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I live in a city of about 300,000 in the state of Arizona. We are about 78% white, 17% Latinx, 4% black and 1% Native American. Every year we are mentioned on the list of the 10 most desirable and safest cities in America. This year, I have a contract with the police department to train all 500 sworn officers and civilian workers in a form of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion but with a historical trauma perspective and filtered through a PACEs lens.
Since the murder of George Floyd, we've seen a huge uptick in companies that hire DEI directors and require DEI training for employees. If we consider a trauma perspective, we must realize the need to be careful in how we talk about implicit bias and racism. Walking into a room saying, "All of you are racist and it's okay," just doesn't cut it. This defies everything we know about the human threat response system. As soon as many employees hear that they will attend DEI training, their sympathetic nervous system is activated. As an African woman walking into a room of predominantly white males ready to talk about bias is going to trigger a neurological response. As we all know, once we activate the survival brain, we will lose a majority of the people in the room and we defeat the purpose of the training in the first place. If we want to have a discussion where people can inhibit emotional reactions, be self-reflective, have empathy and understanding, they need to feel safe and we need to engage in a relationship.
The curriculum I wrote for police departments focuses on the impact of the media on human neurobiology, implications of neurological dysregulation in policing, allostatic load, historical trauma, understanding disempowered humans, PACEs science, trauma responses, mindfulness, and lifestyle changes to increase window of tolerance. I am blown away by the number of officers in tears at the end of the brief two hour training; I've had to avail myself for additional support and provide reminders for the numerous resources provided through the department. I'm so proud of our police department for their commitment to safety in our community. We are only halfway through training the department and I look forward to seeing the surveys and data to follow. I'll keep you all posted!
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