Police need to know law basics to do their job. At least for criminal areas. I don’t think they know much about civil lawsuits.
I assume it varies by department but do they spend 20% of training time on learning laws? 10%?
I figure they must spend at least some time on learning to deal with mentally ill people since they run into that issue more than the average person.
I instruct at a police academy and about 10% of the 22 week academy is spent covering criminal law, that is to say the actual criminal statutes in my state. The recruits get additional time on arrest, search and seizure; use of force, criminal investigation (including search warrants & subpoenas), testifying in court and court rules and rules of evidence. I’d say those make up another 5-10% of the academy.
The recruits do get instruction on dealing with the mentally ill. IIRC its about 16 hours. I recently saw a statistic (sorry, no cite) that 6% of all suspects have a serious mental illness and 20% are “impaired” due to mental illness or alcohol/drugs. I would have though it was much higher than that for alcohol/drugs but I’m not sure how “impaired” was defined in the study or how they determined that number.
We also have to do 24 hours of inservice training every year (at least here we do. It used to be 40 but for some reason it got booted down to 24). The training varies but there are some subjects that are mandatory:
*Legal updates of new laws, rulings, etc. 4 hours every year
*First responder 4 hours every other year
*DAAT 4 hours every year
*EVOC 4 hours every other year
*Pursuit driving (separate from EVOC) 4 hours every other year
*Firearms qualification. State mandates once per year, some agencies do more.
Whatever time is left from the mandatory stuff is filled with different topics.
Many officers do the training in blocks spread throughout the year. I just go to the academy and take the 3 day course and get all done with.
Many officers find the legal update training boring but I find it interesting.
DAAT??? (Drug & Alcohol Testing, maybe?)
EVOC???
Sorry :o
Defensive And Arrest Tactics
Emergency Vehicle Operation Course
Not every agency around the country calls it those.
related topic:
I hear about cops needing to pass a test to get promoted. Is that just in big cities? And no matter how well you do, you don’t get promoted if you don’t pass the test?
Depends on the agency. When I was full time I didn’t have to take a test to get promoted to detective. But to get promoted to Sergeant I may have had to. Doesn’t matter. A Sheriff can promote anyone he wants with more leeway than a police chief has because it’s an elected constitutional office and not an appointed one.
Remember also, there is a ton of politics and cronyism in this field. So even if there are tests to be taken the powers that be can get around it if they want someone in a certain position.