The UK Inspectorate of Constabulary says that thug departments are
going overboard in their arbitrary searches of blacks on the
street, and
cannot
justify them. I can't escape the conclusion that this is bias at
work.
I suppose the thugs have had training about unconscious bias already,
and it does not seem to have helped. Here's an approach using
feedback that might be good to try, with each cop separately.
-
For the coming weeks, don't actually stop and search anyone. Instead
we will have a consultation about about who you would have thought of
stopping and searching.
-
You will be told, at the outset, the expected average number of people
per day a cop on your beat ought to stop and search. This is not a
minimum, or a maximum; it is a guideline. On any given day day a wise cop
might search more, or less, than the guideline number.
-
When you see someone you would think of stopping and searching,
make a video of per instead, and upload it. Speak into the video
why you thought that person should be searched.
-
At the end of each day, review the day's videos.
In the review,
label which of them you would choose first for searching.
Label a quantity comparable to the guideline number,
but not necessarily equal to it. For each one you label,
explain your reasons.
-
Right after labeling the videos, send all of them to the coach.
The coach is an expert on
unconscious bias and knows what really typifies real street criminals.
-
Then you and the expert will discuss them. The expert will try to
help you recognize your own patterns of unconscious
bias, and learn to disregard them.
The hope is that, over time, the cop learns to filter out spurious
triggers of suspicion.
Has anything like this been tried?