Quote:
Originally Posted by Tree Potato
"Can" vs. "should" is a tough concept for a lot of people. Anyone in a position of authority needs to understand the difference and act appropriately, otherwise they're part of the problem.
Are LEO recruiting efforts aimed more at those who do things because they can, vs. recruting those who consider whether they should?
And what about LEO training? Do the various police academies put much effort into educating new officers on using discretion? Just because an officer can do something legally doesn't mean they should. It seems many interactions with the public lean more toward muscle and intimidation than critical thinking and being a part of the community, which only deepens the us vs. them divide.
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Recruiting efforts around here go two ways, either you apply with a department and they make the effort in trying to vet you, or you self sponsor the academy. If you self sponsor you are 100% guaranteed a job upon graduation unless you a purely a dirtbag (happened to two in my class, they will never be working in law enforcement) because A) it's cheaper to hire a self sponsor then to pay to send a guy and B) it shows you can take initiative.
A good number of departments have civil service tests one has to pass in order to be hired as well as background checks and in some cases psychological evaluations.
On the subject of training, it verys from academy to academy. I chose to self sponsor the best academy in my state, it is CALEA certified (the only one in the state) and has an awesome staff. Our instructors teach critical thinking along with a metric ton of other information, but, the academy is only 11 weeks (480 hours) that's just not enough time to teach everything or even 10% of what you need to know in this careerfield. To make matters worse, departments around here are mostly poor, thus for a lot of guys the academy is the only training they will ever get. For you military guys, think it like going to basic, and then being assigned as what ever your MOS is having never been to AIT and receiving little to no upgrade training once you get to your unit. The few departments that can get up the money for some training try to focus on skills that improve an officers ability to survive a lethal encounter. Sure some departments can occasionally get free training offered to them, but this is usually few and far between.
Thus if your department isn't offering the training your only option is to seek it yourself, but then you have the crowd that is either to lazy to do it or like a lot of guys, just don't have the money or time (wife, kids, bills, working 120 hours in 2 weeks as well as a second or third job etc) and what little time they have they just want to rest or spend it with family.