Vermont Business Magazine “‘Implicit bias’ is one factor that may contribute to disparities in the Vermont criminal justice system,” states the final report of the Attorney General’s Working Group on Law Enforcement Community Interactions. Attorney General Sorrell partnered with representatives from other governmental and non-governmental organizations to form the advisory committee and examine the role that implicit bias plays in interactions between law enforcement officers and members of the community. The Working Group’s goal was to make recommendations to the Training Council on how to enhance training that addresses implicit bias. The Working Group met that goal today when it delivered its final report at the Training Council’s quarterly meeting.
According to the final report, “implicit bias”—also known as “unconscious bias”—describes the innate cognitive process in all human beings where the brain automatically associates one thing with another and then uses the mental association to inform decisions in new situations. Implicit bias helps explain why the mere knowledge of a stereotype can influence how a person perceives and reacts to other people who are different in some way.
“All human beings have implicit biases, even people who choose to reject prejudice and discrimination,” observed the Working Group in its final report.
“I would encourage people to learn more about their own implicit biases by taking an Implicit Association Test on the Project Implicit website,” urged Attorney General Sorrell. Project Implicit is a non-profit organization founded in 1998 by scientists interested in educating the public about hidden biases; the organization provides consulting, education, and training services on implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, leadership, applying science to practice, and innovation. “I have taken a version of the test. It only takes ten minutes, and the results were very helpful to me,” said Sorrell. Anyone can take an Implicit Awareness Test by visiting the following link: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/.
The Working Group held public hearings and solicited input during October, but the genesis of the project came earlier. “I broached this issue with the Training Council over the summer, and I have been very pleased that they fully endorsed and supported this process throughout its duration,” said Sorrell. For its part, the Training Council enthusiastically welcomed the delivery of the report today, and unanimously voted to act immediately to generate a timeline and identify the resources needed to address each of the Working Group’s recommendations.
“Now that we have made our recommendations, we hope that the Training Council receives whatever support it needs from the Legislature to implement them,” said Sorrell. He also called for continuing action: “The scope of this project was very narrow because of the amount of time we had to complete it. There is more work to be done.” The Working Group’s final report noted that implicit bias is not the only thing that would cause inequality in the Vermont criminal justice system or elsewhere in society. The final report also acknowledged that implicit bias affects other people in the criminal justice system, such as corrections officers, attorneys, and even judges. Sorrell said, “We hope that the conclusion of our work on this report is actually a starting point for future efforts.”
In addition to Attorney General Sorrell, the members of the Working Group are Senator Tim Ashe, Jay Diaz from the Vermont chapter of the ACLU, United States Attorney Eric Miller, Representative Kiah Morris, Karen Richards from the Vermont Human Rights Commission, and Curtiss Reed from the Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity.
Click here for a copy of the final report.
Source: Vermont AG. Dec 13, 2016