Police Training: How It Could Be Contributed to Less Deaths
How many of you have turned the television on this morning only to find out that another innocent life was taken away from us? How many of you began to rhetorically ask yourself “where were the local law enforcement in this situation”? Now of those who rhetorically asked themselves that question, who was even more shocked to find out that it was one of their own local law enforcement personnel that was behind the gun that took away another innocent life off the face of the earth. More often than any other current political issue, it is becoming very common to learn that cops are killing unarmed innocent citizens in America. If there were more training available to cops to teach them
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Police training starts in the academy. Officer safety is very heavily to the point that it almost becomes a religion for Rookie officers. Rookie officers are usually taught what is known to them as the “first rule of law enforcement”: All officer’s most important goal at the end of every day is to go home at the end of their work shift. The sad fact about this is that cops live in a very hostile world. They are taught early on that every encounter, and every individual is likely to become threat for them. They always have to be very alert while on the job because, as cops are often known to say, “complacency kills.” While in the academy, rookie officers aren’t just told about the risks that they face on a daily basis. They are also shown gut wrenching graphic, sad dash-cam footage of officers being assaulted, their weapons being taken away from them, or worse, them being fatally shot or wounded after lack of attention or complacency, as most law enforcement officers like to put it. These rookie cops are taught that the number one perpetrator isn’t the criminal that can be seen on the video, but that it is the officer’s lack of better judgement. While watching these videos, rookie officers are usually thinking to themselves that they can’t let that happen to them while out on the job. They want to be better than the officers that they see during the videos. That is the point of their training and it is the reason as to why a lot of cops are put in to the situations that they’re put in to now. Police training needs to go beyond highlighting the seriousness of the risks that officers face by taking into account the probability of those risks materializing. Policing has risks—serious ones—that we cannot casually dismiss. But for all of its risks, policing is safer now than it has ever been. Violent attacks on officers, particularly those that involve a serious physical threat, are few and far between when you take into account the fact that police officers interact
The issue group I’ve been assigned to weighs in on race relations and law enforcement. My specific stakeholder involves cops perceptive. There have been many cases where cops feel attacked, and are feared by the public for many reasons. I want to know what the police in general think about this subject that has been so prominent in our lives and in the media lately. In my rhetorical analysis essay I will be going in depth on a video showing police officers trying to find common ground with ex felons.
Officers are taught at the police academy to meet deadly force with deadly force. They are trained and given the techniques and skills to make sure they make it home at the end of their shift, and they spend extensive time training in the use of firearms. It's important to realize that, when discussing the use of deadly force by police officers, the expected result of a subject's actions don't have to be death. Instead, deadly force is described as actions that would likely cause death or bodily harm, which could include permanent disfigurement without necessarily causing death.
Police officers have vowed their life to protect and serve. They risk their lives every day for their communities. As the last few years have sped past us, police officers have been very aggressive with the force they use when arresting a suspect, or even people in general. According to a Texas article on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, “police officers typically use force offensively rather than defensively and do so with at least some degree of premeditation.” (Gross,2013, page 167).
When it comes to the topic of police reform, many agree that our country is long overdue for it, however the questions is how exactly do we, as a nation, go about changing one of the most rigid power structures that exist in the country. While some believe that reform must come from within the individually flawed police departments, others argue that the entire criminal justice system needs an overhaul. An analysis of Ta-Nehisi Coates essay “The Myth of Police Reform” reveals that the complex issues of police shootings of minors (especially African Americans) and how difficult it may be to change these problems. In “The Myth of Police Reform” the author exemplifies the use of logos, ethos and pathos therefore making the argument effective.
Further research has shown that police officers ages typically correlates to the years of experience and officers who are younger or has a young mindset receives more excessive force complaints than the ones who are older and with experience (Hassell & Archbold, 2010). The issue can result in different reasoning. For example, research concluded by Alpert and Dunham The Force Factor: Measuring Police Use of Force Relative to Suspect Resistance, has shown that police officers needs to do a better job on training new comers on policies and procedures in order to avoid incidents such as unnecessary use of force. Alpert finds that additional training will help serve the officers by reducing the number of incidents using excessive force, which includes, “training officers on how to gain control without using a gun, training officers on the correct amount of force to use based on the given situations, training officers on using pepper spray as a way to reduce any physical harm or the use of weapons, training officers to use the baton to restrain rather than shoot, training officers on conflict resolutions technique that can keep the situation under control rather than escalating (which female officers are found to be good at)” (Alpert et al., 1997).
