Implicit Bias in Law Enforcement

Implicit Bias?

When we talk about racism, prejudice and diversity in law enforcement, it results to blame. Some people hold improper attitudes towards others which have led to negative results. When people are criticized for their beliefs and actions, they tend to be defensive and justify their feelings. Police officers risk their lives on the verge of protecting the lives of other people. They go to work, and their duties expose them to the high risks of losing their lives. However, they must decide to have a second thought in dangerous situations and trust their training and instincts of what will happen (Johnson 2021). Unfortunately, the public does not understand the worst police face to protect them and makes it hard to develop implicit bias training for the police officers. In recent areas, law enforcement has been searching for a solution to the massive problem of police brutality and excessive force. Let's try to understand each other and explore issues to reduce the adverse effects of implicit bias.?

The police brutality and excessive force are attributed to the officers' subconscious bias against certain groups of people. However, the public's and the police's involvement in certain tendencies toward one another leads to the police holding implicit bias training. The implicit bias training would assist police officers in recognizing that they have unconscious prejudice towards certain groups of people, which has harmed law enforcement and prevented them from defending themselves and even people's lives daily.

The reality of the human condition we are all biased, and prejudices are hard wined in our brains. The research shows that our brains react when encountering new faces, considering the potential threats. When it faces threats, the brain produces quick generalizations, which lead to severe defensive reactions. A great deal of prejudice is automatic and unconscious. Favoring the people of your groups leads to preference which occurs automatically. Once our brain maps something into a category, we know what to do. We categorize people with age, gender, race, and roles (Song & Li 2020). Once an individual is mapped to one of the categories, the specific meanings associated with that category immediately activate and influence our interactions with the categorized people.

The implicit bias includes stereotypes and attitudes towards a particular group of people, affecting our treatment. They are both shaped by historical and cultural differences and are inherited from one generation to another. They are linked to different beliefs and perceptions towards particular people (Madva 2017). The historical changes in racial relations, for example, in America, where the police are shooting black Americans, led to mass protests as the citizens see police officers as a threat and not to protect them again (Johnson 2021). Racially discrimination has been documented in the law enforcement domains.?

Some police do not conduct the process based on intentional discrimination. There are overly racist police officers and other racists across all the professions. However, some officers may deliberately discriminate against others by using racial stereotypes in judgments about who stops and searches, and discriminatory policing is their way of life. The police officers may use category-based biases to ensure the people who to investigate and who's not, and in many cases, the police officers are likely to conclude that the black faces are most likely in committing crimes than white people, which leads to the adverse treatment of the black faces as they are judged as criminals (Johnson 2021).?

On the day to day analysis, the average number of citizens comes into contact with police. For Instance, in traffic stops, the public gets to interact with police largely and depending on the interaction, leading to walking away with either a bad or good impression about the officer. In analyzing the exchanges, likely, the police officers spoke less respectfully to the black driver than white drivers.?

The black faces of young adults are overrepresented in jails and prisons in America, which shows how they are arrested than the white young adults due to prejudices and stereotypes. The data on crime rates indicates that black with high percentage than white people. The police contact is the entry to the criminal?justice?(Spencer, Charbonneau, & Glaser 2016)?and therefore, the prejudices and stereotypes they hold against some categorized people as resulted in sending many people to jail and prisons without concrete reasons, which have led to a threat to citizens as they cannot believe the policing community due to the negative experience of losing their lives and the loved ones in the hands of police. Racial discrimination has led to the disparities between white and black Americans in jail and prisons (De Houwer 2021). Consequently, the implicit bias in law enforcement has resulted in discrimination against blacks.?

Implicit bias influences behavior and judgment when the situation is ambiguous, especially police officers, do not know what the citizen will do. They rely on conscious or unconscious behavior when faced with or attempting to solve uncertain circumstances. For Instance, during the mass protests by citizens, the police officers are not aware of what might happen, and as a result, they respond by mass shootings which could lead to unintended death. The disambiguation in applying stereotypes and prejudice is relevant in policing. For Instance, the mass protests in which the black Americans are on the front line are likely to attract the police force and brutality as they assume blacks are likely to commit crime compared to those led by whites. Therefore, it is expected to attract racial bias in ambiguous and stressful conditions, which translates into wrong decisions, leading to the shooting of unarmed black Americans due to prejudices and stereotypes.?

