Obviously the internet does a great job at highlighting some police officers that are very, very unaware of the laws and rights citizens have. Why is the standard to be a officer so low?
I have a friend in Vancouver BC, who needed a degree to apply ( psychology was hers) . Worked within t law enforcement office then was eventually accepted to the academy. After 900 hrs of training she was able to start in a highly supervised capacity.
She has mandatory training she has to complete annually, from how to deal with mentally ill people to interviewing witnesses amd obtaining statements and writing reports.
I read and hear sooo much about police in the states shooting Autistics or diabetics because they are unaware or scared or oblivious to the situation. Shoot first, try and figure out later.
Do they just want guys who played high-school football or does the profession/ community look for people’s who have a understanding or law, legalities and standards of actions beyond arresting the “bad guy”?
Is their an IQ requirement? If so what is it?
Is their a national data base of who is a law enforcement officer within the country and does it cross reference with files where the officer may be involved in a criminal capacity?.
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>I read and hear sooo much about police in the states shooting Autistics or diabetics because they are unaware or scared or oblivious to the situation. Shoot first, try and figure out later.
I think your issue is taking what regressive news articles say at face value. Many of those articles are outright making up things that never happened, because fear and outrage is what sells, and we are running low on that.
The are something like 13,000 separate law enforcement agencies in the US. Which agency’s standards are you referring to?
There are no national standards for how to train police, it differs by department, but on average, police training takes about 21 weeks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56834733
I have no idea why our standards are so low compared to most developed countries, where police academies can be the equivalent of a 4-year bachelor’s degree program.
If you’re referring to any sort of national standard, because child labor laws are no longer applicable after age 18. No, seriously, that’s why. In fact, technically speaking, if I’m reading the federal child labor provisions correctly, I think a city could potentially allow a 16-year-old to be technically on the force, although that’s *really* pushing the limits of technicalities and I’m probably missing something. I am not a lawyer.
Police forces are municipal. Whatever standards exist are set by the municipality in question, for the municipality in question and according to its needs. If there are too many people wanting to be cops relative to the number of cops the municipality needs, the standard of employment will go up. If there are *not enough* people wanting to be cops, well, the municipality still needs cops, so the requirements to be a cop will go down (and/or, if budget allows, rookie cops’ salaries will go up).
> who needed a degree to apply
Many departments in the US require this as well.
> After 900 hrs of training
900 hours of training… that sounds like about 6 months full time… exactly the amount of time that is the norm for US officers to spend in the Academy.
> she was able to start in a highly supervised capacity
Same with US officers. That is Field Training.
> She has mandatory training she has to complete annually
That is the norm for US officers as well. Though the content and quality of the training will of course vary by department. Focusing on mental health training will be standard these days anywhere with reform-oriented leadership, ie. all major cities.
> I read and hear sooo much about police in the states shooting Autistics or diabetics because they are unaware or scared or oblivious to the situation
The circumstances can be complicated and depend on the situation. Some shootings are really bad and unjustified, others can be justified even if they look bad to a layman. The extremely high number of civilian held firearms in the US means officers can have a credible fear of being shot much more often than other countries, and courts evaluate police shootings with that in mind.
> Is their an IQ requirement?
Not that I know of, officially. Many would dispute that this is a fair or good idea to use as a criterion for hiring. Applicants may have to pass a written test that’s roughly akin to an IQ test though.
What’s hard about all this is that at the same time everyone wants higher standards for police, fewer people than ever *want* to be police and applications have fallen off a cliff. So departments can’t afford to tighten these restrictions now and may actually be forced to relax requirements about having a degree, living in the city you police, etc. in order to hire officers.
> Is their a national data base of who is a law enforcement officer within the country
No, but this is a policy that police reformers have really wanted for a long time, to prevent bad cops who are fired from one department being rehired at another.
> and does it cross reference with files where the officer may be involved in a criminal capacity
Generally background checks are being done on cops before hiring… The problem is not what happens to cops who get convicted of a serious crime… the bar for that is (rightfully) high in our legal system and that doesn’t apply less to cops than anyone else. The biggest problems are with cases that may not meet that bar for a criminal conviction; bad cops need to be able to be fired and prevented from bringing their problems to other departments.
>Is their a national data base of who is a law enforcement officer within the country and does it cross reference with files where the officer may be involved in a criminal capacity?.
No.
Would such a thing prevent police from being fired for excessive force only to move on to the county or next city over? Yes.
As other users have pointed out, the issue is that we have no centralized training, requirements, or oversight with our various law enforcement agencies. When every state, county, and city gets to make their own rules concerning law enforcement, you end up with a system like what we have.
I can’t speak for every single place in the US, but this is just my personal observations, the starting salary for the typical police officer is so low for what the job entails, I feel that really affects the quality of people who even apply.
Police hiring requirements and training standards are very similar in the US and Canada.
Many departments require an associates or bachelors degree. Police academies average around 6 months of full time training, and after that is completed new officers work under direct supervision from a training officer for another several months.
Officers have mandatory annual training on a wide range of topics. Everything from mental health/crisis intervention, firearms proficiency, unconscious bias training, etc.
The vast majority of American police officers never fire their gun in the line of duty. I know A LOT of cops and none of them have ever shot something other than a deer that got hit by a car
Because the capital owning class needs enforcers.
“Is there an IQ requirement?”
– it is illegal in the US (legally racist) to require a certain IQ for a job. They can however ban IQs that are too high.
I don’t care as long as police protects me and my family along with my fellow taxpayers from bad people.
If a mentally ill person points a GUN at people, they will die. Sending counselors and physiologists wont save lives.
It’s a really low paid job for the amount of risk and hours it demands.
Low paid jobs have trouble attracting and retaining top talent.