Thousands of Department of Justice Agents and U.S. Attorneys to receive implicit bias training

the department of justice announced 23,000 federal agents from agencies including the dea, fbi and u.s. marshals service will participate in implicit bias training over the next year. 5,800 u.s. attorneys will also be trained.

the goal of the training is to prevent employees' unconscious biases on characteristics including gender, race and sexual orientation from impacting their decisions. the department of homeland security employs 60,000 border patrol agents and officers; they are not required to be trained. 

deputy attorney general sally q. yates described the training as "an important step in our ongoing efforts to promote fairness, eliminate bias and build the stronger, safer, more just society that all americans deserve." 

the plan has attracted praise and criticism. law professor destiny peery cautioned, "in some ways, the discussion of implicit bias has come to the exclusion of discussion about systemic or institutional biases."