Texas police agency embraces bias training for all officers
In the first statewide policy change since George Floyd's death shook the nation, the Texas agency that regulates police has agreed to add implicit bias training to a course required for every officer, upon the request of Houston Democratic state Rep. Garnet Coleman.
The training will teach officers about the possibility that they unconsciously carry preconceived notions or prejudices that can affect their actions on the job, and is supposed to help police overcome them.
The requirement was one that had been included in an early iteration, but not the final version, of the 2017 Sandra Bland Act, which requires all officers to take de-escalation training.
This time, Coleman went a different route and simply asked the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement if it would make the change administratively as opposed to waiting for new legislation. To his delight, the commission responded a day later that it would adopt the policy.
“It does what the public is asking for,” Coleman said. “When a police officer doesn’t understand that they have this bias, the only way to change it is for them to recognize that they have a bias that may be a racial bias.
“When people say, ‘How do you change how people think?’ This is how you change how people think.”
Gretchen Grigsby, director of government relations at the law enforcement commission, said the agency agreed it could use more reference materials and information about implicit bias for its basic peace officer training course, which is required to receive a license, and added them. The additions will be part of recruits’ course work as of this week.
“The benefit of it being early on in the curriculum is that it does set the tone for the rest of the course and allows it to be revisited in different places,” Grigsby said, adding that any of the state’s 114 academies that teach the courses are welcome to — and often do — go beyond what is required.
Texas lawmakers say they hope to implement a number of other reforms during the next legislative session, which starts
in January, building on increased attention around criminal justice reform elicited by Floyd’s death while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
Coleman plans to again work with Houston Sen. John Whitmire, chair of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. The two worked together to pass the Bland Act, named for the 28-yearold African American woman who was arrested and jailed in 2015 after being pulled over for failing to use her blinker as she changed lanes. She was found dead by suicide in her county jail cell days later.
On Monday on San Antonio’s KSAT, Gov. Greg Abbott said of his private meeting with the Floyd family that he is “looking forward to making sure that he will not have died in vain, that his life will be the stimulant for reforms that will make Texas and the country a better place.”
One such policy Abbott mentioned would prevent the kind of chokehold that killed Floyd, a former Houston resident who died after an officer kneeled on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
“There’s no reason, in an arrest like this, for the officer to have his knee on the neck of this person they are arresting,” Abbott said. “There must be a better strategy to use.”
Some local jurisdictions are already moving in that direction:
Speaking from Floyd’s funeral Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced an executive order that would ban chokeholds. A police reform bill introduced by Congressional Democrats would ban the practice nationwide.
Charley Wilkison, executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, a statewide police union, applauded the move on Tuesday. While Wilkison said some agencies may have instituted their own versions of implicit bias training, this change will ensure uniformity.
“To avoid tragedy, you need more training, more information, more requirements,” Wilkison said. “It’s as important as CPR is. It’s going to save a life. That’s how to think about it.”
This comes as the Texas Legislative Black Caucus announces members will host virtual town halls at 7 p.m. on June 15 and June 19 on racism, criminal justice and policing in the black community. Those wanting to submit ideas or concerns can email texaslegislativeblackcaucus@gmail.com. More detail on how to join will be released at a later date.
“We will not see an end to these protests until meaningful change occurs at all levels of government,” said state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, first vice chair of the caucus and chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. “The only next step is genuine policy reform.”