Police academy training Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Police academy training - Research Paper Example It also included knowledge in areas such as law, traffic enforcement, officer safety and arrest procedures. Somewhat neglected areas were those of communications, problem solving, police-community relations, and diversity-the areas of which new era sees the importance. Training is now considered to be one of the key elements necessary for community policing to reach its full potential (King and Lab, 2000) Community-oriented policing, or shorter-COPS, is currently touted by academicians and practitioners (to be able to answer to crime and solve police-community conflicts) and financially supported by the federal government, enabling COPS to be a well-funded government program. However, training of police officers has yet to receive much attention. Police training is relatively a new phenomenon, even though COPS existed since the 1980s both in theory and practice. From the historical point of view, training of police officers doesn’t quite keep up with policing practice, with no exception of training in COPS. The responsibilities of police officers under COPS differ and the training programs do not focus enough on causes of crime and disorder and crime prevention; by traditional training, officers are prepared for a narrow focus on law-enforcement duties instead of focusing on more generalist approach entailed by community. Recruits spend 90% of their training time on driving, firearms, self-defense, first aid, as well as some other use-of-force tactics, even though only 10% of their duties will maybe put them in positions to need to use these skills. Some jurisdictions base their basic recruit program on a Job Task Analysis (JTA) to be able to ensure that what is done on the job is reflected by the training. However, JTA often focuses on what has been done on the job and not on what needs to be learned to be able to do the job better or to prepare new officers for community policing. Training is adapting to community policing very slowly and what makes th is transition especially difficult is the conflict values between traditional (reform) policing and the current one. The purpose of community policing training is to help officers to be able to solve problems and employ community engagement techniques every day while they are working. The recruit academy is a very important part of occupational socialization for police officers, and for that reason training centers should teach the philosophy of COPS during the recruit training. If they do not receive a proper training, officers will be less likely to understand the philosophy of COPS and, therefore, they will not be able to translate the philosophy into effective practice. The fact that policing shifted toward community relations and problem solving leads to COPS’ improved knowledge and additional skill, but doesn’t exclude the need for traditional skills. The skills that are needed for COPS will not become second-nature if comprehensive training in the theories and m ethods of community-oriented policing are not provided. This means that recruits must understand the values of community-oriented policing (e.g. building trust within the neighborhood), and also the skills that are needed for the community-oriented policing to be conducted. (Eck and Spelman, 1987). Those who promote the innovative training programs recognize the need of police recruits to learn the traditional