Moreover, the relationship between implicit bias and behavior may be different, whereby in law enforcement, the police officers use their personal experience of the world to deal with situations that negatively affect the lives of citizens. The police officers have encountered more criminals in their job, and they are likely to identify when and who is expected to commit the crime than the average person can do. In America, most negative actions are associated with black, and the police officer is much likely to investigate the black person more than they do the white due to their experiences with black people, which result in racial discrimination as not all black Americans are likely to commit the crime everyone is capable of being criminal. The attentional biases increase the likelihood of the officers being concerned with black people than white, even if the underlying probability of offending behavior is equal to both groups.?

Implicit biases are particularly relevant to law enforcement because they link the social groups with the related traits, which enhance the realization of violence and crimes and enable the police officers to take action when?needed?(Spencer, Charbonneau, & Glaser, 2016).?However, even in conscious goals, simple knowledge leads to discriminatory behaviors. Police officers must assess civilians to reduce the stereotypes of linking people with aggression, leading to a negative response. The essential factors of considering whether a person poses a threat to other people's safety is necessary to enhance law enforcement by treating people equally and legitimate use of power vested in the policy positions.

People raise particular perceptions towards groups that call upon making decisions. The implicit bias creates a harmful situation that leads to judgments on people levels of hostility or guilty, leading to assuming negative qualities of the given group. On the other hand, the black community has realized the perceptions of the police that they perceive negative attributes, which have led them to develop negative defensive responses as they believe police treat them less respectfully than their counterparts white residents.?

Furthermore, we are occasionally overconfident, which causes us to make poor judgments. People who are overconfident weigh the knowledge we have strongly and, more significantly, have difficulties framing challenges. As a consequence, law enforcement officers are more likely to face the suspect rather than giving them time to study them and consider an alternate solution to the issue, which leads to a favorable reaction owing to the availability of various possibilities. The propensity to associate prejudices and stereotypes has important repercussions for encounters between law enforcement and the categorized group, causing them to behave unfairly and impartially. For example, police officers are faced with the decision of whether to shoot unarmed black suspects or unarmed white suspects, they are more likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects. They are also more likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects, and they take longer to decide between the two?(Johnson, Tress, Burkel, Taylor, & Cesario, 2019).?As a result, it demonstrates how biases and stereotypes about black people have resulted in bad consequences as a result of mass executions without any proof of the crimes committed.

Many researchers assume that the implicit bias is due to external factors responsible for dramatic attitude shifts. The implicit attitudes are not like the beliefs of personal possessions acquired and discarded in acts of individuals who possess them. The biasness actions towards some of the community have negative implications towards the people of that community. For Instance, the black community receives harsh sentencing. They are likely to be present in prison with large numbers than the white residents due to the prejudices the law enforcement professions have towards the black community. The implicit behaviors limit the civilians from benefiting from the policing, especially from a particular categorized race. In our daily society, implicit bias has implications on civilian and police lives.?

Leadership

The leadership of the law enforcement agencies is crucial in promoting bias-free policing by ensuring that the community and law enforcement officers are in good cooperation and working together towards achieving the common good of society. Furthermore, it can reduce implicit bias in the society whereby they present how the police officers effectively adhere to rules and regulations of safeguarding and protecting the community.?

Moreover, the recruitment and hiring strategies in law enforcement have contributed to the negative implications on society whereby some are overrepresented while others are underrepresented. For Instance, the people of color are considered the minority, and therefore their rights and complaints may not be well represented in the position. It results that all the powerful classes are held by white who have the prejudices and stereotypes that the black people have microaggressions and therefore are more likely to commit the crime, and consequently when a violent situation arises involving the black and white people, the police are most likely to take the blacks as the suspect and even exert force without evidence or even forcefully leading to their sentence, and this explains why in the prisons and jails it is likely to get more black people than white.?

Moreover, the possible environmental factors have primarily contributed to the increased implicit bias in society, which has led to negative implications on law enforcement. Changes in one environment can lead to changes in personal attitudes and feelings, which later influences behavior and actions (Peters 2018). Therefore, for police officers, it is mainly possible as much as their time is spent interacting with different people in different ranges of situations and events, from the victim to violent offenders. When the police change to the high risk of crimes areas, they change their attitude and beliefs to more brutal and harsher and ready to use forces when attacked.

