"At least 30 states let some newly hired local law enforcement officers hit the streets with a gun, a badge and little or no training."
That's a scary thought. It's no wonder why in some areas everyone gets pulled over even if they are sober. According to this article on MSNBC these states allow a certain grace period for these untrained officers before they're sent to the police academy. The idea is to have this be a "try-out" period to see if that particular person will be worth the thousands of dollars of training. Well, I'm not sure about you, but I don't want untrained rookies on the streets to protect the public. The article even has examples of the negative things that happened with untrained officers:
"Four months into his job, a police officer in Mississippi holds a gun to the head of an unarmed teenager and puts him in a chokehold."
Fortunately, New York (which is where I live) doesn't have untrained officers on duty, and it appears that much of the larger states like California and Texas don't offer grace periods as well. But it's still scary to think that at least thirty other states allow it: http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Art/USNEWS/070305/AP_UNTRAINED_POLICE.gif
Whatever happened to protecting the greater good of the people? Wouldn't it be safer to have trained officers on the streets protecting us rather than a bunch of untrained ones that have no clue what they're supposed to do? This is our safety we're talking about here; money should not matter if it's the public's safety that is at stake!
hey thanks for sharing this article. there are so many things wrong with the way force is implemented in this country and it really does make me feel really afraid that there are people policing without any license! that's ridiculous! how could someone be given that authority without the proper training? i'm just as appalled as you are. i hope this article is spread more widely and something is done to change this.
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your Berlin walls will not conquer me.
Wow, thanks for sharing. These people definetely shouldn't be out on their own. If they are constantly supervised it seems like a tolerable program, but unsupervised they are just random punks with guns. There are very clear legal boundaries that officers need to operate in (ok, not always terribly clear) and someone who is ignorant of those standards is going to cause a lot of problems.
Unsupervised, untrained cops likely highly overestimate their powers. Not only can this ruin investigations, but it can endanger citizens who are only standing up for their rights. I imagine these officers resort to violence faster and are much quicker to anger than a well-trained officer. Maybe that is why there are so many bad cops in Nevada.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memor mori, mahalo.
This sound like one of the worst ideas around because untrained police can get hurt, hurt others or cause lots of unneeded bad blood between their force and the people that should be protected. Luckily for me in my state, Florida, it said that a new officer has to attend the first available training class but the one thing that bothers me is that the map didn't mention if they hit the streets while they wait.
I am agree with you. Why send out a force that could possibly threaten the lives of citizens? The brutality that you gave an example of - a teenager being attacked without regard to his/her safety - is another issue that should be addressed.
What tactics and and social dynamics are these acadamies training would-be officers with? Are they teaching them to assault people arbitrarily, even when they are not physically resisting arrest? These are the reasons why the public tends to not trust the police at all; they are as aggressive and as brutal as the more dangerous criminals that are captured and incarcerated.
Perhaps using more effective strategies would allow more cooperation from the public, especially the witnesses that follow the "no snitching" rule, by questioning the person and only using physical force if the charged/arrested/and criminals are a physical threat at all. At any rate, the training for new officers better be good, otherwise, our tax payers money is going to waste, and our public safety will still remain either inadequate, or, at worst, the police are not doing their jobs effectively enough to prevent criminals and potential criminals from repeating their crimes and going through with their offenses.
A.C.S.
Hopefully, states where they're now giving cops assault weapons like AR-15s aren't allowing these guys to just run around with them untrained.
This should not be happening because we need trained individuals out there protecting the streets.
I agree that there shouldn't be untrained police officers on duty because they might not know how to be a police officer, especially if they never took courses in Criminal Justice, before.