The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
The Tulsa Police Department (TPD) has formally established the process to begin extensive implicit bias training within the department beginning in April.
TPD hired KMS Intercultural Consulting, which is led by Kelli McLoud-Schingen, an internationally renowned trainer specializing in global diversity and inclusion, cultural competence, social justice and healing racism, to lead the training efforts for the Department.
“Implicit bias training was a key recommendation of the Commission on Community Policing and I am pleased we are moving forward on its incorporation into the Tulsa Police Department’s curriculum,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said. “The ultimate goal is for all City employees, including the mayor, to go through this training, so I appreciate the Tulsa Police Department initiating the process for our entire team at the City of Tulsa.”
McLoud-Schingen will design, implement, and execute a series of Implicit Bias workshops based on sound Intercultural Theory for the Department. She will also develop benchmarking based on comparative police departments, develop a needs assessment for the department, and train a core group of facilitators within TPD to serve as Diversity and Inclusion Specialists that will help train officers on implicit bias in the future.
“Implicit bias training is not something that we do once, but it is continual training that will help strengthen our department and community relationships,” Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan said. “We are looking forward to this opportunity.”
McLoud-Schingen is a certified professional mediator, an expert panelist for the Global Diversity and Inclusion Benchmarks and co-author of the African American Cultural Detective©, an in-depth training tool for business managers. Her past clients include: The Walt Disney Company Imagineers, Shell Oil, AAA Arizona, Minnesota State University, Texas Historical Commission, Greenwood Cultural Center, Southwestern Black Student Leadership, Fort Worth Independent School District and Global Diversity Leaders of Common Ground in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Community Policing in Tulsa
Composed of community members and city and police officials, the Tulsa Commission on Community Policing submitted 77 recommendations focused on community policing needs in Tulsa. One recommendation from the Commission was the implementation of implicit bias training within the Police Department. You can continue to track the progress of the recommendations by visiting, www.cityoftulsa.org/dashboards
