Chapter 5: Recruitment & Training for a Changing Society

What are the affect of training police like warriors?

1) Embodies Military style approach
2) "Us vs Them" mentality
3) Everything viewed as hostile & threatening
4) Become detached and separate from the community they serve
5) Training operates like a military academy or Boot Camp

Why is a Boot Camp training culture bad for policing?

1) Has little to do with the daily reality of policing, real policing involves assisting people in difficult situations, and try to resolve them often with no supervision
2) To much focus on "Physical Control Tactics & Weapons" and Not Enough on "Communic

What is beneficial about the Guardian Mentality?

1) Involve forming close relations with community
2) Promotes training & use of Deescalation
3) Insist use of force is a last resort unless completely needed upfront
4) Promotes problem-solving skills
5) More likely to obtain voluntary cooperation from me

Which mentality dominates policing & police training

Warrior Mentality

What is Necessary to "Make a good Cop"?

1) Proactive Recruitment
2) Higher Education
3) Realistic & Scenario-Based Training
4) Problem-Solving Training
5) Diversity Training
6) Tech Savvy Recruits
7) Homeland Security Programs & Strategies in Training

How to become a cop in the past?

Have the right political connections

How to become a cop today?

- Get educated
- Clean Record
- Drug Free
- Law Knowledge
- Official Training

What does a Career Perspective Promote?

- Promotes understanding of how police officers interact with law enforcement organizations
- Promotes hiring and retaining the best officers
- Encourages a supervisors to pay attention to officers at all stages of career

What do Stereotypes about Cops heavily influence?

Heavily influences the public image of:
1) Who police are
2) What the police believe
3) How the police behave

What are the 2 categories of police stereotypes?

Negative: promotes views that officers are poorly educated, untrained, prejudice, brutal, & corrupt
Positive: promotes vies that officers are heroic, saints, saviors, & risk takers who face hostility from the public/media/courts.

How do inaccurate stereotypes affect the police?

1) Affect the recruitment of new officers
2) Affects the polices' self-image & how they their job (Warrior Mentality

How are the Responsibility of the Personnel Hiring Process Shared

Shared among the Police Department & Civil Service Systems/City Personnel Department

What are the responsibility of the Civil Service System during the personnel hiring process?

1) Develop job descriptions
2) Establish Minimum Standards
3) Develop Test
5) Announce job openings
6) conduct test
7) certify officers to be hired/promoted

What are the responsibility of the Police Department during the personnel hiring process?

1) Advise Civil Service System on developing job description/requirements/test
2) Conduct recruitment
3) Conduct Test

What are the 4 separate elements of the recruitment process?

1) Establishing minimum qualifications
2) Recruitment Effort
3) Considering applicant's decision to apply
4) Screening Applicants & Selecting New Recruits

What are the Minimum Qualifications of becoming an officer

1) Age (Typically 21)
2) Height & Weight (Height non-existent, weight must be proportional to height)
3) Education: Most require some college
4) Criminal Record: Clean or Very Minor Record
5) Residency Requirement: No evidence the goes for or against resi

What are the benefits of a good recruitment effort?

- size & quality of applicant pool increases
- Specific groups can be targeted (promotes diversity)

What are the typical motivations to apply to become a officer?

1) Nature of Police work
2) Material benefits of the Job
3) Help People
4) Job Security
5) Crime Fighting
6) Job Excitement
7) Pretentiousness of Job

What are the obstacles of Recruitment?

Often African American (Racial Tension/Disparities), Hispanics (, & Women (Field is Male Dominated) face informal barriers that prevent their interest of wanting to apply

What do Section Test entail?

- They are test used to select a group of new recruits
- Test include: Written & Medical Exams, Background Check, & Finalist Oral Interviews
- Test are meant to examine: Judgement, Decision Making skills, Behavioral Flexibility, Job Motivation, Interperso

What do Oral Interviews typically entail?

- About 45 min
- 2 or 3 interviewers
- Can uncover wanted & unwanted qualities wanted in a officer
- Typically in a standardized format

Is it possible to predict the performance of officer

Studies suggest not through background characteristics (Race, IQ, Occupational History, Education, Criminal Record)
The only good factor to predict performance is recruit training score
Test like MMPI and CPI fall short for finding subtle abnormalities

What are the Goals of Diversity in Police Recruitment?

- Departments should reflect the community they serve
-Departments should engage in active efforts to promote diversity
-Equal Employment opportunity
-Diverse backgrounds will bring different perspectives & positively affect subculture
-Diverse department

What is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

It is unlawful for an employers "to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge and individual, otherwise to discriminate against any individual because of race, religion, sex, color, or national origin

What did the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act do?

Extended 1964 civil right act to the police

What is the 1990 Americans Disability act

prohibits discrimination against disabled persons

What are Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQs)?

Any requirement that is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business. (Ex: being able to drive cop cruiser)

Today departments are more diverse, only around 75% white today

...

What is the Equal Employement Oppurtunity Index (EEO)

Compares a police department's workforce with the racial and ethnic composition of the community it serves

With the Introduction of women into the police force, what were changes that had to be made?