Interventions

Exposure to out-group interactions will lead to the reduction of implicit bias as the participants will change. The law enforcement professional would have to take time and observe the most appropriate options to take in the alternative, for Instance, in the shooting task use of more armed whites. Armed black targets will lead to changes in policing perceptions, leading to more significant positive changes to the treatment of the citizens.?

?Moreover, a multifaceted approach to the intervention strategies will lead to positive changes in the law enforcement the assess of implicit bias actions of the individual and the feedback is given to the participants about the bias and trained on how to reduce the tendency will be an effective strategy to encounter the situation (Redfield 2020). Furthermore, it enhances the law enforcement professions to be more aware of their actions, which leads to a substantial reduction of implicit bias. However, the behavior is likely to be cancelled out as the participant is being exposed to more experience and the damage the implicit bias is causing to society.

Training officers

Agency level policies and procedures on bias and use of force often include training officers. Most departments train the officers?on concepts that include community bias, community policing and community competence?(Spencer, Charbonneau, & Glaser 2016).?To some extent, the implicit bias is not stable, and therefore many people did not acquire them from childhood; it is the changes developed as the people grow in the society through interactions with different events and situations which leads to changes in one's attitude, feelings and behaviors (Ogunyemi 2021). Consequently, the implicit bias is susceptible to change, which has positive implications to police training concerning the implicit bias, reducing its negative impacts in society. Therefore, offering training on the specific procedures and concepts will set goals for the police to consciously look for the most appropriate option applicable in a given situation.

Moreover, the implicit bias is variable to the police level of stress. Those who are engaged in the situations or with personal issues leading to stressful events are likely to use implicit bias in their actions. The research shows that those with stress are likely to exhibit the black bias. The current findings are encouraging the sleep realm of the law enforcement professions. It shows that the officers who were more sleep-restricted are more likely to experience or promote the anti-black bias and therefore ensuring enough sleep to officers will reduce anti-black bias hence leading to positive results in law enforcement which benefits both the police officers and the civilians. Moreover, apart from rest, many other mental states and emotional changes in the officers significantly impact these situations and their actions and could also predict the variability of implicit behaviours.?

It is the time when implicit bias should become part of the training of police officers. We all possess mental processes called schemas which are the basic templates of our knowledge that helps in organizing our thoughts and behaviours (De houwer 2019). They are helpful to our mental processes because they enable us to make decisions without extending a lot of effort, and schemas make us efficient. They come from our upbringing, media and parents, and therefore training of the police officers on the implicit bias and its effects on law enforcement is quite essential for the common good of all citizens. The information we acquire from these sources helps form our opinions, thoughts, and attitudes. Although we deny that biases exist, all this information gets buried in our subconscious. Trying to act as if we are not biased but hidden deep within our subconscious, especially when faced with a stressful situation. As a result, the biases are placed on the surface. Therefore, training the officers on recognizing that business exists is essential because the implicit bias is flexible and can be unlearned and replaced with new mental associations, thus enhancing the reduction of implications of the implicit bias in society (Ogunyemi 2021).?

Moreover, policing policies focused on respectful treatment and transparent decision making will be essential in building public trust and cooperation. However, the implications of implicit bias on citizens have led them to develop an attitude towards police, resulting in violence. For Instance, the realization of people of color that the police perceive them as more likely to commit crimes than their white counterparts has led to the development of a grudge against the black community and the law enforcement officers and agencies, which has led to massive violence.?

Accountability !

Moreover, keeping every officer accountable for their actions is essential, leading each officer to justify their beliefs, attitude, and behaviors. Accountability is a vital element in policing, and therefore it shows both individual and law enforcement agencies to be held accountable for their actions (Kwong 2018). Effective accountability procedures are essential to enable the police officers to achieve their lawful Ness and legitimacy goals. Furthermore, accountability allows law enforcement officers to protect, control crime and disorder in society, and provide services concerning the set rules and regulations.?

?The law agencies need to hold the police accountable for their practices and performance of abusing the citizens' rights as every citizen are entitled to enjoy the fundamental rights. Therefore, the state needs to monitor the use of force and brutality to the citizens by the police, which has turned and led to the loss of lives of many blacks in the hands of the police officer (Dunham & Petersen 2017).?

There is a need for growing police accountability to enhance public interest and reduce the incidents of police misconduct. Furthermore, the police need to use the set of policies to reduce the deadly force of policing, which has resulted in anticipated incidences such as adverse officers and civilian killings as a result of defensive mechanisms against each other as the citizens have considered the police as threats to their lives due to the past experiences of police using force to harm them while also police need to respond from the hazards of the citizens hence ending up to violence which leads to cause of unintended deaths.?

