University Police officers take class on fair and impartial policing

All police officers and campus public safety officers from Alfred State’s University Police Department recently attended an eight-hour class on fair and impartial policing in Geneseo.

The “Fair & Impartial Policing Perspective” training session reflects a new way of thinking about the issue of biased policing. The training was a result of an initiative set forth by the SUNY Police Commissioner’s Office and the SUNY Chiefs Association.

SUNY and its University Police Departments strive for excellence, thus it is appropriate to adopt this state-of-the-art training that addresses issues of bias. Numerous police agencies across the country are rapidly adopting this model.

The “Train the Trainer” course was led by Lt. Col. JoAnn D. Johnson from the Illinois State Police Division of Internal Investigation, and Anna Laszlo, managing partner/COO of Fair and Impartial Policing LLC. This is the latest effort to build trust and strengthen the relationship between the State University Police and the campus communities they serve.

In January of this year, a number of SUNY police officers attended the “Train the Trainer” session in Syracuse, including Officer Carla Fintak from SUNY Brockport, Lt. Scott Ewanow from SUNY Geneseo, and Officer Jeff Wilcox from Alfred State. These three officers brought the training back to their respective campuses and collaboratively trained the remaining staff at all three SUNY Police Departments.

According to the model’s website, www.fairimpartialpolicing.com, the training is “based on the science of bias, which tells us that biased policing is not, as some contend, due to widespread racism in policing. In fact, the science tells that even well-intentioned humans (and thus, officers) manifest biases that can impact their perceptions and behavior. These biases can manifest below consciousness” and the training addresses this.