Transcript Police Subculture

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Police role: Has transitioned from a “professional” to a
“community-oriented” model. “COPS officers will have to
gravitate towards problem-solving and community building rather than
high-profile arrests”
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Officer behavior: “Officers will need to be accepted into the community and
accepting of community input rather than isolated, apart, and suspicious.
They will need to be more democratic and less authoritarian in their
orientation than traditional officers.”
Jay
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Police role: Role hasn’t substantially changed since the dawn of time: to
promote civility and law observance
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Officer behavior: Officers should strive to achieve their goals through
voluntary compliance, with force and coercion as last resorts
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Identify personal characteristics, knowledge, skills and abilities that
can help working police officers do a good job.
 Be sure your responses are justified by what police officers
actually do
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Which of these skills should police candidates have before going
into the academy?
Hire
Work
Incorruptible
Tolerates stress
Logical skills and intelligence
People oriented
Free of bias
Self-insight, emotional stability
Not impulsive
Not overly aggressive
Physical courage
Command presence
Works well as a team member
Accepts leadership and direction
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College?
White collar occupations?
Service occupations?
Blue-collar occupations?
Military?
Professions?
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Working class and lower-middle class
Conservative political views
Looking for steady work with good benefits
Idealistic, want to help others
Prefer outside work – not be “cooped up”
Taste for risk and excitement
Lifetime interest (friends and relatives in law
enforcement)
Assertiveness and physicality
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Depends on economy
 In strong economies recruitment suffers
 In weak economies recruitment booms. During the recession NYPD was
swamped with well-educated applicants, many from Wall Street. In
November 2009 more than half the recruits in the academy had four-year
degrees.
LAPD (not the highest-paid) starts officers in the $50,000 range
A few agencies require two-year degrees
 Thirty years ago some (e.g. Ventura) required a four-year degree
 Requiring 2 years has been validated against writing and verbal skills,
which are critical components of police duties
 Constricts applicant pool, disproportionately impacts minorities
Corruption and violence discourages applicants to urban departments
 That, in turn, drives down hiring standards
 Hiring officers who admit to prior drug use or have records has been linked
to police misconduct (e.g., the Rampart scandal)
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California P.O.S.T. standards
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Peace officers are certified by the State
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California law enforcement agencies must meet
or surpass
Written exam
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Reading, writing, general intellectual development
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LAPD has an essay to test writing skills
Oral interview
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Evaluates what cannot be measured
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Ability to communicate and reason, general poise and bearing
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LAPD: “personal accomplishment, job motivation, continuous learning
orientation, instrumentality, interpersonal skills, and oral communication
skills”
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LAPD
By far the most important and expensive part of the process
 Much more expensive for out-of-State candidates
Key components
 Criminal, traffic and driver license history
 Credit history and civil litigation
 School and work
 Family and friends, neighbors
Common shortcuts
 Sketchy coverage of teachers, friends and acquaintances
 Not checking prior addresses
 Not inspecting juvenile records
Police Issues: What Should it Take to be Hired?
