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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for police recruits
10 results foundAuthor: Lande, Brian Jacob Title: Bodies of Force: The Social Organization of Force, Suffering, and Honor in Policing Summary: This dissertation is an ethnographic description of how police recruits learn to use force. I became a police recruit at two academies in order examine the process whereby police recruits learn to deploy calibrated physical force as a body technique (Mauss 1979) central to policing. Body techniques are traditional, technical and efficacious ways of using the body that are embedded in contexts of social value and symbolic significance. Police force, as calibrated body technique, is social: they pre-exist and outlive individual recruits; have to be learned and passed on from staff to recruits; they are to a degree constraining as recruits encounter social pressures to use their bodies in institutionally appropriate ways (as their bodily practices are praised, rewarded, evaluated, made fun of, and stigmatized). A police officers forceful bodily techniques are also social in the sense that they differ from how groups like boxers, soldiers, or gang members use their bodies forcefully. In other words, groups create forceful body techniques that inculcate and give meaning to the technique as well as delimit the boundaries of the group. I challenge the prevalent view of police force as deriving from attitudes and values by focusing on force as an embodied action. Police force - pursuing, command presence, searching and seizing, handcuffing, shooting, swinging a baton - is an intensely corporeal activity; and in tensely unfolding social encounters, new police officers are expected to react with skilled use of their bodies to the dangers and conflicts that they face. A police officer's embodied forceful acts are not the result of conscious deliberation but follow from practical reasons only to later be translated into articulate, verbal accounts after the fact, e.g. during report writing or the demand from supervisors to justify past actions. For police recruits learning to understand force isn't an act of "comprehension" so much as of "apprehension" by apprehending hands. "Knowing" how to be forceful is just being able to do it. Theoretically approaching police force as a calibrated bodily technique allows us to bring together the subjective life of the recruit's body with its objective social situation. Body techniques are subjective in the sense that they are forms of knowledge and understanding. But these same techniques are also objective in that they are social facts characterized by a social distribution and origin and they are encountered as external constraints, meaning that recruits feel compelled to use their bodies in certain ways. I also don't treat the forceful skills as only technical. Recruits do invest themselves in forceful practices as preparation for often-inflated perceived dangers. But I show that more importantly, recruits embrace police force because, in the daily experience of the academy, having a forceful body - a body imbued with fighting potential, strength, speed, and physical skill- confers recognition and respect from the academy staff and from peers. To be overweight, poor with a firearm, bad at driving, unable to keep up on a run, or seemingly incapable of tolerating pain, is to be relegated to a stigmatized status by staff and peers. By attending to how body techniques are learned I discovered a central conflict in the academies use of force training: the perceived need to overcome recruits' own "normal" and therefore pacific dispositions. Since most recruits are new-comers to using their bodies forcefully, there was persistent talk and training regarding how to make seemingly pacified recruits forceful but not too forceful. This was because recruits were initially incompetent in using force and academy staff had to make force "explicit" so recruits would "get it." In attempting to balance the need to make pacified recruits forceful and at the same time temper the use-of-force, I show how recruits sensibilities toward the use of force are honed, affect economies cultivated, and calibrated force is routinzed as a skillful response to social encounters. The introduction, chapter one, defines the problem of learning to be forceful. It shows how being forceful is a central concern of the academy and central to the very definition of competence. Chapter two reviews the literature on police academies, police socialization, and police culture to reveal large gaps in the literature. The research on academies has neglected the question of how recruits learn force and has been preoccupied with how police recruits learn to see themselves as members of a professional group. The literature on police socialization and has favored ruminations over how police officers talk and think about force, often long after it has occurred. I respond to the literature by outlining how Mauss's notion of bodily technique and Bourdieu's notion of habitus can fill in the gap and give a more complete picture of police culture and how it is learned. I also examine how other social groups provide objective social contexts in which subjective bodily knowledge is collectively shaped. Chapter three outlines the methods and procedures I used to conduct this study. It also describes the recruit classes and the training staff of the two academies I studied. In chapters four and five I examine how academy staff try to teach recruits use their bodies forcefully. In chapter four I begin by examining how recruits learn their hand to "search and seize." Recruits use their hands more than any other part of their body, other than their mouths, to be forceful. Because forceful use of the hands is routine, it is an ideal place to begin examining how recruits learn to use their bodies to exert situational dominance over another using their body. Academy staff refer to this colloquially as "control." In chapter five I describe in detail how police recruits learn to use deadly force with their firearms. Unlike skilled use of hands firearms are rarely used by police but intense value is placed on mastering shootings skills. I examine how a particular technique of shooting, "double tapping" is learned as a bodily technique. Once this bodily technique is mastered as a system of postures and coordinated movements it is normalized and made familiar as a skillful bodily response to perceived "threats." I argue that lethal force becomes "normal force" when it is grasped by recruits in a practical mode like any skill. In chapters three and four I also examine how staff teach recruits learn what is a "threat." While chapters four and five are about how recruits learn to deploy force, in chapters six and seven I look at how recruits are "hardened" in preparation for potentially violent and uncertain encounters on "the street." In chapter six I focus on daily negative rites like physical training that imbue recruits with a valued social body. This body is cultivated within a symbolic economy based on recognition and respect on the one hand and shame and insult on the other. The suffering of physical training also serves as a daily ordeal for recruits to overcome and that helps mark the police world as a separate sacred and heroic world that stands above the profane world recruits came from. In chapter seven I focus on an episodic negative rite, "Chemical Agents Day." During this rite recruits are expected to overcome the intense pain of exposure to chemical agents, with poise, in order to demonstrate their character. But in addition to be a test of moral self worthy by way of bodily self-control, the rite functions as a way of building a deep visceral bonding of the recruits to one another through a shared sense of pain and humiliation. Recruits also are bonded to their trainers as they overcome their suffering with the help of the very trainers who exposed them to physical pain and vulnerability. In the final empirical chapter, chapter eight, I provide one in depth interview with a recruit. This interview is important because it provides a sense of how a fairly typical recruit experienced the discipline, shame, as well as pride in bodily and emotional self-mastery. In particular we get to hear how a recruit thought and felt about the stressful and uncertain environment created by the academy staff in order toughen up recruits. Details: Berkeley, CA: University of California, Berkeley, 2010. 234p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed January 31, 2015 at: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vk995z4 Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/4vk995z4 Shelf Number: 134506 Keywords: Police BehaviorPolice Deadly ForcePolice RecruitsPolice TrainingPolice Use of Force (U.S.) |
