In the past few weeks, the nation has seen an alarming amount of instances where law enforcement has broken the law in its interactions with protestors. This is ironic since those that are sworn to enforce the law are the ones breaking it. It makes the situation doubly ironic when the protestors who are being subject to police brutality are protesting just that – police brutality. It’s sad to see law enforcement make the case against itself. While some interactions are racially motivated, there are others that have nothing to do with race. I believe that, more often that not, officers encounter situations outside their job descriptions and training.
Imagine a scenario where peaceful protestors airing grievances aren’t met with police in riot gear riding in military vehicles (which would escalate a peaceful situation) but are met by a mediator, trained in solving complex problems between hostile parties.
Force is not the right tool for many situations. It’s like law enforcement has been trained to see things as though a square peg will fit into all the different shapes on the toy. The issue is, the toy has various different shapes that require skills officers don’t possess. One shape could be mental illness, another suicide prevention, while another could be a domestic dispute. All of these require the right shape or you end up trying to force the square peg into the round hole. The truth is, this is insanely unfair to the public and to law enforcement.
Officers Aren’t Equipped to Handle Certain Situations
The Academy, a police training organization lists their curriculum and hours required to graduate from their program. Cadets attend the academy for a total of 888 hours. This breaks down to twenty two 40-hour weeks of learning. In other words, cadets go to school from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. 5 days a week for 5 and a half months. https://theacademy.ca.gov/fire – The Academy, South Bay Regional Public Safety Program.
Topics of learning include; Criminal Law, Patrol Procedures, Cultural Diversity, Investigative Procedures, Report Writing, Defensive Tactics, Firearms, Leadership, Ethics, Community Policing, Police Vehicle Operations, Traffic Enforcement, Accident Investigation, Handling Emotional Situations and First Aid/CPR as well as physical conditioning requirements. Knowing that officers in this region of California learn about Cultural Diversity, Ethics and Handling Emotional Situations is heartening. It’s not clear how much of their 5 and a half months are dedicated to those subjects. And it’s worth noting that very few of the training subjects include skills like; De Escalation Tactics, Alternative Dispute Resolution (Mediation), Negotiation Strategies, Mental Health and First Amendment Rights or Dealing with Racism.
My point in discussing what officers study isn’t to highlight their lack of ability or knowledge. It’s to show that their education doesn’t equip them to solve the problems that they are often tasked with solving. The main job of a police officer is to enforce the law. To enforce is to “cause to happen by necessity or force” and again we see that force is included in their basic job functions. Unfortunately societal demands for help with mental health, addiction and domestic disputes have been remedied by a police force expanding its training by necessity. But these situations are not their job.
Law Enforcement Training vs. Industry Professionals
To become a clinical psychologist, you will need an undergraduate degree (four to five years of college) plus a doctorate degree (four to seven years of graduate school). For this specialty area, most people will spend between eight to 12 years in higher education.
Police officers receive 5 and a half months of training before entering the public to deal with the mentally ill.
Social workers need a license and at least a bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, sociology, or a related field, though a master’s degree is required for clinical positions.
Police officers receive 5 and a half months of training before entering the public to deal with the downtrodden and domestic disputes.
A doctor who has been specially trained and certified to help within the complex case of someone who is addicted to any substance must have the following education and/or certification: A Bachelor’s degree focused on entrance into medical school, medical school, residency, fellowship and Addiction medicine certification through the American Society of Addiction Medicine.
Police officers receive 5 and a half months of training before entering the public to deal with those that deal with addictions and substance abuse.
To qualify for general appointment as a court-connected mediator, a person must be licensed to practice law in the state for not less than five years and have completed a minimum of 40 classroom hours of training in mediation by an approved individual or organization.
Police officers receive 5 and a half months of training before entering the public to deal with hostile people in emotional disagreements with each other.
The call to “Defund the Police” is a misnomer (and it could use a better title). I don’t want to live in a society where drunk drivers are free to self-discipline. Or where robberies and crimes go unsolved and unpunished. The police are a necessary function of a society with laws. I don’t want to defund the police, I want to add to their ranks by shifting the priorities of law enforcement’s budgets. Instead of investing in more and more military-style weapons, vehicles and training that reinforce a culture of the “square peg” of force, I would invest in clinical psychologists, negotiators, mediators, de escalation specialists, addiction specialists and mental health professionals.
I’ve worked with law enforcement professionals, know many personally and respect our local sheriff, Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea. There are honest, law-abiding officers who just want to go out and do their jobs and then return safely to their families. I’m sure there is nothing they dread more than getting a call of a 5150 (mental health call) that they are going to have to go deal with. And it isn’t something they should have to deal with. There should be a trained psychologist employed by the police force that can show up with another officer where they can leverage years of education, training and experience. As a society, who do we want responding to a mental health scenario? An officer with a gun, trained in force, or a psychologist with years of experience and education?
Law enforcement officers making difficult and inevitably incorrect decisions in situations where they should never have been in the first place is not going away. Law enforcement has killed almost 1,000 unarmed citizens every year for the past 5 years. We’ve increased budgets and have increased militancy all with no effect. When such a shooting happens the effects are felt by so many families – not just those of the officer and victim. These consequences are too egregious not to address. We cannot have a “one solution fits all” attitude with problems that require teams of specialists.
Let’s “defund the police” and let officers get back to enforcing the law and allow specialists to handle the societal problems that don’t require force. It’s time to match the right tool with the right problem.