A gun, a badge, and no training?

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Scary stuff

One would think so ...

 

Scary stuff, indeed.

It's been more than 30 years since I graduated from police academy. Like some of the officers described in this report, I worked in uniform for several months before a spot opened up in the academy. Unlike them, I was rigorously supervised, given limited responsibilities, and was only allowed to carry a weapon after finishing nearly 40 hours of one-on-one firearms training with a highly qualified instructor. (He trained Marines before retiring and had quit competing in handgun competitions in the state because he always won and others were giving up on entering.)

If the department is willing to supervise the rookie as tightly as I was supervised, then I don't object to a brief (6 months max) time in uniform before the officer goes to the academy. In my case the academy was a five-month course, and yes, my department paid me the whole time as well as paying for my training. That's expensive, and small departments need to juggle their staffing to get someone to police academy. I can tell you from my own experience that many police wannabes are not fit to be officers, and that often becomes apparent in the so-called grace period before training.

But none of the officers described in Ragusa's post were prepared for the situations they confronted. I was not allowed into such situations in my pre-academy days. For instance, I was not allowed to drive a police vehicle until I had finished the academy's police driving segment. I never answered a call alone. It was months before I had a weapon to carry and I had been so strictly trained I would never have done the things described in this post.

My commanding officer had been a police officer in Montgomery, Alabama, during the 1950's and during the height of the civil rights protests of that era. His training consisted of this: a sergeant took him out and showed him the area of his beat, and then, since he wasn't a native Alabaman, reminded him that if an African American - but of course that was not the term the sergeant used - failed to take his hat off when talking to him, the officer was to take his nightstick and knock the hat off. And of course do a little more damage as well.

I lived through the transition between police officers as armed and badged thugs and police officers as at least potentially trained professionals. It was not that long ago, friends. And the transition has not taken place everywhere.

These departments failed in their duty to the public and to these rookie officers.

And no, I'm not a police officer now - haven't been for over 20 years. Ultimately I decided it wasn't for me, though the experience enriched my life and helped me mature. I have great respect for police officers who are dedicated to their work, know their own limits, and have the necessary courage and self-control to do the job. And no respect for those who don't.

 

I'm not surprised. I couldn't believe how fat some of the police officers were in PA, especially the state troopers. Don't they have weight/fitness requirements?

 

America...

 

They usually do have fitness requirements, but weight requirements are rare.

 

... from my experience in the army it is easier to cheat on fitness requirements than at a weigh-in under the evil eye of an army doctor. Not from personal experience but from observation

 

Weight and fitness requirements: once you make it out of the academy, where they do run you half to death every day (at least mine did), any physical fitness requirements are up to the department. Alas.

And I should have said what might have been obvious from my description of my pre-academy duty - I was being trained every single day, by officers who were vastly senior to me and knew their work well. Nothing was too small a detail for them to comment on and explain.

But then, I worked for a very good department. The rookies described in the article weren't being trained, as far as I can tell, but were out on the playground on their own in recess.

 

If the officer has never heard of unreasonable search and seasure, it isn't just police training that failed him. Unless he could see something illegal going on, in which case he didn't need to 'check anything out', he had no right to know what they were doing.

 

Scary and that coming from the country believed to the cradle and peak of modern democracy and freedom (no offence intended). It just shouldn't be going on.

 

revmaf has said it well and from actual experience.

If her guidelines are followed a grace period might even be helpful in weeding out those who would only waste space in the academies. Without those strict guidelines they are a danger to themselves and to others. This article does not come as a suprise to me tho.

 

Nakia,
one could weed out the whackos in a one week selection course with psychologists testing and observing and stress and physical fitness tests. That's what they do in Germany and probably the rest of Europe. I think it's inherently safer for the public.

 

Nakia:

I can understand a tryout period, but until they have passed some more advanced - and serious - training, I think that they should either be unarmed or with a more experienced partner. Having a gun and not knowing exactly how you should use it is imo a recipe for disaster. Of course, there should be a psychological test - it can't be that expensive, and it's imo a prerequisite for working at any high-risk job like this.

 

It sure is a recipe for disaster. Far too many police recruits get their idea of acceptable law enforcement behavior from Hollywood.

As for the testing: prior to being hired, I went through psychological testing, an intelligence test (no kidding), a battery of manual dexterity tests (not sure about the reasoning there), lengthy background investigation, physical exam, and (interestingly) a specialized hearing test. Maybe some others I'm forgetting - it was, after all, more than 30 years ago.

But most small law enforcement agencies do only the minimum testing required by the laws of their state, which vary enormously. Often that is no more than a very cursory background check, I'm sorry to say.

It is difficult work, law enforcement. I didn't stay in it because, ultimately, I figured out I didn't have the right stuff, to be honest, despite winning some awards and commendations for my work. It just got too frustrating and heartbreaking for me. I have the utmost respect for those who do it well. For those who don't - it is a shared failure between the officers and their commanders when unfit (in any sense of the word) officers keep working.