Some people believe that becoming a police officer takes years of training. Well, that statement is incorrect. According to the CNN News (2016, [online]), many “[s]tates require more training to become a barber than a police officer.” For instance, in California, it takes 1528 hours to become a barber and only 664 hours to become a police officer (Yan, 2016). This news may be shocking, but it is true. However, it is not that easy in every state. Police Officer EDU stated that depending on that state; it can take up to six years to become a police officer, including education, application, the hiring process, the police academy, and probation (2017). On a police officer’s badge are two important words: protect and serve. Those are the qualities everyone expects from police officers. However, are they living up to their expectations? Is the training they receive teaching them the skills necessary to perform their job?
It’s on the news all the time, Leon Neyfakh has stated, “The Most Innocent Victim” (2017, [online]) and Scott Wise explained, “Man Killed outside 7-Eleven after a violent encounter with police” (2017, [online]). Following negative encounters with police officers, the common theme is how police officers need better training, or shouldn’t have guns on them if they are just going to shoot innocent people or use excessive force. However, if that is true, the first step would be to make sure that the training police officers receive teaches them what they need to
First, there is lack of information and knowledge on the right police training philosophy, learning approach and training program objectives (CALEA, 2010). This lack of knowledge has immense negative effects on police training, especially because it affects not only senior commanders of police departments but also management, police trainers and other staffs. The other ingredient to police training that lacks is community understanding and support for police training programs (Mitrani, 2014). It is found out that the communities that are served by officers do little to support or appreciate post-academy training programs, which have numerous benefits to communities (CALEA, 2010). For instance, post-academy and field training for newly posted officers helps in the utilization of individual and department creativity, stakeholder collaboration, and effective problem-solving skills and techniques that would improve communal safety and
Training is one of the most important roles at a law enforcement agency. It is never-ending as “concepts, theories, philosophies, practices, procedures, and techniques are constantly changing to meet social needs” (Iannone et al, 2009, p. 60). Without training, even the best officer will turn into one that is not respected by his peers or society. Gone are the days when an officer is sent to the training academy and has no more except for yearly inservice. This can be accomplished with field training after the academy, roll call training, inservice, emailed updates from the training staff, and outside the agency training. It does not always have to be expensive. Most think that the effectiveness of training can’t be measured, but successful training can easily be seen through “higher morale, less job stress with its high economic cost, greater esprit de corps, a lessened need for punitive discipline, greater effectiveness, in crime suppression, increased public support and confidence, fewer errors, better
As you progress towards becoming a police officer, you must obviously go through rigorous training programs. Of these training programs, people must go to a police academy in order to train new officers. In these academies, training is committed to the basics of combat policing such as self-defense, firing range, and field tactics. Police Academies usually take roughly 12 to 14 weeks to train soon-to-be officers on these important basic tactics (BLS, 2010-11).
Just like any other career, before someone can join a police force, one must go through the academy first. Police training is fulfilled by a full-time academy, which normally takes about nineteen weeks. Because the Police Academy is required by the state of California, “you
“When you have police officers who abuse citizens, you erode public confidence in law enforcement. That makes the job of good police officers unsafe.” (Berry) Recently police brutality has become an alarming issue in society. At the end of 2015, thousands of deaths resulted in accusing victims dying in police custody. Individuals in communities across the state are beginning to lose faith in law enforcement in their ability to properly do their jobs. Providing police officers with extensive and innovative training to give them the adequate length of experience and training will decrease police brutality.
Many people might argue that the lack of training in the police force is more harmful to the officers than the effect it has on society. Leslie Pfeiffer mentions in her article “” that the Federal government devotes a shocking amount of money toward training, yet local police agencies are often left to fend for themselves” (Pfeiffer). Whatsoever the federal government may be doing with the funds should undoubtedly be providing effective programs and necessities to ensure a complete and sufficient training process for officers. Often time’s people forget that although the officer is vulnerable to failure, error, and possible injury, in the event of a possible suspect or wrongfully accused person the lack of knowledge perceived by the officer can cause outcomes such as hostility, hatred, and death. Not only are officers fending for themselves but in
As of September 1, 2015, in the United States police officers have killed 776 people and 161 of those people were unarmed at the time of their death (MintPress). There have been too many incidents where police officers have injured or killed someone that could have been prevented. Using maximum force with a suspect has become a routine in many confrontations. Officers have not been given the proper training to deal with individuals and how to handle them without using a weapon. If they were given more training on how to deal with situations resulting in using a weapon to stop an individual during certain scenarios police brutality situations would decrease, lives would be saved, and police would get their good reputation back. However, police departments would have to spend more money on re-training. Some people agree with police brutality and think that a civilian deserved their punishment, which is not right because no one deserves to be beaten or killed. Situations involving police brutality have been increasing throughout the years, which is a problem that must to be solved.
Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic
In 2015, the COPS budget was cut by nearly $300 million and as a result, new officers received poor training as programs that were considered highly essential to the learning process of rookie cops were exterminated as the programs could no longer receive funding. This has caused poorly trained officers, with lethal weapons, to make poor decisions such as using violence, being neglectful, and directing derogatory terms at minorities and it all comes right back to the fact that cops are only taught how to use a gun properly and arrest a criminal. The physical, mental, and/or communication skills that an officer lacks shouldn’t determine the fate of an individual’s safety or
Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) launched American Healing in 2010 which is to put inequality behind us and to raise awareness towards racism (W.K. Kellogg Foundation). At the 2015 American Healing Conference, experts proposed solutions to improve law enforcement. More than 500 leaders gathered to discuss how we can strive towards equality (PR Newswire 2015). It is amazing to see how many people come together and all want to put an end to the same thing: excessive force. There needs to be a stop to the madness that has been going on the past couple of years. We are supposed to be improving as one, but it just seems the system keeps on failing us making things worse each and every day. Sherrilyn Ifill who is a part of the NAACP, suggested at the conference that about $1 billion in annual grants should be focused on training for Officers (PR Newswire 2015). Officers most definitely lack training. They will go out there with these deadly weapons then shoot at someone as if it won’t cause any harm. Training is a big part of being an Officer. You can’t just hand law enforcement a deadly weapon and expect them to use it right. Most of them panic because they weren’t trained properly on how and when to use their deadly weapons. Ifill also suggested for comprehensive data collections because we hardly have any dependable statistics as of right now (PR Newswire 2015). We have no idea how many cases of excessive force there has been because not all are recorded or put out for the
The topic of police in general, and the brutal beatings, shootings, and arrests that have occurred over the past couple of years in the United States has hit the media full force, leaving many wondering what actions should be taken to keep the peace. Many question the system as a whole, and the training police officers receive, as well as their mental health. Across the borders, police are trained differently and follow various policies that may seem ridiculous or foreign, however, when comparing and contrasting two police systems, the similarities may be alarming, and the differences may be great, but knowing the strengths and weakness of each different system, can help towards progressing to have a better system and better training for police officers.
If you currently are or will be considering becoming a law enforcement officer you will hopefully find the following information useful. I will be conveying to you not only the importance of professional appearance and means you can use to be more efficient at presenting such an appearance. While representing a state, city or county a less than professional image as an officer is not acceptable. As a public servant an officer’s appearance is the public’s first impression of who you are and what you represent or stand for. Not caring about your own appearance as a professional may lead some to assume you do not care about your job. We will discuss the reasons an officer should take extra pride in their appearance as well as steps to take that will assist in achieving a more professional appearance. Hopefully you will consider the advice given to you and make yourself a more professional looking officer or officer to be.
To meet the full potential and demands, a police officer must complete a full training ses-sion in prior to committing to an agency, going into a field. Approximately 1,000 victims, sus-pects, and civilians were reported to have been killed by police officers in 2015. (Petrohilos) The most historical and publicly talked about where Trayvon Martin (February 26th, 2012), Eric Gar-ner (July 17th, 2014), Michael Brown (August 9th, 2014), and Freddie Gray (April 19th, 2015). Each tragedy labeled by the public and information broadcasted on social media, lead society to believe as acts of racism. The recent and consistent social media coverage of police brutality sup-ports the fact of police officers receiving the proper self-advocacy training will
In his article "Lack of Skills Leads to Violence", James J. Fyfe states that with "training...more comparable to that provided social workers, schoolteachers, psychologists and lawyers", police would become more adept at preventing violence. I believe this to be true, yet I think that many police departments confuse quantity with quality, and divert funding to the wrong places in an effort to better themselves. Training needs to be at the forefront of any reform. A police force that is educated and experienced, with knowledge of the community will be much more successful at preventing violence.
Having parents that go straight into danger, risk their own lives for the sake of others, shows how police get mislabelled by public affairs. With much controversy on this sensitive topic, many perspectives can affect how one opinionated this issue. Police are correctly trained to protect themselves and the citizens, therefore U.S. police departments do use appropriate force when dealing with the public. A countless number of citizens forget that officers are only doing their job, though the people do not like the result of their personal situation involving the police. Consequently, this causes many uprisings with the way officers perform their duties.