Police academy shifts to teach more inclusive practices to recruits
By Ericka Love
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PITTSFORD, Vermont (WPTZ) — This year, Vermont’s Criminal Justice Council welcomed a new Community Inclusion Director.
She is tasked with developing new training techniques for recruits at the Vermont Police Academy in Pittsford.
“If we embed diversity, equity, inclusion — everything we’re doing, we’re being more responsible, we’re being more just, we’re being more responsive to the various communities and stakeholders that we interact with specifically at the academy,” Lisa Ryan, the new Community Inclusion Director at the academy, said.
Ryan said her background in restorative justice and conflict resolution will help better equip new police officers graduating from the academy.
“The council approved the newest revision of the fair and impartial policing policy, which is kind of at the forefront of everything we do. Like, I was just talking about weaving that into all of the work we do and looking at it through a lens of fair and impartial policing,” Ryan said. “The policy and trainings really allows us to look at how we can reduce and manage our biases, both implicit and explicit, so that we can promote safety and effectiveness and really just policing.”
She said a lot of her work relies on direct community feedback, and she’s asking Vermonters to engage so the academy can better assess how communities change over time.
“I would start by saying like asking the community to engage with us, to tell them about their experiences with law enforcement in their communities or even on an individual level so that we can take that information and, you know, and implement it into the work that we do so that we’re producing a better product, whatever that looks like in whatever form we’re addressing needs of the community and also being transparent and communicative with our law enforcement officers,” Ryan said.
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