The recent spate of officer-involved shootings has caused outrage in the community and embarassed police forces across the country. That embarassment has led some law enforcement agencies to re-examine the way they train officers and search for ways to eliminate these instances from occurring in the future. The LAPD, for example, has decided to institute a re-training program for all of their officers that is designed to emphasize “de-escalation” in certain scenarios.
The training was first suggested last year, after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, though a recent incident in South LA brought the re-training to the top of the LAPD’s priority list. The training will begin with a 5-hour course that will include topics such as
- Building trust with the community
- Use of force and “de-escalation” techniques, including creating distance between the subject and the officer and trying to buy time for back-up
- Identifying and approaching the mentally ill
- Basic laws of arrest, such as probable cause and reasonable suspicion
All of these topics are already taught to officers, though LAPD officials feel that a more in-depth course may be required to refresh officers’ memories and to reinforce proper procedure. The training is set to include the LAPD’s troubled history with minorities around LA, and to teach officers to recognize their own racial biases when dealing with the community. Additionally, the LAPD will permanently add 80-hour courses on the same subjects that will recur during an officer’s career; first at 10-months, 3-years and 5-years.
The new training regimen, coupled with the LAPD’s recent efforts at “community policing” tend to show that despite their troubled past, the LAPD truly cares about the community they serve and are willing to take strides to improve community relations and safety.
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