In what likely is the largest such initiative to date by a federal agency, the Justice Department has committed to training all its law enforcement agents and prosecutors to recognize and address implicit bias.
The training, starting with some high-level officials already and likely to continue for more than a year, will focus on “which are the unconscious or subtle associations that individuals make between groups of people and stereotypes about those groups,” the department said.
The initial focus will be on the roughly 23,000 agents in the FBI, DEA, ATF and Marshals Service, plus the 5,800 attorneys working in the 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices. Later it is to be expanded to IG agents and prosecutors in other divisions.
It said different curricula have been created to address the work of prosecutors and law enforcement and the different missions of the enforcement components. Each law enforcement component’s curriculum includes three levels of training based on how implicit bias may affect the duties for line personnel, supervisors and managers, and executives.
The training for supervisors and managers will specifically address hiring, promotion and other internal workplace decisions, it added.
