Understand Effects of Bias Upon Security Personnel’s Mission

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When preparing for work, the successful Officer will leave any and all bias outside the workplace. Few people can truthfully say they are without bias, but most people can and do prevent bias from interfering with their work and daily life.

Bias can be overt or perceived and can be detrimental to the mission of the Officer and the School Security Personnel program in its entirety. The actions of one officer can influence the perception that the public holds for all officers. Actions of Police out of the school setting can influence the perception of bias for all officers. Biases, real or perceived, are hard to overcome. Students who believe the officer is prejudiced or unfriendly to their particular group will shun the officer, making the mission of the Officer difficult at best. 

The impact of all biases on the school climate and the individual needs to be considered by the Officer. Biases can influence how you behave toward the members of social groups. This can lead to a phenomenon known as a stereotype threat in which people internalize negative stereotypes about themselves based upon group associations. Research has shown, for example, that young girls often internalize implicit attitudes related to gender and math performance. By the age of 9, girls have been shown to exhibit the unconscious belief that females have a preference for language over math.

The stronger these implicit beliefs are, the less likely girls and women are to pursue math performance in school.  Such unconscious beliefs are also believed to play a role in inhibiting women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Basic attitudes can also influence how teachers, parents, police, and other students respond to student behavior.  From a public safety point of view this can result in groups being adversely targeted for discipline due to race, religion, athlete vs. non athlete, generationally or bad experience with a family. For example, “she comes from a bad family"; first, what does her family have to do with her ability and actions and what is the basis for the family being “bad”.  In education this can be devastating as the goal is to prepare the student for the future. Considering that Curriculum is the total student learning environment managing biases, be it personal or experienced, is crucial. Bias is a learned behavior that can be unlearned.

Identify Strategies for Healthy Relationships in a Diverse Society

The Officer cannot change the opinions of the world, but they may have the opportunity to change small parts of the world. A good Officer can foster relationships between youth and law enforcement that may last a lifetime. Creating a relationship which fosters mutual respect and trust could well influence actions between the students that will have benefits years later if the youth become involved with law enforcement as an adult.

It will do well to examine some strategies that tend to promote a healthy relationship which are commensurate with the missions of the Officer. Remember these are professional relationships, rather than personal relationships. As such there are some strategies that will assist the officer with fair and impartial professional relationships with a diverse school population.

• Maintain a professional department both on and off duty.
• Be friendly and approachable to all.
• Create an atmosphere of mutual respect.
• It is acceptable to engage in honest and objective discussions.
• Avoid showing favoritism to any individual or group.
• Avoid actions which may be offensive to any group or person.
• Learn the cultures to avoid your misinterpretation of actions.
• Show genuine interest in others.