Rethinking Police Training

[Nice Squirrel]

https://www.minnpost.com/community-...raining?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The fact is policing is not especially dangerous, compared to say, work in logging or construction, or driving a taxi, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the 2000s, crime has declined and with it the risk of line of duty deaths. Indeed, police officers are many times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by a criminal. But instructors teach what they know (or were themselves taught), perpetuating the 1990s “warrior” culture of policing that paints police officers as soldiers at “war” with crime, drugs, and criminal gangs. This, in turn, contributes to implicit biases that associate danger with young black men and reinforce the myth of the “righteous kill,” thus shootings that were most likely avoidable.

Officers are conditioned to view every encounter as a potential deadly force incident. Admittedly, it’s a reasonable expectation in a conceal carry state like Minnesota. Not every Minnesotan is armed, but potentially they are.

Discuss

 

[prideandfall]

https://www.minnpost.com/community-...raining?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The fact is policing is not especially dangerous, compared to say, work in logging or construction, or driving a taxi, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the 2000s, crime has declined and with it the risk of line of duty deaths. Indeed, police officers are many times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by a criminal. But instructors teach what they know (or were themselves taught), perpetuating the 1990s “warrior” culture of policing that paints police officers as soldiers at “war” with crime, drugs, and criminal gangs. This, in turn, contributes to implicit biases that associate danger with young black men and reinforce the myth of the “righteous kill,” thus shootings that were most likely avoidable.

Officers are conditioned to view every encounter as a potential deadly force incident. Admittedly, it’s a reasonable expectation in a conceal carry state like Minnesota. Not every Minnesotan is armed, but potentially they are.

Discuss

the idea that our culture views black people in such a way that murdering them directly in the fucking face is a first-line option to ANYBODY, cops or no, and that you can condition this response out of a quasi military organization with on-the-job-training is kind of hilarious.

 

[ksen]

Maybe they can jigger the 80+hours firearms training and around 6 hours descalation training ratios a bit?

 

[Deepak]

Maybe they can jigger the 80+hours firearms training and around 6 hours descalation training ratios a bit?

I'm generally suspicious of simple one-sentence solutions to complex problems, but this is really a 'no duh' situation.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Maybe they can jigger the 80+hours firearms training and around 6 hours descalation training ratios a bit?

Things usually go down too fast for deescalation training to make a difference.

 

[ksen]

And I guess it's too far out there to think that the sparse deescalation training has anything to do with "things usually going down too fast?"

 

[whichphilosophy]

https://www.minnpost.com/community-...raining?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The fact is policing is not especially dangerous, compared to say, work in logging or construction, or driving a taxi, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since the 2000s, crime has declined and with it the risk of line of duty deaths. Indeed, police officers are many times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by a criminal. But instructors teach what they know (or were themselves taught), perpetuating the 1990s “warrior” culture of policing that paints police officers as soldiers at “war” with crime, drugs, and criminal gangs. This, in turn, contributes to implicit biases that associate danger with young black men and reinforce the myth of the “righteous kill,” thus shootings that were most likely avoidable.

Officers are conditioned to view every encounter as a potential deadly force incident. Admittedly, it’s a reasonable expectation in a conceal carry state like Minnesota. Not every Minnesotan is armed, but potentially they are.

Discuss

Research is required. This means going through as many cases as possible where shootings or force or excessive force was used. In some cases, there may well be over reactions from individual officers. Wrong perceptions are more difficult to pin down. A person may reasonably perceive there was danger, even though it turned out there was no danger.

In the Philando Castile case the Officer concerned Jeronimo Yanez is saying that he 'reacted to the gun whereas the girlfriend said Philando was reaching for his wallet. The investigation in this case has the burden of determining what happened or what is most likely to have happened. Each case will be different. However, he shot 4 times in a row which may indicate some loss of control on his part. Could he have bee more quick or forceful to tell Philando to let go of what he had in his hand, put his hands up and step outside the car.

Construction can be a dangerous job, but some oil and gas companies offshore have achieved zero fatal or serous injuries on major projects, management and associated safety procedures are an issue. One modern method is for everyone who visits a construction area to write any observations of risks to safety. Safety is tied to quality of workmanship, thus this is a management issue. Another issue is that in countries like Hong Kong, is where any accidents incurred by subcontractor staff, the main contractor will be held liable also.

Perhaps taxi drivers require bullet proof glass behind them and on the side of them in the front seat. In many countries they have wire mesh. For UK black cabs, no one sits in the the front seat.

Back to police work, there may also be problems with the perceptions of danger rather than clearly an observable picture of what is happening. This could be a fault in analysis of what is happening where training needs to be reviewed. In some instances there may be some phobia about African-Americans or others that could cloud his perceptions.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

https://www.minnpost.com/community-...raining?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


Discuss

the idea that our culture views black people in such a way that murdering them directly in the fucking face is a first-line option to ANYBODY, cops or no, and that you can condition this response out of a quasi military organization with on-the-job-training is kind of hilarious.

I am also cynical about this. Do people even have the self-awareness, though, that this is culturally taught to us?

 

[Valjean]

More appropriate psych testing.
Screen out the authoritarians (high RWA scores) before admission to the police academy.

 

[repoman]

Hey, what about training civilians not to give too much shit to cops? More respect all around.

Their is also one thing that should added is that cities need to very quickly get off using police as revenue raisers via fines and property seizure. I swear if a cop took my property like a car I would have vivid, detailed fantasies of killing him for months and months. If you steal from me and I have no legal recourse, you need to die.

I hope some cops are killed over that and then we can get together as a nation. If the right people are killed a lot of good things can happen. Maybe more states like New Mexico would do this:

Meanwhile, New Mexico has become the second state to effectively eliminate the use of civil forfeiture and seizure by law enforcement. The state legislature passed and Governor Susana Martinez signed House Bill 560, which is designed to curb the practice. It still will allow the criminal forfeiture of property, although that legal barrier is much higher for the government.

A well-known critic of seizure hailed the bill as a victory for property rights.

“This is the first time in decades that a state legislature has taken the bold but necessary step to put an end to the perverse financial incentive in civil forfeiture laws,” Scott Bullock, the attorney in charge of the Institute for Justice’s battle against the practice, stated in a press release. “Thankfully, Governor Martinez and the New Mexico legislature recognized that no one should lose their property without being first convicted of a crime.”

 

[fast]

More appropriate psych testing.
Screen out the authoritarians (high RWA scores) before admission to the police academy.

Or screen in authoritarianism into the culture that young black men are apart of.

 

[laughing dog]

More appropriate psych testing.
Screen out the authoritarians (high RWA scores) before admission to the police academy.

Or screen in authoritarianism into the culture that young black men are apart of.

Posting drunk again?

 

[fast]

Or screen in authoritarianism into the culture that young black men are apart of.

Posting drunk again?

I sorries

 

[whichphilosophy]

Posting drunk again?

I sorries

You actually did make a reasonable point. Police who have a conflict of interest (e.g. white racist, violent past or part of a extremist Afro-American group who shot the police recently) should obviously be barred.