Traditional Training in Police Academy - Research Paper Example

?Police Academy Training Most police officers did not receive any formal training at all before the past few decades. The political era (spanned fromthe 1840s through the early 1900s) saw officers recruited informally and it was characterized by “watchman” style policing. Any training that recruits received was left to seasoned police officers in the field. However, training varied widely by state, agency and budget, and most recruits were still insufficiently prepared for police work (Alpert and Dunham, 1997). The focus of the traditional training was on physical activities, including firearms training, then physical training, as well as defensive tactics and driving. It also included knowledge in areas such as law, traffic enforcement, officer safety and arrest procedures. Somewhat neglected areas were those of communications, problem solving, police-community relations, and diversity-the areas of which new era sees the importance. Training is now considered to be one of the key elements necessary for community policing to reach its full potential (King and Lab, 2000) Community-oriented policing, or shorter-COPS, is currently touted by academicians and practitioners (to be able to answer to crime and solve police-community conflicts) and financially supported by the federal government, enabling COPS to be a well-funded government program. However, training of police officers has yet to receive much attention. Police training is relatively a new phenomenon, even though COPS existed since the 1980s both in theory and practice. From the historical point of view, training of police officers doesn’t quite keep up with policing practice, with no exception of training in COPS. The responsibilities of police officers under COPS differ and the training programs do not focus enough on causes of crime and disorder and crime prevention; by traditional training, officers are prepared for a narrow focus on law-enforcement duties instead of focusing on more generalist approach entailed by community. Recruits spend 90% of their training time on driving, firearms, self-defense, first aid, as well as some other use-of-force tactics, even though only 10% of their duties will maybe put them in positions to need to use these skills. Some jurisdictions base their basic recruit program on a Job Task Analysis (JTA) to be able to ensure that what is done on the job is reflected by the training. However, JTA often focuses on what has been done on the job and not on what needs to be learned to be able to do the job better or to prepare new officers for community policing. Training is adapting to community policing very slowly and what makes this transition especially difficult is the conflict values between traditional (reform) policing and the current one. The purpose of community policing training is to help officers to be able to solve problems and employ community engagement techniques every day while they are working. The recruit academy is a very important part of occupational socialization for police officers, and for that reason training centers should teach the philosophy of COPS during the recruit training. If they do not receive a proper training, officers will be less likely to understand the philosophy of COPS and, therefore, they will not be able to translate the philosophy into effective practice. The fact that policing shifted toward community relations and problem solving leads to COPS’ improved knowledge and additional skill, but doesn’t exclude the need for traditional skills. The skills that are needed for COPS will not become second-nature if comprehensive training in the theories and methods of community-oriented policing are not provided. This means that recruits must understand the values of community-oriented policing (e.g. building trust within the neighborhood), and also the skills that are needed for the community-oriented policing to be conducted. (Eck and Spelman, 1987). Those who promote the innovative training programs recognize the need of police recruits to learn the traditional skills of policing, such as officer safety, marksmanship, etc. however, they need a comparable amount of training in subjects like communications, diversity and problem solving. The police academy is a regional, non-residential training center where police officers can receive recruit and in-service training, corrections personnel, and Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT). This academy includes an agility course, physical training areas, a firing range, vehicle driving range and several temporary classrooms. For each basic recruit class (BRC) there is a class coordinator who is responsible for setting the schedule and overseeing recruit conduct, as well as other issues. Many full-time instructors are employed by the training center along with “adjunct” instructors from local agencies, such as police and sheriff’s agencies, who teach courses in their specialty area. According to the literature, better decisions come from more educated recruits who are more sophisticated problem solvers and communicators if we compare them to their less-educated counterparts. (Worden, 1990) It is suggested by the sociological theories that although formal training is important to behavioral outcomes, equally significant is the informal content of academy experience. Similarly, it has been shown by the research that the effectiveness of the COPS highly depends on the instructor, their endorsement of the COPS philosophy in particular. These instructors are usually veteran officers who may sometimes have too intensified and strong internalized definitions about traditional policing, struggling to accept the ideals of COPS. Senior police officers after spending a large amount of time practicing traditional policing during their policing years often feel more comfortable teaching the recruits what they know. Researches