- Separate locker rooms
- Hair Style Rules
- Pregnancy Policies
-1964 civil rights act gave women opportunity to equal responsibility
-Women today still under-represent to police force

What are problems today that prevent women from applying?

-Test that focus on physical upper body strength
- Discrimination (particularity sexual harassment) prevents women from applying or causes people resign
- Many departments hire from Military which is male dominated
- Some departments still emphasize a tra

What are the results of successful Discrimination Suits?

1) Result in direct benefit to plaintiff
2) Court order often given to eliminate discriminatory tests or procedures
3) Court Ordered affirmative action plan may be put in place for future recruiting

What is Affirmative Action?

The concept that an employer must take positive steps to remedy past discrimination
- required with all federal contractors or entities receiving federal funds

What does a Affirmative Action plan consist of?

1) Employer must conduct a census of current employment
2) Employers must identify under-utilization or concentration of minorities & women
3 Develop a recruiting plan to correct any under-utilization

What is Under-Utilization?

Having fewer minorites, or women in a particular job category than would reasonably be expected by their presence in the relevant labor market

What are the arguments against affirmative action?

1) Claims that Reverse Racism Occurs
2) Lowers personnel standards due to forced minority quotas

What is reverse discrimination?

The claim that recruitment quotas of minorities prevent white or male applicants officers from being hired

Do Affirmative Action Programs achieve their goals?

Tend to bring in more women to the applicant pool, but the overall impact with African Americans was minimal

What was the Impact of Increased Diversity in the Police Force

Significant & complex impacts on policing, that challenges the traditional white subculture of policing

What should police training be focused on?

- Should focus more on communication skills
- Should focus on training through out an officers career
- Should focus on replacing the Warrior Mentality
- Should focus on problem solving
- focus on deescalation
- scenario-based training
- procedural justic

What does police training begin with?

The police academy (recruits receive their introduction to policing)

Large departments vs small departments academy training

Large departments have their own academy
While smaller ones send their recruits to state academy's

What is the average length of pre-service training? What does the curriculum include? Who Requires it?

1400 hours which include both classroom & field training
Curriculum includes: human relations, domestic violence, responding to mental health crisis, etc
Most states require pre-service training

What are the basic functions of the Academy?

- Provide basic training on law
- teach polices on use of force
- arrest & booking procedures
- handling of domestic violence situations
- Weeds out recruits
- is a Rite of Passage

What does the training of Use of Force consist of?

Training focuses on use of force to much & not De-escalation or communication enough
(officers need to be professional, respect begets respect & vice versa

What is Tatical Decision-Making? What Stereotype does the challenge?

Promotion of officers to asses each situation & make the best decisions on how to handle the situation.
Challenges the traditional sterotype that officers have to make "Split Second Decsions"
Distance pluse cover equals time to communicate & make tatical

What is Scenario Based Training

Attempt to move away from lectures in the academy & instead us real life scenario examples to train
May be in the form of computer simulation or a person-to-person role playing scene
allows officers to interact with unfolding video scenarios and make judg

What are the issues of Fragmented & Inconsistent Training?

- Topics are presented in an unorganized & conflicting matter
- Often lacks consistency in use of force policy
-Inconsistent and Fragmented training, created poor officers, & leaves them liable to make serious mistakes as an officer

What are the consequences of inadequate training?

-Departments can be held liable for the Failure to Train
-Poorly designed direction can lead to officers making constitutional violations

Why should Unconscious or Implicit Bias be addressed in training

Helps prevent bias from occuring during field stops

What are the benifts of procedural justice?

Enhances the public's trust & confidence of the police
Core Elements:
-Officer Introduces Self
-Explains reason for stop
-Listens to citizen
-answers any questions

How does Field Training work? (FTO). How Long is the Training? How do FTO programs differ

about a 1/3 of all departments require field training
typically 14 weeks of field training, (16 weeks of classroom training)
Will typically train with 3 different Field Training Officers (FTOs). FTOs submit weekly evaluation reports
FTO programs differ in

What are In-service Training's meant for?

To provide refreshers to cops who have been on the job for a few years.
Important to have so people don't forget polices
Ex:
- Perishable Skill Training
- Advance Skill Training
- Training after Officer Involved Incident

What type of training do supervisors receive?

Today's Supervisors are told to hold their staff more accountable. Most are required to review reports & request additional information before passing the reports up the chain

What is the Probationary Period?

The period of time, typically 6 months to 2 years, after a recruit is hired on to the force in which they can be let go with out cause. After probation period, the recruit is protected by the Civil Service Regulations & the Police Union

What are the myth's of domestic violence that are incorrect?

1) There is only one type on domestic violence
- Intimate Terrorism
- Violent Resistance
- Situational Couple Violence
2) Domestic Violence is the same as other crimes
- Often involve special factors not
found in other crimes
3) Domestic Violence Issues a

How do you fix the myths of Domestic Violence in Policing

Domestic Violence training needs to be "Problem-Oriented", with an evidence-based picture of the different types of domestic violence, the risk associated with each one, and the proper response to the different types of incidents

Summary

The recruitment & training of police officers has changed since the 70s.
There are now more African Americans, Hispanics, Females, & College-Educated officers. Many old Discriminatory practices have been abolished.
Training of officers today is focused on