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Police work occasionally requires:
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Chasing people over obstacles
(speed, endurance and agility)
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Overcoming physical resistance
(strength and flexibility)
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Accurately deploying weapons under stress (strength and coordination)
LAPD
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SIDE STEP (Agility): Ten seconds to move from one side of a center line to
the other side as many times as possible
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CABLE PULL (Strength): Five seconds to pull a pair of handles apart as
hard as possible in a horizontal motion
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STATIONARY BICYCLE (Endurance): Two minutes to pedal as many
revolutions as possible against a pre-set resistance
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TREADMILL (Aerobic capacity): Simulate running 1 ½ miles in 14
minutes
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Psychological
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Pencil and paper
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Interviews with psychologists
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Exclude emotionally unstable, overly aggressive
or suffer from a personality disorder
Polygraph
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To confirm information developed during background investigation
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To elicit information that might not otherwise be obtained
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National Academy: polygraph is unreliable as an applicant screening tool
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Usefulness as a prop
Medical
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For conditions that could limit someone’s performance as a police officer
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Disqualifying: hypertension, poor vision and hearing, excessively over or
underweight, uncorrected hernias, respiratory problems
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California P.O.S.T medical screening standards
LAPD Board of Inquiry Report into the Rampart Area Corruption Incident
March 1, 2000
Page 14: “While it is impossible to substantiate completely, it
appears that the application of our hiring standards was compromised
when these officers were hired during periods of accelerated hiring
in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This is not to say that anyone
intended to do so. But, one need only look at the pre-employment
histories of these four people to see that something was seriously
wrong when they were approved for hire. The fact that these men
were hired with egregious information in their packages leaves only two explanations:
1) Recognize that erosion has occurred and shore up the systems to prevent it from
recurring; or, 2) Insist that the application of our standards did not erode, which
means that criminal conduct, drug dealing, financial irresponsibility and violent
behavior are consistent with our standards. Clearly, there has been erosion, the blame
for which cannot be placed on one individual or group, but rather on a multifaceted
system with competing interests. We must recognize that it has occurred and commit
ourselves to never sacrificing quality for the expediency of numbers.”
Page 9: Of the 14 officers, four had questionable issues in their pre-employment
background which strongly indicate they never should have been hired as Los
Angeles Police Officers. Those four officers were hired in 1988, 1989, 1990, and
1994, and three of them have since been fired for felonious conduct:
The officer hired in 1994 sold marijuana to two other students on one occasion while he
was in high school. At age 15, the police detained him for investigation of tampering
with vehicles on a car sales lot. He was taken to the station and released to his parents.
Those law enforcement contacts were self-admitted and nothing on his criminal history
printout indicates that he was ever formally arrested. However, there is a notation in
the package that “All records have been sealed” indicating that he may have had a
juvenile record that could not be accessed for the background investigation. In any
event, the Police Department recommended his disqualification, but it was overturned
by the Personnel Department.
It is important to note that the July 9, 1991, Report of the Independent (Christopher)
Commission...all but predicted that a weak application of hiring standards was allowing
risky candidates to become Los Angeles Police Officers.
The officer hired in 1988 had been arrested as an adult for grand theft. The incident
occurred when he struck a public bus driver during a dispute over a transfer. When the
driver's watch fell to the ground, the officer picked it up and began walking away, which
resulted in his arrest. The Department did not recommended his disqualification or
deselect him under three whole scores.
The officer hired in 1989 admitted losing his temper during arguments with his wife and
pushing her on six different occasions. He was psychologically eliminated due to
"temperament/impulse control." However, he was eventually cleared for hiring by the
Personnel Department psychologist.
The officer hired in 1990 had been arrested three times before he became an officer at
the age of 24. As a juvenile, he was arrested for stealing hubcaps. As an adult, he was
arrested and convicted of driving under the influence (DUI). One year before his hire, he
was cited for having an open container of an alcoholic beverage in his car and was
arrested for driving on a suspended license (suspended from the earlier DUI) for which
he was sentenced to ten days in jail. In the military, he was disciplined for disobeying a
lawful order. His background investigation disclosed that he "loses his cool very easily“
over minor incidents, and acted like a "big macho man." The psychological examiner
advised the Personnel Department that there was not enough negative information to
warrant his disqualification.”
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Known as “Department of second chances”. Examples of hires:
 A former LASD deputy fired for abusing inmates
 A former LAPD officer fired for witness intimidation
 A former Huntington Park officer charged with negligently firing a gun and drunk
driving
Also hired officers who flunked out of training programs
Allegations investigated by state and Federal officials:
 Police and city officials bribed by a tow company
 Officer extorted sex from relatives of a fugitive
 Officer tried to run over the president of the Maywood Police Commission
 Officer impregnated a teenage police explorer
 Officers covered up a fatal police shooting (settled for $2.3 million)
 Los Angeles Times article
 California Attorney General’s final report
Maywood PD disbanded 2011; LASD hires four “problematic officers”
Hired over 2,500 deputies during 2005-2007
 Replaced rigid compliance with standards with
“holistic” process, % of disqualified plunged
 Reviewers told to balance problem areas against applicants’ overall history
 Poor follow-up of negative flags
 Approach affected entire screening process, even psychologist interviews
 Examples of poor hiring decisions
 01/17/12 Deputy sheriff Henry Marin, 27, surrendered on charges that he
helped a woman sneak a heroin-filled burrito into the Los Angeles County
courthouse in 2010. In the reality series “The Academy,” Marin was depicted
flunking out. He was allowed to go through a second time and passed.
