Week 5 Discussion

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University of Maryland, University College *

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100

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Law

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Feb 20, 2024

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Uploaded by SZberry

The development of policing in the United States coincided with the development of policing in England (Morey, 2019). I was not able to find post requirements for my local city because most police departments go through the Basic Law Enforcement Academy (BLEA) which is Washington’s mandated training academy for all city and county entry-level peace officers in the state. The Basic Law Enforcement Academy is a 720-hour block course with 50 of those hours being the administrative hours. From their course syllabus, they state the officers will be learning subjects that include criminal law, criminal investigations, criminal procedures, crisis, firearms, defensive and control tactics, patrol tactics, and traffic. After looking through their course syllabus and through my law enforcement training, I believe two important trainings are consent searches/frisking and searching and the use of force. When it comes to searches, I have seen or read about police officers who have forgotten that depending on the escalation of a situation, a search is not always mandatory by the “suspect”. By that sentence, I am using an officer conducting an inspection for example. An inspection is a quick look around for any contraband or anything that does not promote good order and discipline. I have seen officers who are supposed to be conducting a quick inspection but go off the standards and end up conducting a full-on search of every single nook and cranny when there is so reasonable suspicion nor probable cause. Another example is when an officer is conducting a permissive search. When conducting a permissive search, the person being search can stop it at any time if they feel the need to and some officers will project the attitude that the search will be conducted through the end whether the person says stop. For the use of force category, a problem we see with the media today is that there are videos where the police officer will draw their gun on a call and people was comment about how that is an escalation of force and was not necessary. In my training experience and opinion, an officer drawing their gun/ just having it present does not immediately escalate to deadly force. It is still under the professional presence stage. It is to show that the firearm is present but does not need to be used. It does not escalate to deadly force until that firearm is discharged. Those two subjects I believe are the most important for police officers to remember as it can violate someone’s rights and can escalate to serious matters. Two training requirements I believe to be lacking is also the use of force category. After viewing the BLEA’s course syllabus, they only teach about use of force for only 6 hours throughout the whole 720-hour course which I believe to be a generously important subject to thoroughly teach. Another subject that is taught for a short amount of time that I believe should be touched on more is Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). This team is a qualified team that is taught to deal with emotionally disturbed person (EDP) and a member of the team must be called to the scene if the office is not CIT qualified. With society now, the EDT percentage of all people is around 50%. I believe all officers should be thoroughly trained to handle an EDP on any call. Most cadets who first go through training could be fresh out of high school or just generally lack social skills so that implies that CIT should be taught more thoroughly to make them ready for a call any day.

References: Morey, T. (n.d.). 6.1. Policing in Ancient Times . SOUCCJ230 Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System. https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/ccj230/chapter/5-1-history-of- policing/ Basic Law Enforcement Academy . Default. https://www.cjtc.wa.gov/training-education/blea

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