Predicting Law Enforcement’s Future

Oct. 26, 2020
Change is constant. If you're not planning for it or if you're resisting it, your future will be challenging at best.

Without a doubt, I can probably say that law enforcement is on the threshold for some of the most unsettled times in many decades. One thing we can always embrace in law enforcement is that change is constant. These next few months, if not years, will probably reset law enforcement for the next generations to come. There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of things we must face, if we are to endure.

Training

When I was a director of training, we performed yearly training needs assessment to plan out the next year’s training curriculum for our department. I have often said, you cannot solve today's problems with yesterday's thinking; we had to plan for our future needs. We would perform an analysis with the executive staff of what their future goals were. We would inquire with internal affairs about complaints investigations and how training could correct responses and behavior towards increased efficiency and professionalism. We would review upcoming trends and equipment changes that faced the officers. We also sought out self-improvement for the officers and staff to help them face more than the profession. We would reach out to the community policing unit as it was back then to gather the public’s needs of their police as well. Today’s current national narratives have taken a lot of these questionnaires out of the trainer's hands and placed their demands on our doorsteps.

 Big Question

One of the biggest questions for departmental executives is how much training can you afford? Budgets here recently have been ‘do more with less’ from your political body. In today’s current climate, political budget masters must face the reality that training really matters and it is extremely necessary. Unfortunately, across the United States most law enforcement organizations only work towards the minimum standards that are required by state to keep your certification. I have always been opposed to this thinking because when I go say out to a restaurant, I do not want the minimum performance of that chef, I want their best. And so, as a citizen or political leader you should want your officers to have the best training that they can give your staff. When the police provide service for you and your community, you want the best, brightest offices with real solutions, not minimum performances. The problem of it is there is no such thing as free training. Yes, you have to pay the normal hours pay, you have to pay the backfill or the overtime to cover the assignments while officers are away at training. You could have tuition, expendables (training supplies) and other assorted expenses related to training. Now there lies the problem, are the governmental entities going to support the new police training budget?  Remarkably, there are those who want to defund police. I counter them with defend your police and refresh your police training – strengthen it! In the past, the training budget is usually raided for the chief’s or sheriff’s special projects and/or a response to make mandated budget cuts. And hence, we have the solution for our problem. Your training budget must remain solid, strong well funded.

Quality training is an important practical part of your police department's performance objectives. When you compromise the training budget, you compromise your service delivery to your customer base, therefore everybody loses. There are some chiefs and/or sheriffs that only wanted training to be minimum. Only training that does not hurt. And training where everybody passes without any effort. We can no longer endure with these non-standards. There has to be accountability in police training. I once sat through a state hearing regarding the increasing of contact hours of the basic academy. Listening to chiefs’ and sheriffs’ organizations criticize this expansion of the curriculum was mind boggling. They only equated this to more money spent on staff sitting in school. They equated that their academy experience from years gone by would fill today’s needs. It was my injects to add in the new topics and changes over the years to expand the curriculum to meet the futures needs.  

Tomorrow’s Training Needs

So, what are the new topics going to be? I am sure implicit bias, de-escalation and use of force will be the top contenders for next year’s curriculum. The balance between teaching legal applications of use of force versus the physical application will also be dealt with as well. The reality statement that most agencies do not maintain physical readiness standards is a given. As well, most agencies do not require updates on certain physical skill levels such as use of force or even recertifications of their applications of the use of force. These are going to be again time and money questions. Also, too this is going to also place trainers in another quandary of officer safety. Should their department has not required physical training in the past twenty years, the officers may be more prone to injury which would be even more impact on the police department's budget. Physical assessments, pre-stretching, post-stretching and just general health and wellness courses must be weighed within this training.

Community policing rethink  

Having been one who was very successful in the community policing era of time gone by, here are some thoughts. We had a tendency to drift away from community policing for several reasons. One, community policing is manpower heavy and expensive if it is performed correctly. Without a doubt it requires more manpower and staffing than a normal reactive police service. Community policing is so inherently expensive without a doubt it could be labeled as a budget buster. Community policing will delve into some of the areas of which there has been recent anguish. I recall my community policing units were assisting families with mental health issues for example. They provided connectivity with social services, and also to performing those tasks where other governmental agencies have failed its citizens. Often times many felt that this was not a police officer’s job and they were becoming social workers. Yes, that was said many years ago, but it is now also to the cry that we should do more than what we can do within normal traditional police services.

In conclusion, I have hoped to promote your thinking on your department’s future training needs. My Magic 8 Ball  cannot predict where we are going in police training. We need a plan and funding but more so a will to get it done and do so correctly.

About the Author

William L. Harvey | Chief

William L. "Bill" Harvey is a U.S. Army Military Police Corps veteran. He has a BA in criminology from St. Leo University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute of the University of Louisville (103rd AOC).  Harvey served for over 23 years with the Savannah (GA) Police Department in field operations, investigations and completed his career as the director of training. Served as the chief of police of the Lebanon City Police Dept (PA) for over seven years and then ten years as Chief of Police for the Ephrata Police Dept (PA). In retirement he continues to publish for professional periodicals and train.        

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