Racial intelligence program teaches officers to identify emotions before engaging with others
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Oklahoma City, OK (KHBS) — During a two-day training session taught by professionals in the field of emotion and social intelligence for law enforcement and corrections staff, local officers learned techniques to identify their emotions before they engage with others.
“The training that we have here today is called Racial Intelligence Training and Engagement,” said Randy Friedman, training director at the RITE Academy.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections officials said racial intelligence is less about race and more about respect.
“The bottom line is about treating yourself fairly first before you can treat others fairly,” Friedman said. “And what we’re doing here is we’re giving the training officers tools to bring back their agency to then train their officers on these specific tools.”
Some tools the officers were able to learn.
“The difference that makes our training different than the typical one and one is that we’re giving the officer emotional energy tools,” Friedman said. “We’re giving them a tool called ‘A New Day,” which is a way to start over again when you have a bad day.”
Officers also were given tools to take home and use.
“If we can improve an officer’s personal life, it’s pretty evident that we’ll be able to improve their professional life,” Friedman said.
A short-term goal for the program is to “help officers where they are emotionally in the moment,” Friedman said.
“The long term is officer wellness. We want these officers to get their pensions at the end,” she said. “We don’t want them to have a bad incident, and, typically, bad incidents happen when your emotions are heightened.”
The tools Oklahoma officers are learning help better serve the public, their colleagues and their agency’s mission.
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