 Another deputy had past arrests for DUI, driving a vehicle with an altered VIN
and vandalism. While on probationary status with another department was
fired for using excessive force.
▪ Result: Fired while on probation for anger management issues
 Another deputy had a history of traffic tickets, marijuana, steroids and alcohol.
▪ Result: Fired while on probation for assault and intoxication
 OIR Report
Police Issues
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On December 1, 2013 the Los Angeles Times
published the results of its investigation into the
LASD’s hiring of 280 L.A. County guards as
deputies and jailers in 2010.
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They were hired when the Sheriff’s Department took over policing of parks and
government buildings
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There was allegedly pressure on the LASD to hire the guards
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During background checks at least 100 of these new deputies and jailers had
demonstrated evidence of dishonesty. Fifteen had cheated on the polygraphs.
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Two-hundred of these hires were previously rejected by other law enforcement
agencies. Twenty-nine had been previously fired or forced to leave other policing
jobs for various kinds of misconduct.
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On December 17 LASD reported that about 80 of the hires did not meet department
standards and should not have been made.
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For the hiring files click here
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Between 2005-2013 the LASD had a special hiring program, “Friends of the Sheriff,”
that gave special treatment to relatives and friends of department officials and
employees.
These candidates automatically came to the front of the applicant pool. Many were
hired even though they had criminal records and/or personal histories that would
have disqualified others.
For example, one of those hired – because he was a friend of Sheriff Lee Baca’s driver
– had been convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery.
In December 2013, when confronted by evidence of this process, which was dug up
by the L.A. Times, the Sheriff’s department confirmed it existed but that applicants
were held to the same standards as everyone else.
One day later the Sheriff’s Department admitted this was not so and that mistakes
had been made. Officials vowed to end the program.
L.A. Times article
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01/18/09 A North Carolina police officer accused of sexually assaulting five
female motorists was hired despite past incidents of violence, including one
that resulted in a restraining order
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02/20/09 LA Sheriff’s relaxed policies allowed unsuitable candidates to be
hired
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10/13/08 More than one in three Atlanta PD new hires have criminal records;
many were rejected by other departments
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Police Issues
Ex-FBI executive Jody Weis, hired to lead Chicago PD in 2008
 Department beset with excessive force and corruption issues
 04/08/11 Four former Chicago cops to plea guilty to federal
charges of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from drug
dealers and others by staging phony arrests and searches. These events, which
occurred in the mid and late 2000’s, led to the conviction of
seven other officers. All were members of an elite squad.
Weis ran head-on into police union and politicians
 Human services board had final say on firing
▪ Refused to fire cop who beat handcuffed citizen
▪ Reversed 40 percent of department decisions, allow in those rejected elsewhere
Weis raised entry standards to 2 years college and/or military experience
Washington D.C. , also suffering from recruit performance issues, has done the same
Meanwhile, LAPD, where poor hiring decisions helped lead to Rampart, requires only
GED or high school exit exam (same at LASD)
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What should police trainees learn in the academy? List
subjects in order of importance.
Be sure you tie in the topics to what police officers
actually do.
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Peace Officer Standards and Training Commissions
 Set entry requirements and minimum training
standards for pre-service and in-service training
Academy training (pre-service)
 Knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA’s) to do patrol work
 Often includes field practicums (e.g., ride-alongs)
Field training
 Continue working on KSA’s
 Observe recruits; weed out those unsuitable for real-world policing
 Field Training Officers (FTO’s)
 Probationary period
On-the-job (in-service)
 Refine and practice skills
 Learn new skills for other assignments
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Does it cover all the critical KSA’s?
