police Department completed a managing bias training during the month of September.
Through the eight hours of training, police personnel from all three campuses – police, security and support – learned to combat extremism, terrorism and hate crimes.
The training was led by the Anti-Defamation League, an anti-hate organization and global leader in exposing extremism and delivering anti-bias education. The ADL is also a leading organization in training law enforcement.
OU Chief of Police Nate Tarver said it was vitally important that OUPD officers receive this training.
“We want the university community to know we’re doing our best to ensure fair and equitable conduct from our officers,” Tarver said. “We have conducted anti-bias and diversity training each of the five years I have been with the university. The ADL training has been the best we’ve had.”
“The training was designed to make us all aware of our biases and the impact bias has on the people we serve when we are conducting police work,” said Walter Evans, chief of police for the OU-Tulsa Police Department, who arranged the training. “Those concepts are designed to apply to any uniformed officer, dispatcher or other police staff.”
Angelic Young, director of training for law enforcement at the Anti-Defamation League, shared how pleased she was with the interaction of the participants.
“The folks we’ve interacted with over the course of the training have been some of the most genuine, thoughtful, considerate, engaged participants of recent memory,” she said. “We all truly enjoyed facilitating the discussions.”
Following the training, several police personnel expressed their appreciation of the course, stating that “the format was inclusive and at times challenging, but kept me on task” and “it provided the opportunity for us to speak and hear opinions on a subject that is sensitive and not always easy to speak about.”
Another OUPD member said, “I think everyone at OU should take the class, not just the police department.”
To ensure the police department is meeting objectives and shielding the university from liability associated with inconsistent training, training coordinators at each campus are now collaborating to provide additional consolidated training events in the future.
By Mackenzie Scheer
Article Published: Wednesday, October 7, 2020