Douglas S. Collier, M.A., DEA (Ret.), adjunct professor and director of professional outreach and engagement in the Department of Criminal Justice, has been nominated by New Jersey Office of the Attorney General to serve as a member of a newly formed Implicit Bias & Cultural Diversity Working Group that will create uniform implicit bias and cultural diversity training for law enforcement officers throughout the State.
“This is a true honor to be recognized and selected by my peers from the New Jersey law enforcement community to help create, develop, and implement this important training,” Collier said. Collier and Brian Lockwood, Ph.D., associate professor and program director of the criminal justice graduate program, are currently developing a course on implicit bias using a science-based approach within Monmouth University’s criminal justice graduate program.
New Jersey legislation mandates that law enforcement officer training include understanding of implicit bias, as well as strategies to eliminate unconscious biases that shape behavior and produce disparate treatment of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religious belief, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics.
The legislation further requires all State, county, municipal, and campus law enforcement agencies provide implicit bias training once every five years, and that training course materials and online tutorials are available online to law enforcement officers.