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Emphasis on narrow technical skills (law,
report writing, physical arrest, firearms)
Areas of insufficient attention
▪
Cognitive skills (reasoning, information processing)
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Decision-making skills
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Interpersonal skills (defusing, not aggravating situations)
▪
Using discretion
Resource and quality-control issues
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Rich jurisdictions / poor jurisdictions
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Inequities in funding and large variability in curricula and instruction
between agencies
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Traditional “stress” academies (e.g., LASD,
OCSD)
Black Monday
 Modeled on military
 Gain instant compliance, instill discipline and enhance teamwork skills
 May hinder learning, discourage analysis and innovation and fail to prepare
recruits to act independently
 LASD academy nearly decertified LASD academy OIR report
▪ Gave students answers, allowed them to repeat academy multiple times,
uncertified instructors, TV show interfered with training
Collegiate-style academies (e.g., LAPD)
 Stress academies accused of producing low-functioning robots
 Modeled on higher education, foster judgment & analytical skills
 Tailored for individual rather than team work
 May not reach undisciplined recruits and those with little life experience.
Police Issues: Sheriff Baca’s Police Academy
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Academy length: 30 years ago most academies were
two months long – now they are five or more
months in length
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LAPD Eight months (includes ride-alongs)
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California POST Four months Statewide
minimum (Basic course training specifications)
Criticality of basic skills
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Officer safety
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Liability issues
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Report writing
Student ability to absorb instruction
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Many have limited verbal and writing skills
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Most all are young and lack maturity
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Practical decision-making exercises
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role playing is very time-consuming
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Realism is difficult to achieve
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Students lack work experience (context) to internalize instruction
Classroom instruction – personal skills, defusing incidents
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Producing changes in behavior can take months of intense instruction
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Health care professionals learn this hands-on, during internships
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Many cadets have limited life and work experience
Unrealistic expectations
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By the time police arrive situations have often resolved or escalated beyond
what talking can accomplish
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Time may be better spent on weaponless defense and use of less-than-lethal
weapons
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Police Issues
About 4:30 am, 2/7/12 USMC Sgt. Manuel Loggins drove
his SUV onto San Clemente High. His 9 and 14-year old daughters were in the back.
A nearby OCSD deputy saw the vehicle speed and crash through a gate. Loggins
walked off. More deputies arrived. They checked on the girls and set up a perimeter.
Several minutes later Loggins returned. He ignored commands, got in the SUV and
started to drive off. A deputy then fatally shot him.
The deputies’ organization defended the shooting and said it “clearly prevented” the
girls from coming to serious harm. Months later the D.A. later ruled that the deputy
did not commit a crime, and he was allowed to return to duty.
Exchange agreement: Police expected to use least amount of force necessary
Failure to contain a situation can allow it to escalate to the point where officers may
decide – reasonably or not – that the only available solution is to use deadly force.
Alternatives may require pre-emption and innovation
 Grabbing the kids, jamming the SUV with patrol cars, using a Taser, etc.
Can academy training help?
 Are static, choreographed responses (e.g., a “perimeter”) over-emphasized?
 Should innovative, adaptive responses be encouraged? How?
 Are certain academy models less likely to foster creative solutions?
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A new officer’s first step after the academy
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A form of OJT (on-the-job training)
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Recruit learns laws and procedures
▪ Through modeling, application and repetition
▪ In more depth and greater complexity than possible at the academy
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Recruit learns how to deal with citizens and offenders
▪ Command presence
▪ Evaluate situations for risks and opportunities
▪ When and how to apply force and coercion
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Recruit’s suitability is evaluated by experienced officers
▪ Is recruit trainable? Does s/he follow directions?
▪ Does recruit have the necessary physical and mental acumen?
▪ Can the recruit be trusted to exercise appropriate judgment?