Slashdot Mirror
Police Training Lacks Scientific Input
An anonymous reader writes: Police have been under a microscope over the past year for their involvement in some high-profile shootings. We've heard over and over that police need more and better training to keep these incidents from happening, but the truth is that there's no good framework within law enforcement to base their training on actual science. Officers tend to teach from their own experience, and research into techniques for dealing with unpredictable people goes widely unnoticed. "Carl Bell, a psychologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago who has done key work on de-escalation with the mentally ill, said his attempts to introduce techniques to the Chicago police never got anywhere. 'There's no systematic incorporation of research.'" Nobody expects officers to consult an academic journal when they're facing down a hostile suspect, but science needs to be part of conversation we're having.
The cops there are a bit more civilized. They can take down people without killing them. If you want 'science', look closely at the kind of people who want to be cops. Try to find some that don't relish the power so much. The rest are just a bunch a classroom bullies. We should not be rewarding this behavior. And we need to disallow all the secrecy. We have to force open the books to ensure compliance. The cops here are problem because we treat them with excessive deference in an appeal to their authority. We need to remind them and the politicians that they are public servants.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
That's an assumption that'll get you killed.
Lots of cops playing army without as much danger of being actually shot at. Lots of forces operating as for-profit gangs that do whatever they want. They'll shout "stop resisting" as they de-escalate the situation with violence.
I'm not saying that there aren't any, or not even that most cops aren't good. But it doesn't take very many to poison a whole department, only a few in the higher ranks to run out the good cops.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
They'll shout "stop resisting" as they de-escalate the situation with violence.
Indeed. They've been caught, on video, tasering a non-responsive person in a diabetic coma for 'resisting', yelling all the while. Note, it's not just about 'resistance' today, it's about 'compliance'. IE you not only have to avoid resisting an officer, you have to be following their orders, sometimes beyond the best of your ability.
Another officer, female in this case, tasered a person into being a corpse, then shocked the corpse over a hundred times by the estimate of the coroner. When her training was examined, it was discovered that she had ZERO deescalation techniques, and no techniques OTHER than the taser to seek 'compliance'.
She was on video - "Put your hands behind your back" - Pause - SHOCK - "Put your hands behind your back".
Keep in mind that after about the third shock he wasn't resisting, he was non-responsive. He wasn't capable of complying.
I don't read AC A human right
Yes, it goes both ways, but we are supposed to expect better from the cops. Right or wrong their example will be noted and followed. And no cop has any right to compel anything from me, nothing at all, not even ID without just cause, which better be the first words coming out of his mouth. The people who don't see the forest for the trees are those who write off their bad behavior as just an 'isolated incident'. It is not isolated, it permeates all authoritarian systems where there is limited oversight. The so-called 'good cops' who remain silent are no damn good at all. It's a tough job, but nobody forces them to take it. Maybe we should change that, start conscripting people so we can get some good ones who know how to accept authority reluctantly and use it wisely. Right now we are just rewarding bullies.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Intimidation is a purposeful and deliberate tactic to gain compliance through fear of violence.
Everything about police is intimidating: the uniform, the car, driving tactics, visible weapons, approach and demeanor.
Here is an article delving into some of the psychology.
When the police approach you or pull you over there is always that fight or flight instinct that kicks in, even when you've done nothing wrong. Why? Because police are intimidating as hell and they have the power to either kill you or imprison you.
It is also contrary to the nature of the human male to submit: when you get pushed, you push back. This is why you see the backlash or attitudes from ordinary people against cops.
There is no profession without idiots; however in this profession someone is going to pay a heavy price for a mistake.