Police and Society-Training Policy
‘Campaign zero’ is a published package of policy solutions suggested to the department of policy on the matter of protecting black lives in the United States. Generated by activists associated with black lives matter developed in August 2015. The suggested strategies are many, but we shall consider only one in this paper, “training.” The reigning police officer regime fails to teach police how to interact with the society in a way that protects and preserves the life of the people (www.joincampaignzero.org, 2015). The policy cites a critical example that police trainees spend more hours learning how to shoot than they do when learning how to handle a situation (www.joincampaignzero.org, 2015). Therefore, the policy suggests that police training should adopt and incorporate an intensive training to assist police officers to acquire the behaviors and skills to interact appropriately with the society. In addition to the above suggestion, the policy also suggests that police department bias.
Under the first solution, the proposal requires police to undergo training involving scenario-based training under the following heading on at least a quarterly basis involving the society. The mentioned training should include the youth of color in both the design and implementation. The titles referred to include above “implicit bias, procedural justice, community interaction, relationship-based policing, appropriate interaction with the youth, crisis intervention, mediation, conflict resolution and rumor control” (Fielding, 2012). While the second suggestion requires the existing and prospective officers to undergo mandatory implicit racial bias testing. The testing should involve testing on the bias to shoot or do not shoot situation decision making and develop a clear policy on police level of bias on race in law enforcement's certification, hiring process of police officers, performance evaluations on individual officers and decisions on whether police should be posted to communities of color.
The solution policy suggestions are very realistic in the current situation in most states of America. Proposed solutions are based on occurring and present issues facing law enforcing body and their interaction with the communities. Therefore, I support the policy suggestion under training and believe that it is realistic and very workable. For example, Birzer (2009) notes that in the situation of training officers how to interact more with the communities compared to the how to shoot training and handle firearms can promote fruitful coexistence. Under such a situation, the police officers will learn how to manage situations, for example, learning how to resolve conflict, acting as a mediator and how to intervene in a crisis.
I believe that implementation of such policy solutions would be effective in the society. The law enforcing department in the United States is one of the most creative and efficient units that can be able to implement this policy to the letter. Influence of implementing such a system would help police officers to be better equipped with knowledge and skills on how to interact with the whole of the society (Birzer,2009). Proper training is the key thing that can help all the other suggested policy solutions in this campaign zero material. With the continued support from both the government and the citizen, I believe implementation of such a policy can be useful in life protection. According to the principal aim of the campaign, I believe that proper training of officers can be effective in saving the lives of the society, especially the colored people. Fielding (2012) posits that comprehensive training helps build morally intellectual police officers that can make such a policy very useful and life-saving and this will be instrumental in protecting the lives of the civilians. Notable challenges to some sections of this policy suggestion include the inability to measure the bias ability of an officer. During training of officers, it is tough to access their knowledge on decision making on the bias to shoot or not to shoot situation.
References
Birzer, M. L. (2009). Police Training in the 21st Century. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 68, 16-19.
Fielding, N. (2012). Joining forces: Police Training, Socialization, and Occupational Competence. New York: Routledge.
www.joincampaignzero.org. (August 2015). Solutions. Campaign Zero. Retrieved 21 April 2016, from http://www.joincampaignzero.org/solutions/#solutionsoverview
