Incidences Of Police Shootings Can Be Lowered With The Use Of Better Police Training (Research Paper Sample)

Student’s Name:
Lecturer’s Name:
Course:
Date of Submission:
Incidence of police shootings can be lowered with the use of better police training
In the society, today cases of police shooting are on the rise, and they are causing loss of lives of the citizens. Scholars from various fields reveal that families are ever reporting that they are receiving phone calls telling them that their loved ones won’t be coming home. When detective tries to investigate the cause of the shooting, they find out that they police just performed what they were trained to do. Researchers suggest that in most cases, the problem is not the police, but what they were told to do is the part of the problem. For an in-depth understanding of the issue of incident shooting and officer training, the paper will explore how better police training courses can result in a reduction in the incidences of police shooting.
Police, policy makers, and scientist are exhaustively investigating if better training of police could reduce the cases of killing using a gun. In the real scenario, police training start in the academy, and the concept of officer’s safety is stressed up to an extent it overlooks religious significance (Conradie 10). During the training, the officers learn the first rule of law enforcement, and yet these officers live in a hostile world. They start developing a thinking that all the encounter they will meet in the field will be a potential threat. Arne mentions that to remove the notion of law enforcement and avoid shooting during training offices should not be exposed to torturing experiences (280). She further stresses that showing a police officer a painfully vivid, heart-wrenching dash video footage of officer being beaten or gained down after a moment of hesitation make them feel as if they are in the shoes of the officer. In such a scenario, the instructor should teacher police that the primary culprit isn’t the felon on the video, neither because of the cop’s lack of vigilance. Better training should, instill virtues that enable the officers not carry ill mentality to their workplace as it could contribute to the case of a shooting. If the officers have a clear conscience after the training then, incidences of gunning will reduce.
The literature reveals that most lessons officers get during training come in the form of hand experiences. A social scientist suggests that officers should not be trained to shoot before a threat are fully realized rather they should be trained to examine if a suspect will cause harm to the public and hence take an appropriate action instead of shooting (Alexander 240). The scientist is highlighting that, in various circumstances, during training, the officers learn that if they see a suspect leaning into a vehicle, the suspect may pull out a gun to shoot the officer even before they realize. And another circumstance, cops are taught that when an officer is pointing a gun to a suspect who has turned his back, the suspect might spin around and fire first. Another lesson is that a suspect who is carrying a knife and standing 20 feet can run to the officer and start stabbing before the police can shoot the suspect. Even though some scholars dispute the phenomenon of training and shooting incidences, but in reality, training makes someone to transform (Weitzer 400). Most of the cases reported in the past, the suspect were not even carrying a gun or a knife yet the officer shot them. In such a circumstance, therefore, the incidence of police shooting can be reduced by training the police with skills that enable them to identify if a suspect is carrying a weapon or not. If these measures are put in place during training, then the incidence of shooting attribute to the fear of the unknown will reduce.
Policies makers are arguing that better police training contributes to a reduction in the cases of shooting but only if officers are trained to be calm when approaching suspect rather than fearing. Belur points out that in every circumstance polices shoot suspects, they don’t just gun because they enjoy, but it’s because of frustration or hatred (330). Officers find themselves shooting because of fear. They are afraid because they daily hear the message that they should be afraid that their survival depends on it. Not only the officers get this message in formal training, but they also hear it from their supervisors. Hickman et al believe that police academy should provide an environment that doesn’t instill the officers with fear, but with courage (580). They emphasize that training should not ground officers on their expectations, and should not be taught to expect the worst. If agencies incorporate these aspects, then officers will not be driven to shoot because of fear but self-conscience. For example, an officer in Phoenix shot an unarmed man because he thought mistakenly that the suspect had a gun. The officer saw what he was afraid of, and he saw what he was trained to see, and did exact what their instructor had told him to do. The argument is if the officer was well trained such an incidence could not have occurred, then that suggest better training reduces the cases of a police shooting.
Scholars mention that the incidence of police shooting can lower with better training if at all police beyond emphasizing the severity of the risks of the police office and take into accounts the likelihood of the risks officers encounter at work (Klitzman 203). Some scholars disagree that police are prone to risks, but the reality on the ground is that police have risks in-in fact serious one that can just be ignored. In America, statistics show that annually an average of 51 officers are illegally killed in the line of duty, and in the same period an average of 57, 000 officers are assaulted (William 354). From the observation, better training can reduce the incidence of police shooting but only if police will be informed about all the risk relating to the job instead of not incorporating during the training. Officers wil,l therefore become aware of all the risks involved after the training and be able to apply all strategies to reduce them and avoid shooting.
In many societies, people link police shooting to racial issues. Researchers suggest that better training techniques can reduce the incidences of officer shooting as they focus on compensating for unconscious racial biases. Such preferences make the officers perceive a greater threat from other races. Scholars demonstrate that police officer is not unique with that respect; racial discrimination is a common phenomenon in the society (Keith 500). Experts are worrying that the ideology is critical in the context of policing. Gumbhir demonstrates that officers tend to use more force when perceiving a greater threat, and another scholar mentioned that unconscious bias could make a police officer react more aggressively especially when confronted by a person of a different race (30). In many cases, the results are beyond tragic. Even thought it might be difficult to eliminate every aspect of unconscious bias during training, scholars strongly suggests that implementation of better officer training is necessary. They are for the idea that, such training might contribute to more accurate threat identification hence correcting the issue of racial bias that majority officers may not be aware of. Hence officer will be limited to shooting.
Researchers are also proposing that better training reduces officer shooting as better officer training is based on de-escalation and flexible tactics in such as manner that minimizes the need to rely on forces, especially lethal weapons (Clark 78). In many states, police agencies are adopting de-escalation strategies during training over assertive policing. For instance, California is demonstrating a substantial decrease in officers using forces such as the lethal weapons hence a reduction in the reported cases of a police shooting. In some countries, the federal department of justice has been in the forefront reviewing de-escalation training when investigating police agencies for civil rights violation. Hunsicker mentions that the application of more comprehensive and tactical training will help to prevent unnecessary use of forces and hence reduce the incidences of police shooting (56). Police analyst is arguing that instead of a police rushing to confront someone, police officers are trained to use an oblique approach that tends to protect them as they collect information or make contact from a safe angle. Therefore, one can conclude that the use of temporary retreat as known as a tactical withdrawal in the right situation tend to ensure safety rather than offering a deadly force.
More advanced and better training enable the police to think beyond the gun belt. Officers rely on a gun to shoot the suspects. Police officer are trained to avoid using pepper spray, tasers, baton during the training as these are to be tools are the last resort and to be adopted when non-violent strategies fail (Miller 309). Agencies are transforming officers training by shifting the culture of police having frontal assaults mindset and using approaches that dwells on preserving the lives that the officers are responsible for protecting. Reliable sources report that sometimes back a police officer in Kalamazoo, Michigan used the approach of relying on tactics and communication instead of using weaponry to handle a belligerent man that had a rifle. The outcome was, a forty minutes standoff made the two men shake hand. Therefore, better training empowers officers with skills in dealing with offenders hence avoid the cases of shooting the suspect.
The new training techniques are going beyond the use reflexive refusal to engage in more significant police uses of force. Experts are declaring that polices officer may act during the occurrence of an i...