Training of police officers is becoming increasingly difficult in a time of ever increasing budget cuts. Police training could help police to understand the significance they have in our society and how their actions affect us all. Training has been reduced and trimmed down to focus only on life and death self-defense skills that police may need in the worst case scenario situations. When all police are trained in is how to shoot and handcuff individuals, it is no surprise that these are the actions that are carried out most frequently on the job. An officer will always resort to a skill that they know.
To further demonstrate the issue, the state of Florida allocates just 67$ per officer, per year for training. a recent study found that the Justice Department has reduced grants to local police forces by 43 percent since 2010. This inadequate funding for police training leads police to acting out the things they are trained in. Those things are generally the violent self-defense that police are taught for life-threatening situations. In all probability police do not need to use their weapons as often as they do, but this is all they have been taught. The heart of the issue lies in the lack of funding to adequately prepare officers for non-violent altercations. Changing this could have massively positive impact in police encounters with all members of society.
Swarts, P. (January 13, 2015). Washingtontimes.com. Police Need Better Training and Community Relations, Presidential Task Force Is Told. Retrieved from http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/13/police-brutality-solutions-are-training-community-/?page=1
Excellent and scary commentary. It is true for all of us. Our job performance reflects the areas for which we have "training" in general and areas for which we must use in a crisis, in particular. Thus it makes sense that police would resort to aggressive self-defense. But $67 per office in FL? Astounding. People of color then have to deal with the "cost of doing business." What a system.
ReplyDeleteIt is not shocking to me that as a FL resident these numbers are ridiculously low. Each day, we hear about the injustice of FL officers and how they treat citizens. Where are all our tax dollars going? If training becomes more efficient, we can see change in the police force. I have even experienced mistreatment of cops plenty of times in FL. This issue should be raised to state government. Rick Scott continues to crumble the reputation of FL.
ReplyDeleteI loved the topic of this article because I remember commenting on watching one video on a Sheriff explaining the problem that had occurred. I hate that they are not being funded for these types of problems. Is it the state administration that is deciding how much money is allocated to certain police training topics? For your last sentence, who changes the funding issue?
ReplyDeleteI think we all agree that one solution is better, more realistic, police training that includes the police learning how to respond to every day life events without the use of force. That is one only piece of the criminal justice system. What about the legal system that is set up for the wealthy? What about the war on drugs that has targeted people of color? Sentencing disparities? Etc.
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot: what about the millions of people that think the criminal justice system is fair and most people caught up in the system are criminal and guilty?
ReplyDeleteGreat post - reading it made me think back to a two part episode of the radio program This American Life, called "Cops See It Differently." Part of this program talked about the defensiveness of the police to seeing their own biases and realizing that these biases drive their behaviors at times. There were some promising training approaches discussed in this program that helped officers see this. Here's the link to the general TAL website: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/
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