ORLANDO, Fla. – Orlando police officer Darius Barker was born and raised in Orlando’s historically black community of Parramore. Barker became an Orlando police officer in Parramore, the neighborhood where he grew up. OPD partners with Boys 2 Men Mentoring, a Parramore-based program founded in 2016 by Pastor Daniel Ings. You can learn more about Boys 2 Men Mentoring by clicking here. The Orlando Police Department now has 22 youth outreach liaison officers who’ve volunteered for the position.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. The Altamonte Springs Police Department was the first law enforcement agency in Central Florida to install dash-mounted car cameras almost three decades ago, according to Sgt. The Altamonte Springs PD did it for one main reason, according to Ruiz: transparency. And the Altamonte Police Department has continued to invest in the latest technology to continue its commitment to remain transparent, Ruiz said. Now, all 100 officers at the police department wear Axon body cameras that activate automatically as soon as the officer pulls out a Taser or gun. The recording fail-safes are built into the cameras in case an officer forgets to activate the body camera or doesn't have time.

UCF Police Chief Carl Metzger said implicit bias can cloud officers' decision-making. Implicit bias, those are the biases that we all have, I would say, make snap judgments about an individual based on their appearance. Specifically in police work, we have to be very much aware that those biases exist.Metzger said implicit bias is not only improper and unfair, it's also dangerous. All officers - veterans and new hires - have undergone virtual bias training via computer module. Metzger is also working to develop a process that identifies implicit bias in officer candidates before they are hired.