A proposed new curriculum for police training in North Carolina would make significant changes, including instructing recruits to use gender-neutral terminology when addressing the public and learn about gender identity from an assigned article.
The state’s Basic Law Enforcement Training program is undergoing revisions as part of a project to update the curriculum.
Changes include increasing training hours and written materials to focus more on de-escalation and dealing with mental illness.
Among the revisions approved is a directive to use gender-neutral language and read a gender identity article.
Critics argue this does not make productive use of training time and question the objectivity of some resources cited.
Jon Guze, a John Locke Foundation Senior Fellow in Legal Studies, said, “This hardly seems like a productive use of time for police trainees and their instructors. Making matters worse, the same section of the proposed revision to the Course Management Guide directs instructors to the Human Rights Campaign and the Anti-Defamation League as sources to consult regarding which classes of people are vulnerable to hate crimes. Neither of those sources can be regarded as objective. On the contrary, both have been credibly accused of being biased.”
Alex Gazaway, the Justice Academy Training Manager, wrote, “The Academy has begun implementation of the proposed BLET curriculum in pilot delivery sites throughout the state.”
He added, “The BLET Project Team continues to reconcile feedback, adjusted content, and revise both student and instructor materials for the next phase of pilot testing. I will be providing an overview of the curriculum status, course management issues and implementation.”
A pilot program tested revisions at community colleges, and the new curriculum is slated for broader rollout in 2025 pending further adjustments from pilot feedback.
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