The Importance Of Quality Of Police Training

Black Lives Matter has started in response to police brutality incidents. A lot of cases have not received the right justice due to no real evidence, due to the fact they do not testify. Therefore, police officers should be required to wear body cameras, when they are on duty and have the right quality of training.
Racism has caused over more than one problem throughout the years. Recent incidents of racism has led to riots, marches, protests, and etc. Police brutality has surfaced more on racism in the United States. More than 920 have been killed by the police in 2015. According to Mapping Police Violence, African Americans are three times more likely to get killed by the police than caucasus. With this world build upon social media and
new technology, police brutality has surfaced more than it did before. For example, Alton Sterling’s death was caught all on camera, but yet nothing was done or the police officers weren't tried. Out of 990 people who were killed by police officers, 258 were black. In 2016, there has been 173 deaths of African Americans, out of 708 deaths in police brutality. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Keith Lamont Scott was shot and killed by a police officer. This made him be the 25th person, in North Carolina to be killed by a police officer in 2016. With these different police brutality incidents, police training hasn’t been the same level of quality.
Most of the videos that has surfaced, it’s clear that the technique most cops are using are not the right techniques. With shooting, officers are supposed to shoot below to leg level, but that’s not happening. What kind of training are these new police officers are getting or what are they taking away from their training. The quality of the training needs to be more in depth and intense. By that, I mean that these officers should have long hours of training and need to have the proper training techniques. That’s probably not going to be enough though, because most of these officers are getting away with murder. The severely deficient training in Chicago, has led to a pattern of Abuse. There has been an investigation that has found Chicago police are systematically violating the civil rights of people in the city through excessive use of force, poor oversight, and inadequate training of officers. In violating the 4th amendment, Chicago Police Department engages in a pattern of practice of the use of excessive force. This was concluded by the Department of Justice. “ Pattern or practice “ investigation was launched years ago, after a white police officer shot a black teenager, 16 times in October 2014, which led to his death. With President Obama in office, the Justice Department has increased the number of civil rights investigations into law enforcement
practices.
Not only should police officers get the proper training but they should also be required to wear body cameras and be called to the stand when it’s time for trial. People who support this content says that this device will provide transparency, build trust, and provide evidence against false complaints. More cases would probably be reopened for trial if this idea gets implanted in different states or communities. Therefore, with these body cameras officers should be called to the stand when it’s time for trial. This may put pressure on certain officers, but this will bring more cases to have justice and put a stop to police brutality. With the body cameras, this will give more evidence than a video and by word of mouth. On January 17, 2017 I interviewed Officer Brandenburg, who is not only an officer for Raleigh Police Department but is also an officer for Enloe High School.
Officer Brandenburg told me he does not like police brutality. He says police are trained in certain ways and that they are suppose to utilize that training adding on, he said police brutality is a broad brush and we have to talk about what we are talking about. Like are we talking about what we see on the videos because not all the videos, that we are seeing are true. But, however when you break it down there are some of those videos that are showing the truth and that those officers should be conducted that way. With body cameras, he feels that body cameras will be helpful towards the police but not all officers can carry body cameras. Such as, SROs because they are not allowed to have them in schools, due to the fact they are around 14-18 year olds that are in school. But he does agree that body cameras would be helpful. I asked him what are some techniques that he thinks that could prevent police brutality. Education was his first answer, he told me officers should be more educated. With that, he said they should utilize the tools that they are given. He said he has a whole lot more tools than a gun. He also says that he has training, mace, a taser, and any restraining techniques. According to Officer Brandenburg, you have to use a certain amount of force when force is presented to him. With that being said, if he
had someone shooting at him, he’s not going to talk to that person, he has to use his weapon unfortunately but that’s not in all situations.
In conclusion, the police brutality rate has increased throughout the years because of no accountability, lack of training, and colorism. Police officers are getting away with their cases against the brutality and no one is getting justice. With the body cameras and cruel training, the police brutality rate will go down or more officers will be convicted of murder.