The Bend and Redmond police departments have both put out statements, educating the public about the diversity, equity and inclusion training their officers undergo as part of the force.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Bend Police outlined several efforts it has made to work with local groups to enhance the diversity training through discussions, presentations and performances.
You can read the two agency’s posts below.
What training does the Bend Police Department do for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
• Annually, our department members watch a training video regarding Bias Based Policing. Our most recent training on Bias Based Policing was by Calibre Press and Jim Glennon.
• We wanted to expand our Diversity Equity and Inclusion training opportunities and receive more valuable training. We have been working with two groups outside of our department to bring law enforcement focused implicit biased training. Since September of 2019 we have been working with officers from the Dallas,Texas Police Department, who specialize in community relations, especially with communities of color. We had scheduled the training for April, but it has been postponed due to COVID.
• We have partnered with Central Oregon Community College, Afro-Centric Studies Club in September of 2019 regarding The Red Door Project, Evolve. Members of the Afro-Centric Studies Club gave a presentation to our department members regarding the Evolve project and bringing it to Bend.
“Evolve project is a new performance experience that explores the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color. Combining monologues from The New Black Fest’s Hands Up: 7 Playwrights, 7 Testaments, a show written by African American men and women about their experience with racial profiling, and Cop Out: Beyond Black, White & Blue, based on interviews with police officers, Evolve seeks to stimulate conversations in a new way and help us to bridge a seemingly intractable divide.” (Copied from The Red Door Project)
Our department is committed to bringing the Evolve project to our Bend community members as well as our department members. The Evolve project was unfortunately postponed due to COVID. We are looking forward to bringing this project to Bend and our department members as soon as we can.
• Crisis Intervention Training, which is evidence-based, de-escalation training. This is a partnership between the Police Department and Deschutes County Behavioral Health. We currently have about 77% of the department CIT trained, it is our goal to have 100% of the department trained.
• One of the City Council Goals is to implement a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion training program for City Council, City Staff, and volunteers.
The police department started our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion group in October 2019. Our mission is:
We will be purposeful in our outreach efforts by working together with our diverse community members and employees to increase understanding, build trust and promote respect.
In February 2020 we met with nearly every member of our department during an in-service training and discussed our continued commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• We are engaged with community outreach events such as Welcoming Week, National Night Out, events with Bend Parks and Recreation District, Latinx Success Initiative with Better Together, and we are building relationships with the Latino Community Association of Central Oregon and Embrace Bend. We have worked closely with Latino Community Association of Central Oregon with a variety of events.
• We have implemented a Spanish language phone line so a bilingual staff member can help answer questions that a community member may have.
• We document all traffic stops through the STOPS program (Statistical Transparency of Policing Data). This information is gathered and given to Oregon State Police for the data collection.
Does the Bend Police Department have Body Worn Cameras?
• We don’t currently have in-car cameras or body-worn cameras.
We are committed to our strategic plan regarding body cameras. We have had project management look into systems and costs (equipment/cloud storage/ORS guidelines/staffing). We feel the body cameras are important and they continue to be in our strategic plans and is regularly being evaluated.
