In Canada, Saskatoon police was notorious for taking Indigenous people to the edge of town and forcing them to walk back home, even in incredibly cold temperatures.
I talk on the boards a lot about the training in my industry (aviation). So if you’ll allow me to make an apples and oranges comparison, bearing in mind I’ve never worked in law enforcement…
Training amounts are one thing. Quality of training is quite another. But all of that pales to the prevailing culture of the industry, which drives training and how colleagues interact with each other when they’re doing their jobs.
There’s been a lot of talk about exporting aviation style Crew Resource Management to medicine, with mixed results. Checklist usage and “thread and error management” has helped reduce instances of gross error, such as amputating the wrong leg. But medicine has largely failed to implement a culture change in the way aviation did starting in the late 1970s. Doctors still have too much power to ignore co-workers, and their colleagues are still not empowered to speak up when they have concerns.
In aviation (at the professional level) we train at least every year, usually every six months. Crew Resource Management is woven into all our training, starting at the Private Pilot level. We are immersed in it. Though there are still pilots who aren’t “good” at it and make some basic mistakes, those people are few and far between. But even they would agree that CRM works - to deny it would go against all evidence and reality. CRM is successful because the culture had to change. Captains had to give up some (not all) of their power. They are no longer unquestioned deities.
So… law enforcement. As an outsider (and one whose interactions with police have been uniformly positive), I’d say police culture is a problem. It’s appears insular and often opposed to the public good. When George Floyd was killed I asked some of my friends in law enforcement: “There were five or six cops there. Not one of them thought to say, ‘Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be standing on that guy’s neck?’”
Their answer: “They were probably junior officers on the scene and were afraid to speak up.”
That’s a problem right there, and before it can be solved through training, the culture has to change. It’s not easy and I don’t have the right experience to help beyond explaining what works in my industry. But I’d sure like to see some positive movement on that.
As I understand it, especially (but not exclusively) in smaller towns/more rural districts. I periodically see instances where small town cops act improperly, and it appears they have previously bounced among other jurisdictions - probably ought not be cops.
IMO, the cops in my pretty low crime suburb have it pretty good. But you couldn’t pay me enough to be a cop in Chicago.
Another issue is - similar to teachers - cops are increasingly tasked with performing a multitude of functions in addition to law enforcement/crime prevention. They are expected to be social workers, handle mental health crises… Compounded by a reduction of funds/$ directed to non-LEO entities that might best address mental health issues or other contributing social dynamics.
Then, add in draconian sentencing, which magnifies the impact of wrongful convictions.
I have no idea as to solutions. But everytime I see the $ figure Chicago pays to settle - often on the same page as yet another budget deficit in another area, I wonder how can this continue?
Here there is a black list of people who have been dismissed, or resigned in questionable circumstances, and are not eligible for hiring by any other department.
Except you haven’t offered any evidence that that was actually the case. Only the speculation of someone who wasn’t there.
It’s entirely possible that the other officers thought he was across his shoulder blade and didn’t see he was on his neck. But I wasn’t there either so my speculation is no more or less valid Than your friends.
My state has trained “officer override” techniques for at least 2 decades. Not sure where it is that fits in here.
It’s fairly difficult to improve and/or increase training and change cultures when you don’t have anyone to train or change. The lack of qualified applicants is at critical mass in all positions of American law enforcement agencies big and small.
How often is it enforced?
Hence the word “probably”, which was the response from more than one of my friends in law enforcement. Call it speculation if you like, but the fact is the man WAS killed, the officer wasn’t merely across his shoulder blade and I think it’s perfectly fair for us with this hindsight to say someone should have spoken up.
You know, I gave all kinds of caveats in my earlier post: I’m not in law enforcement, I only know my industry… But I have to say, it seems like your first response is to be defensive. Defensive about an incident that ended up with a guy murdered by police. That sounds like a culture problem right there.
Again, I won’t pretend to be able to solve that problem, but I can sure as hell identify it. Just as the general public has the right to demand safety from the aviation industry, though others have the expertise to implement the solutions.
I’m sure that is an issue, but there are still many thousands of police officers. To me, you’re making an even more urgent case for changes within your field.
Might one factor be the size of the organisation?
Over here we have 43 police authorities in England Wales (and there is talk of merging into a dozen or so, mostly to optimise resources and reduce back-office duplication, but it must imply standardised training as well). Scotland merged all its local police forces into a single national organisation some years ago with mixed results.
Also we have a national College of Policing to develop and promote guidance on professional standards (I don’t claim it is as effective as it might be).
I don’t think I have seen it mentioned here, but law enforcement in the US has much more reason to anticipate armed adversaries than in Canada for example.
Canada scores very poorly in that Wikipedia list.
Well, about 25% of Met Police carry tasers, and most police carry PAVA spray- not to mention the expandable baton is quite a bit more than a “stick”. But "Armed police’ are usually a call away.
Two were still in training status- J. Alexander Kueng & Thomas Lane. However, they both actively helped Chauvin.
GUN armed adversaries, yes. Even in the UK knives are pulled on cops often enough they they are issued “stab-proof vests” (which if you are shot, and the gun is not high powered and you are lucky, have stopped bullets). But in the Met, if a gun is drawn by a perp, the police back off behind cover and call for armed police back up.
