Police Training: Modern Training In The United States

Lack of training and policing standards are closely linked to the myriad problems bedeviling police work, especially in small departments (Brodeur, 2010). All over the country, police departments report cases of officers being caught in uncompromising and unprofessional situations, resulting in disciplinary actions such as redeployment, suspension or sacking. These cases of unprofessionalism have led to questions being asked about policing, occasioned by recurring series of questionable and controversial encounters with police officers (Brodeur, 2010). The consequence of such encounters is increasing public distrust in law enforcement agencies.

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

Now one way to prevent things like this from happening again is to train the young and inexperienced police officers the correct and effective way to judge the use of force. An officer must reasonably believe it is necessary to shoot to kill to defend him or herself or someone else from imminent death. It’s a call made in the blink of an eye, in tense and uncertain circumstances, sometimes limited by distance, distractions or darkness. And it brings to bear all of the officer’s experience, awareness and, perhaps most important, training. The question is how do we do this? How do we prepare our officers for the real world? Half a second. According to experts, that’s how much time an officer has to pull a weapon when confronted with someone perceived as dangerous and about to inflict harm. Studies show that it takes a quarter of a second for an officer to recognize a threat, such as when a person is reaching for a gun, and another quarter-second for that officer to draw his gun. It takes another .06 seconds to pull the trigger. One place that is trying to make a difference and make those

“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.

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.

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

I completely agree with you that using simulation devices to train soldiers and police officers is a great technological solution to the country. By creating real simulations of the battle field, the soldiers are effectively trained to handle any kind of situation. This is the technology that is used to train the best of the best Navy seals and it can be expanded to train the whole military.

Each year citizens die in encounters with law enforcement officers. It is reported that “Americans are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist” (Rucke, 2013). Although there is no official data base tracking these occurrences it is estimated that between 500 and a 1,000 people are killed by police officers each year. To put this in greater perspective this number equals approximately 5,000 since the 9/11 terror attack which is roughly the same number as U.S. soldiers who have been killed in the line of duty in Iraq (Rucke, 2013). This statistic is justifiably concerning. The cause of police related killings are multifold and cannot be attributed to only one factor. Many deaths may be unavoidable and perhaps, dependent on the situation, necessary. I contend, however, that many of these deaths may very well be preventable.

The profession of policing derives its effectiveness from its ability to attract and employ quality individuals who will strive to better their community. Therefore proper recruitment and selection of officers is incredibly important to a police organization. Some major needs to Missouri’s recruitment process will be addressed in the following paragraphs.

Many factors can contribute to this problem the police force is having with police officers abuse of power, one of them being the psychological health of police officers where they aren’t fit to serve and protect the people they sworn to protect. After the shooting of an unarmed woman at Capitol Hill, The National Allegiance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) started what is to be the most Comprehensive Police Officer mental health program in the country, this 40 hours crisis intervention program is available in 45 states as well as the district of Columbia, excluded are the state of Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Rhode Island. Needless to say a few departments are working hard to improve the quality and integrity of their officers to eliminate the raising percentage of officers committing abuse to those who they sworn to protect.

Differences and Similarities in Police Training and Policy in the United States and other Countries

Within the past decade there have been several accounts of fatal police shootings. Law enforcement deems deadly force as a justifiable homicide. Not all cases are investigated in its entirety. Stricter laws on police officers should be forced to prevent riots, senseless killings and promote equality.

Justice has become nothing more than a word in American society. Badges allow militarized police officers to brutalize and kill unarmed citizens. Police brutality is not a new issue, it first appeared in 1872 when the Chicago Tribune reported the beating of a civilian by a police officer. Although police brutality has been present for decades, the severity has tremendously increased in the past twenty years. It is critical for citizens to become aware of the growing statistics and casualties of the epidemic. By educating Americans on the problem, it may lead to preventing further incidents.

The Gubernatorial debate included multiple different topics and plans to solve them. One of the topics that paralleled with one of our topics in class was the topic of police shootings. Many of our current event topics have been about the recent race crimes in Charlotte and how we stop these crimes from happening. In the debate, both candidates planned to educate the police officers and try to desensitize them from the fear of our new black vs police war. Another one of their topics that tied in with ours was their discussion on education and their plans to equalize the schools so there was no longer school getting less opportunities than the others based on money. This argument ties in with our civil rights vs civil liberties chapter when

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.