This is not accurate to say the least. Officers are expected to live by near impossible standards set on them by the community they police, and if one individual was to taint the job the community can flip on them and make the job of being in law enforcement tougher than it
They are trained to act quickly and efficiently in deadly situations. “Police sometimes do need to react quickly in potentially dangerous situations, such as when they reasonably believe the suspect might be armed” (DiLascio). While in the cases of both King and Rice, police acted quickly and violently. The officers in both cases waited to ask any questions, but many believe that is what they were supposed to do. Defuse the situation then ask questions later.
In my opinion it is, for many reasons, officers cannot predict how a suspect will act in a confrontation leading up to their arrest. The suspect could become violent in a matter of seconds, leaving the officers with a split-second decision to use deadly force. This decision could be life or death for the police officer. Police officers have just as much right to protect their lives as everyone else. I try to perceive myself as a police officer in a situation where I had to choose to use lethal force or face death at the hands of someone I have never wronged, but only have interaction with due to my job.
The work that police officers do is very complex. There are different rules and codes that they are supposed to follow in order to accomplish their job at their organization. Police officers present different behaviors while patrolling and in other areas of policing that creates many confrontations with the society as well inside their departments with co-workers and other people above them. In police departments exits different codes that police officers follow that many times create that police misconduct and police brutality stay under the rug, without been penalized. In the movie Fort Apache the Bronx it portrayed how police corruption, misconduct and unethical behavior were part of their daily work just because they followed certain codes
() The advantages of this solution is that police would be provided with more training than what they have now, and have experience as an apprentice so they really know how to handle certain situations. This will help to prevent further situations from happening, by given them more knowledge and experience in the field. However, if this practice was put into place, then many police officers would be unqualified and therefore would need more training. This may cost police more money to go back to school, and we still have to be able to keep the city
It’s a proven fact that police officers in the USA spend a great deal more time in firearm training when becoming a police officer than many other countries. Another fact that goes hand-in-hand with the previous one is that those same countries find themselves with substantially fewer police shootings and lower crime rates than the USA. One of the main causes behind police brutality is arrogance and whether they’ll admit it or not, it’s painfully obvious that there are many police officers in action today that see themselves as individuals that stand above the rules and moral standards of society simply because they have a badge and a
Problem-oriented policing, also known as operational strategies, have five core elements: preventive patrol, routine incident response, emergency response, criminal investigation, and problem solving. In addition to the five core strategies, there is also a lone ancillary operation strategy, support services. Law enforcement officers use this to help prevent crime by being pro-active and responding to calls. The first of the core operational strategies is the prevention patrol. Prevention patrol is an active response and most dominate operation of police strategy.
The public has a misconception that deadly force is the same thing as excessive force. They can be similar if the police use deadly force to a point where every officer discharges their entire magazine on person when the threat has been eliminated. Officers receive hours of training on how to shoot a gun, but sometime receive little instruction on how to determine when to use the gun. Training starts in the Police Academy, and continues throughout their careers. There are officers who teach and train the departments every month.
Police Brutality is an ongoing problem and existent concern in the United States and should be resolved immediately. Law enforcement must function as an element that consists of organized and civilized officers. The presence of police brutality is becoming more of an issue as society grows. The problem posed by the illegal exercise of police power is an ongoing reality for individuals of a disfavored race, class, or sexual orientation. Police brutality must be stopped so that police do not forget who they are serving – not themselves, but the public.
Many young people aspire to become police officers. However, not everyone is fit for the role as police work is extremely demanding both physically and mentally. In order to be effective in the job, a policeman should possess superb communication skills, extra-ordinary courage, excellent judgement, empathy, and a high degree of professionalism, to name a few. Choosing this career in law enforcement can be a quite challenging yet rewarding. If you aspire to join the police force, then you are bound to make a difference in your community as well as your own personal life.