Producing Bias-Free Policing

This Brief provides specific recommendations for police professionals to reduce the influence of implicit bias on police practice, which will improve both effectiveness (in a shift towards evidence-based, rather than bias-based) practices and police legitimacy.

Dr. Lorie Fridell is an Associate Professor and Graduate Director in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. Prior to joining USF in August of 2005, she served for six years as the Director of Research at the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) in Washington, D.C. Dr. Fridell has over 25 years of experience conducting research on law enforcement. Her primary research areas are police use of force and violence against police. Dr. Fridell is a national expert on biased policing. She speaks nationally on this topic and provides consultation and training to law enforcement agencies. Publications on this topic include two books: Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response and By the Numbers: A Guide for Analyzing Race Data From Vehicle Stop (and the companion guide, Understanding Race Data From Vehicle Stops: A Stakeholder's Guide.) A recent chapter is and 'Racially Biased Policing: The Law Enforcement Response to the Implicit Black-Crime Association.' Dr. Fridell developed the science-based 'Fair and Impartial Policing perspective.' With national experts on the psychology of bias and funding from the US Department of Justice, she has developed five Fair and Impartial Policing training programs for police personnel.