Dr. Natalie Parks is currently the program director of the Applied Behavior Analysis program at Saint Louis University, the CEO of Behavior Leader, and a managing partner at TeamABA LLC. She is a board certified behavior analyst (doctoral level) and licensed psychologist and has over 20 years of clinical experience working with individuals with disabilities, including severe behavior, feeding, and early intervention across a variety of settings as well as in organizational behavior management (OBM). Currently, her focus is on spreading behavior analysis to non-traditional settings. Dr. Parks has extended her work as a behavior analyst to diversity & inclusion, leadership, and sports, health, and fitness and currently works with first responders (police, EMT, fire), governmental entities, and behavior analysts interested in working outside of the field of autism and developmental disabilities. Dr. Parks’ current research focuses on using behavior analysis to increase inclusion within organizations, decrease use of force and bias in policing, and increase leadership skills in business executives.

Abstract: The racial differentiation of policing in America has been widely researched and documented (Walker & Katz, 2008); Wilson & Kelling, 1982; Eck & Spelman, 1987; Braga et al., 1999). However, until recently there has been little focus on changing the policies, procedures, and laws governing police officers. This has led to the continued acts of racism of police officers across the country and the ongoing systemic racism that results in the discrepancies in the outcomes between Black and White people. In the past year, there has been an increased focus on changing police practices in hopes of undoing the racism that exists and moving to more equitable practices; however, most of them will likely fail to change officer behavior. This talk will focus on the reasons that most initiatives will fail and how to solve this using the science of behavior. It will first provide a functional perspective of policing in the United States followed by recommendations to address the maintaining consequences of racist practices. Finally, the talk will focus on one of the solutions by providing a case study of intervention with a local police department.