This presentation explores the psychological phenomena of implicit and explicit bias and the impact of bias on decision making and behavior. The presentation will focus on how bias can lead to discriminatory treatment of others and methods for mitigating its harmful impacts.
About the Presenters: Tom Robbins, J.D. Tom retired after a 27-year career with the Massachusetts State Police and served ten years as Executive Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police for the Boston University Police Department. Prior to joining the state police, he served three years active duty in the United States Marine Corps. Tom held many positions within the State Police, the largest police force in New England, culminating in being named Colonel/Superintendent of the State Police by Governor Mitt Romney. Tom served as the Commandant of the Massachusetts State Police Academy for two years where he oversaw the development of the state police’s first racial profiling and biased policing training program that served as a model for the entire law enforcement community of the state.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Tom was asked by the Governor of Massachusetts to take over as the Director of Aviation Security for Logan International Airport. During his tenure as Director of Security he developed many security firsts for Logan Airport leading to the airport being recognized as a national leader in aviation security. Many of these security initiatives were adopted by airports across the country. Among the security initiatives developed under Tom’s leadership was the Behavioral Assessment Screening System (BASS) designed to detect persons about to engage in terrorist attacks. This program was the first of its kind in the country and was adopted by the TSA for use at all nations commercial airports.
Tom holds a Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School and has been admitted to the Bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as an attorney for over three decades. Peter DiDomenica, J.D. Peter served as a Massachusetts State Police officer for twenty-three years, retiring as a lieutenant in August 2010. He worked for Boston University Police Department for nine years as a lieutenant where he commanded the detective division and served as accreditation manager and policy advisor to the chief of police. His previous State Police assignments included serving as a supervisory investigator in the State Police Major Crime Unit and as Director of Legal Training at the Massachusetts State Police Academy. In his last assignment with the State Police, he served as a lieutenant and staff member in the Office of the Superintendent where he was a subject matter expert and trainer on racial profiling and biased policing.
After the 9/11 attacks Peter served as the Director of Security Policy at Boston Logan International airport where he developed innovative anti-terrorism programs including creation of the behavior-based screening program adopted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques or “SPOT”. He developed the Behavior Assessment Screening System (BASS) and Hostile Intent Detection and Evaluation (HIDE) as terrorist interdiction programs based on behavior and statement analysis that he has delivered to over 4,000 police and security officers in over 100 agencies on the federal, state, and local level in the U.S., Singapore, Canada, and U.K.
He has served as a subject matter expert on behavior analysis for the U.S. Army, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, and National Science Foundation. He has been a lecturer on terrorism related issues for the FBI, CIA, Secret Service, DHS, and the Department of Defense Criminal Investigations Task Force. Peter has served on the adjunct faculty of Anna Maria College, Western New England University and Boston University Metropolitan College in their criminal justice programs. He holds a Juris Doctor from Western New England University School of Law and has been admitted to the Bar of the Commonwealth for nearly three decades.
