Residents react to Columbia police fair and impartial training

The Columbia community saw first hand Saturday the steps the police department is taking to address implicit bias in officers. Sergeant Mike Hestir did the training for about 50 people who came for about 5 hours. He said this was a way to show the community what officers are learning behind closed doors “and how we’re trying to make sure our police officers are acting on factual circumstances and not bias or beliefs. “We just wanted to share it, showcase it, let people experience it so that they can go back and hopefully feel better about our Columbia police officers and how they’re trained to recognize and deal with implicit bias,” said Hestir. The training is about how bias exists in all humans and how they can learn ways to recognize that bias and not fall victim to it. Officers in particular need to learn to recognize it. “Part of that is allowing them to come up with strategies to mitigate [their biases] or recognize them and do what is right by the citizenry,” said Hestir.
Residents who attended the training said it was a step in the right direction for the department to make a change in some of its practices. “I think this is a promising step towards self reflection for the police department as an organization,” said Traci Wilson-Kleekamp. “By including the community, that allows us to see this is meaningful that they’re not doing this for show but because it’s really important that they do good policing.” Wilson-Kleepkamp said she had hoped to talk about finding more funds for the police department but didn’t get a chance Saturday. “How we prioritize making resources available to the police officers is very important and that has yet to be resolved,” she said.

Hestir said there will be a tentative follow-up to this training on Nov. 9 when residents can provide feedback about the training.