Are police academies doing a good job training future cops?

JulianWilliams

JulianWilliams

Active Member
I am wondering, are police academies doing a good job training future cops? We can see a lot of news in the media about cops losing their nerves when dealing with routine stuff like traffic stops. Are they well trained enough? Is the selection process thorough enough?
 
I think they are doing one of the best jobs and are quite happy doing it. I believe it is best to try and understand what can be done about a particular police academy and train them in the rightful manner. I think it is best that they follow the required guidelines of police academy.
 
I don't think that the academies are at fault. There is a lot of scaremongering by the media though, and cops are not immune to this. I can well imagine that if a cop isn't feeling too great about things anyway, they would be more susceptible to believing that there is the level of threat in the world which the media likes to make out there is. Decreased confidence could also lead to snap decisions, such as the decision to shoot, being made. This is more of a welfare issue though.
 
I think they are doing a fine job. There isn't all that much more that they could be doing. Some people are always going to be bad eggs that slip through the cracks and when its a police officer who is supposed to uphold the law and be without flaw the media are going to jump at the chance to expose any mistake that is made. Think about the number of police there are in the country and then think about just how many occurrences you hear about. There really aren't that many but the media will continue to report the same story for weeks if it involves a cop.
 
Seriously, a few months is really not enough training time and I think it brings a lot of problem with defusing tensions in conflicts with difficult people in the streets. Where I live, police training goes on two and a half year and they still consider that it's not enough...

And yet guess what, there are way less cases of police brutality and police scandals here than in the US.

That is not a coincidence, and even if the media makes police brutality "bigger than it is", you can still go back to the facts and see that it is quite a lot of trouble. Also, it's possible to have footage of incidents on Youtube that never gets to the media.

So more training and education about how to deal with conflicts is obviously making a better cop.

And as I said, even here, they say there is a lot they could improve on.

But so many people are so quick to come to the defense of police officers doing wrong things --

there is a difference between an honest mistake and a bad attitude and shortcomings.

I was impressed by a lot of cops I met, by the way. Just in case someone has the weird idea that I'm hating on all cops. I'm not. I'm just not going out of my way to be peppy and ignoring the problems we have.
 
So far, I think they are doing good. I do have a friend who just got out of the academy and he told me that the training was really very rigid. He learned a lot and he even shared me some of the things he learned and I have to say that I was impressed.
 
musicmonster said:
So far, I think they are doing good. I do have a friend who just got out of the academy and he told me that the training was really very rigid. He learned a lot and he even shared me some of the things he learned and I have to say that I was impressed.
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I had the same response from a couple friends who just passed State Trooper exams. They also said it differs based on what academy or training they'll provide. In this state, it's state regulated. Not sure about other peoples' states.
 
I would argue that the academy serves merely as the starting blocks, as it were, for a career in law enforcement. Good to ensure a strong beginning, but not comparable to years of experiences in a wide variety of situations. The range of domestics, fights, crimes, and all their variables could not be duplicated in a limited training program. In addition, ongoing mentoring, whether formal or informal, from more experienced officers would also be invaluable.
 
The academy cannot be held responsible for the things an individual may do wrong in the line of duty. Now, can the police academy as a whole be a better institution? Absolutely, but that takes time & effort. Every educational institution can be improved upon. There no real sense of urgency to do so. Which explains why it doesn't get done. Too difficult to point fingers at the police academy for what an individual may do.
 
I think that police academies do a great job training police officers, but the preparation continues after the academy and sometimes needs political support as well, it's a complex way up to the top.
 
I think the training is ok but it seems like the police judgement is in question sometimes on the streets. Justified shootings are fine, but the one's that are questionable comes from a lack of good judgement. And that is an individual problem.
 
That has to be connected with the personality of the police officers and not the training. Well, I am expecting that judgement is trained too, but some things are learned only with experience.
 
Police academies probably do the best they can given that they have less than six months to mold an ordinary citizen to a law enforcer. Since they are expected to learn everything else on the job, if work with veteran cops who've been used to doing things a certain way then obviously they'll adopt this style as their own. The cumulative effect of that [failure to teach new officers the right way to deal with those they should serve and protect] has only just began to be felt.
 
Everyday we see something on the news. I would not blame the police academy for how some of these future cops behave. The academy teaches some of the basic skills for the next in line police officers to use so they can go and police the laws that we have created in this country.
 
I do believe that they are doing a very good job and are very considerate on what exactly must be done. I believe that the job of training young people to become a police officer is a really great one. I think it's quite wonderful.
 
I think they are doing a wonderful job of training the future cops. The job is worth talking about and is definitely advisable. I do believe that it is quite great.
 
Yes I do believe they are doing a good job training the future people. I think they them selves are well trained to do the job.
 
I don't have a reason to think otherwise. I mean, they have years of experience, but at the same time they do need to adjust for some new realities. I think that is accounted for though.
 
shilpa123 said:
Yes I do believe they are doing a good job training the future people. I think they them selves are well trained to do the job.
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I found out that the NYPD were retraining their officers to use techniques not related to the chokehold. Seeing that the NYPD is taking this step is the right thing for the department.
 
Police academies shouldn't be blamed for the wrong behaviors and actions of the cops. I think they have already done their job/duty of training these cops, it's now in the hands of those cops whether they're going to apply all those things they have learned in the academy or not.
 
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