Ever wonder why some think the Police are militarized?

*snort*

Rio Hondo College, LE department.

Classes are Monday through Friday, 8 hour days for 21 weeks. Note that Rio Hondo College does not have dorms for the Academy, so you live at home during your 21 weeks.

I would imagine that California minimum standards for certifying Peace Officer is similar to Texas's requirements: 700 to 800 hours.

The Drill Sergeant pictures are very dramatic, but with 21 weeks to cram in 700-800 testable hours, I doubt if there's a bunch of Basic Training gradoo going on.

Personally, I find it difficult to believe that someone who is only having to be at class by 9 AM Mon-Fri, and is back in his own home by 5PM, eating in his own kitchen, watching his own TV, playing his own PlayStation, snuggling up to his own girlfrind, eating whatever fast-food catches his fancy, renting DVDs and sleeping in hs own bed every night is getting "indoctrinated" into anything.

Thiry-four hundred DOLLARS?! Are you smegging insane?!

Judas Priest on a flaming pogo stick. I paid $700 bucks for my Academy, and I came that >< close to telling them to stuff it.

$3400.00. Yeesh.

LawDog
 
Our rookies go through the OHP Police Academy at London, Ohio. Very similar to military basic, and it IS a full time, live-in academy. Reveille is at 0500, day starts with PT and inspection, and you'd better hope the instructors use mouth wash ;) .

There's a two-fold, damned good reason for it. First is, this job isn't for those that don't really, really want it. 20% or more wash out in the first six weeks. Second, if you can't handle it there, you can't handle it on the streets. Those that can't take abuse are the ones that snap, and those are the ones you so often complain about. The academy is either the Forge, or it's nothing but another classroom.
 
When I went through the Police Academy there was no yelling, no screaming, not a Military atmosphere. So, to me, if most LEO's are being indoctrinated as if they are military, the problem we are facing is bigger than I once thought.
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I don't get it. How does having an intensive training program that is similar to some military programs equate with being militarized and what aspect of the parallels indicates such training is a bigger problem than thought by Wildcard? What does the number of LEOs going through this training matter. So we have a significantly bigger problem at 51% over 49%?

While some of the training may be similar to military training, there are some huge differences. You don't have the right to quick military boot camp without legal/financial hassles since enlisting in the military is a contractual arrangement.

One thing that the military-like police academy is supposed to do is to help weed out those that that can't the stress, physical needs, etc. If the cadets can't handle these aspects in the safety of an intense training program, then how are they going to be able to handle them in the real like and often dangerous circumstances out on the street?

Is being militarized necessarily bad? No. Why the parallels? LEOs and soldiers have to deal with many similar types of problems such as being in gun fights, protecting people and/or locations, are targets for the opposition, etc.

Is it just me or does the brunette instructor with the push broom mustache in the first and last pic on the Glock Talk forum look like he is wearing lipstick? You won't find too many male military drill instructors wearing lipstick.
 
This has nothng to do with creating a militarized police. The basics of "boot camps" are to: 1) Create self discipline, 2) Unit cohesion, 3) Obedience to orders, 4) Learning and applying techniques in a stressful environment. If you didn't go through this in your academy, no big deal. I will, however, say that departments/offices that hire cadets having graduated from programs like these get a better product. Why? B/c they are receiving someone who stuck through all the BS and stress in order to accomplish his/her goal of wearing a badge. They learned to deal with stresses that those in gentlemen courses have not. Something that is becoming more and more outdated.
 
They learned to deal with stresses that those in gentlemen courses have not.
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That's not necessarily true...and probably the reason why it's neither mandatory in all academies nor necessary for producing a stress-tested officer.

Military boot camp presumes an eighteen-year old recruit that has very little life experience. There is a need to both stress-test and indoctrinate that teenager in order to forge a soldier out of him.

Police academies usually have a different set of recruits, a large portion being older and having a good amount of life experience of their own. Not only is it more difficult to indoctrinate someone who has had five, ten or fifteen years since high school to form their own opinions, but it's also less critical to stress-test someone who's had a decade or two of real-life stress in the working world.

That said, boot camp in the academy doesn't worry me too much. It's the military hardware and lingo that's creeping into some departments, not whether they had to sleep in a dorm and get yelled at while they were in the academy.
 
I not so sure that it isn't a word problem at work here.

For years now we have stated many domestic problems and issues in words that have to do with war and fighting: war on poverty, war on drugs, war on crime, and now the war on terrorism. The foot soldiers in all these wars are mostly the police. Yet we send the army out on peacekeeping missions. It can become confusing. The police used to be called peace officers and the army had soldiers. It leads to the wrong idea in many people's heads.

Likewise, why do the police, especially the state police, go in for what used to be called a Prussian haircut. Are we about to criminalize hair? Is this something left over from the late 1960's? I won't even ask about shaved heads. What else do people shave?

And then there are the SWAT units. I think that sometimes the presence of such things creates situations where they are required. In other words, they will be used whether or not they are necessary because they are there to be used.

There are bigger issues that I am alluding to, perhaps, like permanent war. After all, it is to the government's advantage to have emergencies because that is an excuse for emergency powers. But maybe I am thinking only the worst about government (not THE government, just government generally, everywhere).
 
Likewise, why do the police, especially the state police, go in for what used to be called a Prussian haircut. Are we about to criminalize hair? Is this something left over from the late 1960's? I won't even ask about shaved heads. What else do people shave?
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Most cops have buzzcuts for a pragmatic reason: it doesn't give an opponent anything to grab. Soldiers wear short hair for the same reason, although neat appearance hygiene are beneficial side effects. If I wore a badge to work, you bet that I'd have a buzzcut, too. Cops get into physical fights on a regular basis.
 
Breacher Up, I couldn't have said it better myself. I've worked with and FTO'd noob officers from both types of academies and I have to agree that ones coming out of a more structured, para military type of academy are a better overall product.
Sometimes the deficiencies of what I call "gentlemens academies" can be fixed in the FTO program. Sometimes not, a lot depends on the individual.
 
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