ASSEMBLY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND AFFAIRS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 3641

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JUNE 15, 2020

      The Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 3641.

This bill requires State, county, municipal, and campus law enforcement agencies to provide implicit bias training.  The training is to include understanding implicit bias and employing strategies to eliminate unconscious biases that shape behavior and produce disparate treatment of individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religious belief, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics.

      Under current law, the Department of Law and Public Safety (DLPS) is required to develop or identify uniform cultural diversity training course materials which may be utilized by police departments.  This bill requires the DLPS to include bias training in these training materials and requires all law enforcement agencies to provide cultural diversity and implicit bias training once every five years.