Fair and Impartial Policing - Supervisors

This 8-hour training program is designed for first-line supervisors (e.g., sergeants) includes the core content of the FIP program and addresses supervisor-specific issues such as: 

• Addressing how to identify subordinates who may be acting in a biased manner, including those well-meaning officers whose biased behavior may not be consciously produced; 
• Providing guidance to supervisors on how they should respond to officers who exhibit biased policing behaviors; 
• Challenging supervisors to think about how bias might manifest in their own behavior; 
• Providing guidance on how to speak internally and externally about bias, biased policing, and the agency's efforts to promote fair and impartial policing. 

Key to the supervisory training is helping supervisors identify the appropriate response to subordinates' biased behavior, which can be challenging. Not only is biased behavior very difficult to prove but, for the officers whose biased behavior is not intentional or malicious, "disciplinary" action would be inappropriate. Since, in many instances, there will only be "indications" and not "proof," it is important to convey when and how supervisors can intervene to stop what appears to be inappropriate conduct while keeping in mind the ambiguous nature of the evidence as well as the sensitivity of the topic.