“North Carolina soon could be teaching its future police officers about 68 terms for ‘gender identity and expression’ as part of their law enforcement training,” reports The College Fix.
The Carolina Journal reports that the proposed curriculum change to the state police academy’s Basic Law Enforcement Training program comes from the state Department of Justice,
The North Carolina Department of Justice is working on revising the officer training program, with the new curriculum scheduled to be go into effect in 2025.
“However, some of the potential changes revealed in a pilot program this spring have raised eyebrows,” The College Fix says. “For example, a ‘Course Management Guide’ for instructors recommends the Healthline article “68 Terms That Describe Gender Identity and Expression.”
“This hardly seems like a productive use of time for police trainees and their instructors,” says Jon Guze, a researcher at the John Locke Foundation. Guze laments that the guide recommends two biased organizations, the Human Rights Campaign and the Anti-Defamation League, as authorities on hate crimes. “Neither of those sources can be regarded as objective. On the contrary, both have been credibly accused of being biased,” he notes.
The College Fix says that the “new curriculum has not been finalized yet; it will be part of an expanded police training program. Currently, North Carolina law enforcement training lasts 16 weeks, but, starting next year, it will expand to 21 weeks.”
The Carolina Journal reports:
With over 200 additional hours in the program and expansion to 39 topic areas, most of the lesson plans are increasing in required hours. This includes course orientation (+6), ethical problem solving (+12), communication and de-escalation (+16), compliance and control techniques (+24), driver training (+8), firearms (+48), and criminal investigations (+6).
While the Justice Academy course is expanding significantly, key areas like constitutional law saw a reduction in material despite the overall increase.
The College Fix says that a growing number of law enforcement training programs now include diversity, equity, and inclusion topics:
Last year, for example, the University of Colorado Boulder Police Department began training its officers to use inclusive language in emergency alerts and suspect descriptions The College Fix reported.
Delaware State University also announced plans to implement sensitivity training for campus police last year in response to student protests.
