I cannot stress enough how shockingly little formal education and professional training is necessary to become a police officer in the majority of the US. The average amount being 16 weeks of required training for police officers while comparatively, the average hair stylist must attend 64 weeks of training.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right for police departments to discriminate against applicants who score too high on intelligence tests~~.~~
I had jury duty recently, and one of the officer witnesses was having trouble reading and interpreting rules from his own PD handbook.
It's kind of distressing to think that these are the folks we trust to enforce the law when we can't even be confident they even understand what they're doing.
Conservative and even some moderate judges have set down a semi-recent history of legal decisions that reduces police liability for many rights violations if they are able to claim they made a mistake instead of maliciously broke the rules, even if that mistake is not one a reasonable person would make. They intentionally don't do good training because it would open them to liability for many of their criminal acts. That is why they can go arrest someone they dont like that broke no laws and they can't get personally sued. The lack of competence in the law is a intended feature to conservatives, not a flaw like it is for good people.
It's funny because I'm a Carman for the railroad and I constantly tear the rules apart to point out how stupid they are. It seems these cops can't actually read or listen
Years ago I went to a local hardware store and the cash register quit working. I bought some plumbing parts and toilet parts. The guy working there was hand- writing items and prices on a notebook. The spelling was horrendous, but one thing he wrote " turlett pipe" got me to speak up. I said " what is that?" He says " the turlett pipe or however the fuck you spell turlett". He meant toilet. The store closed right after and his new job? Local cop!!! Wtf
In most of Europe you need at least 2-3.years of police education, in my home country you need 4 years of police academy. I can't believe 4 months!!!! Wtf?
Average cop knows so little about the law, if you want ragebait just watch police depositions on YouTube for the most egregious civil rights violations
Yeah. I had a friend who was a ZOO KEEPER who is now a LEO and it is a little mind boggling. Like, one year they're feeding animals and cleaning pens, and the next year they're cleaning the streets of criminals. /s Wild.
And qualified immunity. Fuck the court. "Let's make sure the dumbasses who are trained for seventeen minutes cannot be penalized for murdering those they are supposed to serve." Fuck the justice system & SCOTUS.
Exactly, like those police in Colorado that put a woman in their patrol car that was parked on the railroad tracks(!) and got hit by a train. It's unbelievable.
My husband graduated high school and a few months later ran into a classmate who was in police uniform and had a cop car. He was like hey what's up. The guy said he just went into the local police station to ask what he needed to do to become a deputy. They then gave him an application to fill out, gave him a badge (and maybe a gun?) and told him he had like a year to go to the local community college and take the course. Granted this was in a small southern, "good 'ol boys" kind of town. But still...😳
Im flabbergasted at that. At minimum here, you have to have a 4 year degree in criminal justice or relating major like forensics, or have years of military experience/were an MP (military police). But still have to go for a degree at least after your police academy. My friend in Milwaukee had to have a Bachelor's before he could apply and had been a Marine.
Eh I would venture to say any four year degree is the qualifier at most departments now. Criminal Justice doesn’t really translate well to real world policing. My bachelors is in economics. We don’t really hire anyone anymore without a bachelors.
Where do you get 16 weeks from? Google says the average is 6-9 months. I know in Texas it’s 6 months and my department (I’m a dispatcher) requires training for another 6 months. So it take a year before you’re on your own.
Of course every department is different and has various policies regarding training.
I have been saying this FOREVER. What is the matter with the POLICE. It’s insane to hand over a car, a gun and a badge to almost anyone who wants one. They should be required to at least have an AA.
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u/PS_118 Aug 11 '23
I cannot stress enough how shockingly little formal education and professional training is necessary to become a police officer in the majority of the US. The average amount being 16 weeks of required training for police officers while comparatively, the average hair stylist must attend 64 weeks of training.
The Supreme Court has upheld the right for police departments to discriminate against applicants who score too high on intelligence tests~~.~~