suggests that the instructors should be “on board” with COPS to actually be able to be good COPS trainers, because if the instructors do not believe in the COPS philosophy, neither will the recruits. Police training serves a number of purposes, such as orienting the person to his or her job position, indoctrinating the person to identify with the organization and believe in its goals and objectives, and transferring the skills and knowledge necessary to do the job. Furthermore, it standardizes procedures, increases efficiency, build confidence in the person since critical tasks can be practiced and mastered in learning situations. Moreover, it improves safety and helps assure survival and finally yields other benefits like morale and discipline. It is of great importance to appreciate the complexity of these purposes of training because they go beyond the simple notion of learning how to do the job- it helps the recruits understand the various objectives of the training experience and not be narrow minded in terms of what is expected of them. “Training provides the standards by which conduct is measured and judged acceptable” (James Andrew Conser, Gregory D. Russel, Rebecca Paynich). What is related to the concepts of conduct and discipline are issues of morality, ethics, democratic values, the public interest, etc. The point is that these complex relationships between these concepts are missed or not properly specified when training and education are presented and seen as two different processes. There are a number of acceptable methods of instruction, according to those being taught it can be group or individual, interesting or boring, etc. However, the method of instruction alone does not ensure successful learning of course objectives. Officers must be able to apply learned concepts to field situations, analyze behavior and motives of subjects while evaluating truthfulness of statements, gather pieces of information and synthesize them for meaning and development of inferences, probable cause or other conclusions. There are also many different kinds of types of training in law enforcement with training being an on-going process in an officer’s career. Laws change with new ones being added and a chance of the Supreme Court modifying existing police procedure that does not conform to constitutional standards, and better ways of accomplishing tasks are developed, often through new technology. Consequently, it is required that new information be conveyed to current officers. Firstly, what has to be mentioned is that there is no single authority that has defined these different types of training. The universal training of recruits is a recent development in the US and even though police academies date back to the early 1900s. it was not until the late 19550s and 1960s that mandatory minimum training standards were adopted by the most states. “ In 1959, Califonia and New York established their commissions on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) for the purpose of establishing minimum training and selection criteria” (James Andrew Conser, Gregory D. Russel, Rebecca Paynich). Only two states do not have an office (that oversees the certification and/or licensing of peace officers) that has legislative authority to establish state minimum standards for law enforcement personnel. The training hours for the recruits vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and there is a different state mandatory minimum of training hours for the states of New York, California and Ohio. The topics addressed in a basic training academy are numerous, even more when tha sub-topics are totaled. Field training consists of on-the-job instructions that are formalized and given by specially selected and trained personnel called Field Training Officers (FTOs) usually immediately after a recruit completes the classroom portion of basic training (which normally lasts from 10 to 15 weeks). The recruit is assigned to one or more FTOs for a number of weeks, or sometimes for up to a year. In case any weakness is found in the recruit’s performance, they must undergo remedial training and if successful, the recruit can move on to a solo assignment. However, not all departments have formal FTO programs, but most of them do have some type of orientation or “break-in” period that involves others. In-service training is necessary to keep up with changes in the criminal procedures and it refers to training received by officers following their recruit training. This type of training is usually done at the department’s facilities and may be while on-duty. Advanced or specialized training refers to those sessions that address specialty topics or material that is an extension or a more enhanced version of what was received at basic academies. This type of training allows officers to specialize in selected areas of the field and these courses can range from one day to three weeks. Executive and Managerial Training focuses on administrative decision making or supervision skills and issues. This type of training courses address subjects as leadership, budgeting, media relations, etc. Bibliography *Trojanowicz, R. and Belknap, J. (1986), Community Policing: Training Issues. The National Center for Community Policing, The National Neighborhood Foot Patrol Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. *Trojanowicz, R.C. and Bucqueroux, B. (1990), Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective,Anderson, Cincinnati, IL,. *King, W.R. and Lab, S.P. (2000), “Crime prevention, community policing, and training: old wine in new bottles?”, Police Practice and Research, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 241-52. *Alpert, G.P. and Dunham, R.G. (1997), Policing Urban America, Waveland Press, Lake Zurich, IL. *Conser, James Andrew; Russell, Gregory D.; Paynich, Rebecca (2005-04-07). Law enforcement in the United States. Jones & Bartlett Learning. . Read More