This new post on David Couper’s blog highlights a recent story from Atlanta about “stress” or “boot camp” style police training. David rightly critiques that style of police training and questions whether it is consistent with our values and with the actual work that we want police officers to do.
- Comment
- Reblog
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Modern Policing 
December 16, 2013 at 2:07 pm |
I feel a moderate amount of stress is necessary in police training, particularly in the early phases. I’m certainly an advocate of respectful and constitutional policing, but we shouldn’t ignore the realities of our profession. There are times when officers have to function under extremely stressful conditions, and a small minority of the population is willing to harm officers. If a recruit can’t handle the moderate level of artificial stress in training, it’s doubtful he or she will be able to function effectively in a crisis. I’m not defending sadistic instructors, and I don’t believe police training has to equal what we received in the military. But let’s not allow the pendulum to swing too far in the opposite direction.
January 5, 2014 at 12:52 am |
In boot camp officers are trained to work together. On the street, in many instances, they have to work alone or with a partner. Most stress-oriented trng does not emphasize this.