Jones on Cultural Sensitivity Training for Police Officers

          (TRENTON)- Assemblywoman Patricia Egan Jones (D-Camden, Gloucester) issued the following statement on Wednesday regarding her discussion with the New Jersey Attorney General on implicit bias and cultural awareness training for police officers during the Assembly Budget Committee hearing:

          “There are many things we must train our police officers to do nowadays. I agree with the Attorney General on the need for implicit biased training and cultural awareness and extending that to how we train police officers.

“Every once in a while we see in the news how someone with autism is treated, or others with disabilities. So there is a need here for this type of training.

          “I have a nephew who is deaf and drives a car. If he were approached by a police officer his response would be a bit different. Those are the cultural issues I also believe we should be addressing, if we are not already are addressing them.”