Charles Douglas Hayes
Published: 2020-02-21
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Blue Bias is a book for police candidates, seasoned officers, police supervisors, citizens who seek a truly just society, journalists who want to understand the psychology and temperament of peace officers, and people who simply want to better understand the concept of criminal justice beyond what can be learned by watching police dramas. Consider the following: Another day, another video of a fatal police shooting hits the internet. Outrage, grief, fear, charges of racism and police brutality follow...and the officer in question may or may not face indictment. But in the end, very little changes-vulnerable communities feel that they cannot trust the police, and peace officers struggle to perform their jobs justly in profoundly stressful environments.Former police officer and author of numerous books and essays on the subject of self-education, Charles D. Hayes wants to fix that. In Blue Bias, he delves deeply into the question of what can go wrong in policing, for both officers and communities, and explores ways to make it right. His solution is ultimately simple: Know thyself. But to accomplish this edict requires a genuine appreciation of the complexity of human biology, and an incisive understanding of the role our subconscious plays in forming biases, and then confirming prejudices that conflict with our own sense of morality. If you want to be a police officer or simply better understand what policing is really like, this book is an insightful attitude check. Hayes asks that you, the reader, pin an imaginary badge on your shirt, a gun on your hip and take a front row seat in his big city police academy, because as he explains, it's the only way to understand what policing is really like and why it is a much harder and potentially more rewarding and a more stimulating job than is commonly thought. Drawing on decades of research, Hayes introduces his readers to their own brains and the sentinel awareness of their limbic systems.