The police have certain powers to arrest and detain and use force. However, the monopoly of the ability to use force is unique and sensitive to the position and therefore, to enhance the performance of the police functions, mechanisms of accountability are required to ensure that all these powers are consistently used for the public interest. It will significantly lead to the use of powers exclusively for the public interest, which means there will be equality as all citizens are entitled to the same civil liberties and rights. Moreover, depersonalization can help improve public life. Many officers use personal issues in their duties which influences their behaviors and leads to the wrongful treatment of the citizens (Spencer et al. 2020). However, nobody wants to think of themselves as a racist. We are all human hence managing our attitudes. The implicit bias has contributed to inequalities, especially in criminal justice, which has led to the suffering of innocent citizens and police officers due to the prejudices and stereotypes we held subconsciously.?

The limited information to the law enforcement agencies about the implicit bias has led to adverse effects on the protection of public interest. To address the gap, the agencies collect data on civilian stops and the use of force concerning age, race, and gender?(Spencer, Charbonneau, & Glaser 2016).?However, the information is not purely utilized to monitor the civilians and police interactions, and therefore, they are likely to harass a specific group of people. Increasing cameras for data collection will enhance the accountability of the police actions.?

Moreover, reducing discretion can lead to improved law enforcement. The police officers have high control regarding the civilians, and restricting them could help in reducing more force and some of the police misconduct, which has negative impacts on citizens (Kwong 2018). For Instance, due to high discretion, the police officers are likely to perform any harmful action to the people they want, and predominantly the black people suffer consequences as the law enforcement officers hold stereotypes against them hence discrimination. It has contributed to racial disparities, which has negative impacts on society. When combined with well-established indicators of criminal behavior, Reduction’s indiscretion will lead to increased officers' efficiency in their attention towards the situation, which could lead to illegal activity rather than just taking actions without apparent consideration (Simon et al. 2020). Furthermore, the officers will reduce the use of force to the civilians as force decisions can bring salient relationships between the law enforcement agencies and the community, resulting in lethal consequences.?

Conclusion

Increasing tensions between the police and the citizens the police have sworn to protect are rising, and therefore, the police are going to have to show that they are doing the best for their citizens by confronting their bias and not be using force in all situations, which has primarily contributed to mass killings of the harmless citizens as a result of their implicit bias. It is causing tensions on how the police are a brutal and unnecessary use of force whenever in interactions with citizens. Training law enforcement officers on how to deal with implicit behaviors would be the first step of assuring citizens that the law enforcement officers have been sworn in to protect the interests of the public. Ensuring that law enforcement officers can distinguish and make significant decisions at great risk of exhibiting implicit bias is essential to civilians and police officers.

The implicit bias includes both implicit stereotypes and attitudes shaped by both history and cultural influences. It encompasses fears, anxiety, feelings, perceptions, and beliefs towards a particular category, leading to every individual associated with the group's characteristics. It has led to negative implications for law enforcement which as the public are suffering from the treatment by the police based on their perception.?

Although there are focused pieces of training to help police reduce the implicit bias by informing them about the business's existence, they also need to focus on changing the conditions responsible for rising implicit bias rather than simply providing awareness to the people about the discrimination. The change of conditions which give rise to these implicit bias such as the supremacy of certain races, providing conducive working conditions of the law enforcement officers to reduce stress and ensure positive mental health as the research shows that many of the law enforcement officers who results into committing severe offences a number of them are likely not to be in their sober mind, improving on accountability mechanisms towards the law enforcement officers actions to enhance the n to be responsible which results to reduction of police misconduct and therefore promoting fair and impartial behaviors towards citizens.

It has been shown that implicit biases have detrimental consequences for both citizens and police officers, and that they have led to the weakening of law enforcement by creating a climate in which there is no mutual trust or connection between the civilian and law enforcement professions. More legal issues have arisen as a result of increased fear and anxiety in society as the law enforcement body has ceased to be the protector of the people and has instead turned into a threat. To keep side scars from becoming more prominent with each passing day, everyone must work together. It is important that we all work together to strengthen relations between police officers and the public.

References

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Johnson, D. J., Tress, T., Burkel, N., Taylor, C., & Cesario, J. (2019). Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings.?Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,?116(32), 15877-15882. doi:10.1073/pnas.1903856116

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