Darrencowan
Green Belt
- Thread Starter
- #21
You would be right, If police were still expected to do what was expected 25+ years ago. However now police are expected today, as Chief Brown of Dallas said...
More and more issues that at times require specialized training (Mental health most importantly) are being thrown at LE. Society isn't going to change their expectations. So the training needs to change.
Additionally we have these two realities. 1 deescalation training, if done right, takes time. Academy classes need to adapt. 2. Half the problem, imo is that the vast majority of officers in a violent situation are trained as follows. Officer presence>verbal commands> OC > taser > baton> lethal force, the baton being wielded like a glorified one handed baseball bat.
So if you can't effectively fight, and your tools fail you are left with your side arm or an *** kicking. Once you get to that "I was in fear for my life during the *** kicking stage" lethal force could well be justified. How do you fix that? Actual quality combatives training which again increases the training time.
Now I am not saying that you need over 2 years in the Academy, but we need a heck of a lot more training. Also studies have shown that while having some college doesn't impact arrests etc it has a Big impact on UoF in that Officers without college are statistically far more likely to use force. So if one accepts the demands of the public (which will never change) and crafts the Police academy to meet these demands, resulting in a better educated officer, it is better all around for everyone imo. At least that's what 19 on the job has taught me.
My brother didn't have two years in academy. He had to take an academy for every new career turn in law enforcement, prison guard, ICE, US Marshall. He even had to take these courses after already passing them for another job.