(Click on the image for Dick Uliano's WTOP report)
From Dick's report: Members of the Prince George’s County Police Department and community members have wrapped up a two-day workshop of training and role-playing exercises aimed at improving relations between police and citizens.“It’s the easiest thing in the world to divide people. What’s difficult is bringing people together,” said Prince George’s County Police Chief Hank Stawinski, one of the 30 participants in the Affinity Project workshop.
The Affinity Project is co-sponsored by the National Law Enforcement Museum and the Illumination Project of Charleston, South Carolina. The goal is to draw together law enforcement and citizens and to help each side understand and overcome inherent biases.
“Implicit bias … is a mental shortcut that our mind makes between two seemingly unrelated ideas,” said Kris Marsh, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, who provides bias training for the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“We don’t always talk to each other. The citizens talk among themselves [and] the officers talk among themselves. We have different perspectives, but it’s really great to get both entities in the room and start having a really thoughtful conversation,” she said.
See also, Prince George's County Police Proud to be First Police Partner of the National Affinity Project to Make Police-Community Relations Even Stronger