In the wake of Skip Gates’ arrest, racial profiling is back in the news. But is racially biased policing always the result of racism? Lorie Fridell on why the equation isn’t so simple—and how police departments can erase unconscious bias.
Lorie Fridell, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida. She consults with police departments and provides command-level training on this topic. With U.S. Department of Justice funds and other experts, she is developing two model curriculums for police based on the social psychology of human bias. Her most recent chapter is “Racially Biased Policing: The Law Enforcement Response to the Implicit Black-Crime Association.”