Montpelier police had a busy time in July. Photo by Carla Occaso.
The Montpelier Police Department has been selected as a pilot site for developing bias training procedures for officers. The pilot project comes via the U.S. Department of Justice, to establish new national standards.
Chief Brian Peete last week announced a partnership with CNA, a nonprofit research and analysis organization located in Arlington, Virginia, and the U.S. Department of Justice Community-Oriented Policing Safety (COPS) office to help develop “Managing Bias” training nationally.
“Montpelier will be serving as a pilot site for the training, and our officers will be providing valuable feedback to the course development team at CNA. We believe this opportunity underscores our values and our focus on community policing, impartial policing, and Constitutional policing,” Peete wrote to the community in describing the program.
CNA recently did an assessment of the Burlington Police Department and has been involved in the development of training programs for 21st Century Policing, Peete noted.
Previously, the Montpelier Police Department” received a grant for tactical training that emphases de-escalation — ruling out tactics such as kneeling on a suspect, which was the cause of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis in May 2020.
The new training curriculum project will include a grant to the Montpelier Police department for its participation. The amount of the grant has yet to be determined, Peete said.