Author: Police Executive Research Forum Title: PTO: an overview and introduction. A Problem-Based Learning Manual for Training and Evaluating Police Trainees Summary: Community-oriented policing and problem solving (COPPS) has quickly become the philosophy and daily practice of progressive police agencies around the country. Police administrators have come to recognize the ineffectiveness of incident-driven policing as well as the economic costliness of random patrol, rapid response, and post-crime investigation. Officers racing from call to call may have appeal on television, but it does not provide effective policing. In their implementation of COPPS, police executives have voiced a common concern about training, especially post-academy field training for new officers. Post-academy field training has not emphasized or promoted COPPS concepts and behaviors. To address this deficiency, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funded the development of an alternative national model for field training that would incorporate community policing and problem-solving principles. To accomplish the objective, the Reno, Nevada, Police Department partnered with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF). The result of their collaboration is a new training program called the Police Training Officer (PTO) program. It incorporates contemporary methods in adult education and a version of the problem-based learning (PBL) method of teaching adapted for police. Most importantly, it serves to ensure that academy graduates' first exposure to the real world is one that reflects policing in the 21st century. The main objectives of the PTO program are as follows: - To formulate learning opportunities for new officers that meet or exceed the training needs of the policing agency and the expectations of the community; - To have trainees apply their academy learning to the community environment by giving them reallife problem-solving activities; - To foster the trainee's growing independence from the Police Training Officer (PTO) over the course of the program; - To produce graduates of the training program who are capable of providing responsible, community-focused police services; - To prepare trainees to use a problem-solving approach throughout their careers by employing problem-based learning (PBL) methods; - To design fair and consistent evaluations that address a trainee's skills, knowledge, and ability to problem solve effectively. Details: Washington, DC: Community Oriented Policing Services : Police Executive Research Forum, 2001, 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 12, 2017 at: https://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-w0150-pub.pdf Year: 2001 Country: United States URL: https://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-w0150-pub.pdf Shelf Number: 146060 Keywords: Community-Oriented PolicingPolice AcademyPolice Education and TrainingPolice PerformancePolice RecruitsProblem-Oriented Policing |
Author: Schlosser, Michael David Title: Evaluating the Midwest Police Academy's Ability to prepare recruits to police in a diverse multicultural society Summary: This study evaluated the current training and practices implemented at the Midwest Police Academy to prepare recruits to police in racially and ethnically diverse communities. In this study, I adopted a critical race theory lens, which considered White privilege, dominant White male ideology, and color-blind racial ideology, when examining the training and practices at the academy. This study examined what the training looks like by providing detailed description of the training atmosphere as well as classroom instruction. The recruits racial attitudes were examined at the beginning and end of the training to explore potential changes. The instructors' and administrators' racial attitudes were also examined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Midwest Police Academy's ability to prepare recruits to police in racially and ethnically diverse communities by: (a) examining what the training at the Midwest Police Academy looks like in terms of the training atmosphere, curriculum, and classroom interaction; (b) investigating the racial beliefs and attitudes of recruits entering the academy and see if there are any changes at the end of training; (c) and investigating the racial beliefs and attitudes of instructors and administrators. This was a summative evaluation with the ultimate goal of this study being to search for ways to improve training and practices at the academy in terms of better preparing recruits to police in a racially and ethnically diverse society. In this study, I adopted a mixed methods approach, collecting data via interviews with instructors and recruits, classroom observations, and written documentation. Participants also completed the Color Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) (Neville, Lilly, Lee, Duran, & Brown, 2000) to measure racial attitudes. Findings of the study indicated that current training and practices show indications of White privilege, White male ideology, and color-blind racial ideology. There were no significant changes in racial attitudes and beliefs of recruits. Recommendations included: (a) make racial and ethnic diversity training part of the mission statement and vision of MPA; (b) provide racial and ethnic diversity training for instructors and administrators; (c) integrate racial and ethnic diversity training throughout the curriculum, including within the scenario-based training; (d) find ways to create more class participation for racial and ethnic diversity related topics; (e) implement a course on the historical context of policing which includes police-minority relations; (f) include critical race theory and color-blind racial ideology in the curriculum which should include counter-storytelling; (g) recruit more racial and ethnic minority instructors and role players; and (h) involve the community in the training. Details: Urban, IL: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, 2011. 152p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed June 13, 2017 at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/26225/Schlosser_Michael.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/26225/Schlosser_Michael.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 146077 Keywords: Cultural DiversityPolice AcademyPolice Education and TrainingPolice RecruitsRacial Attitudes |
Author: Zimny, Kenneth Title: Teaching Police Cultural Diversity: using action research to improve the Midwest Police Academy's preparation of recruits to police in a diverse society Summary: This research project is a follow-up to a study conducted by Michael Schlosser. Schlosser (2011) studied how the Midwest Police Academy (a pseudonym) prepared recruits to work in racially and ethnically diverse communities. This study took Schlosser's recommendations and developed an Action Research project to attempt to improve the cultural diversity training at the Midwest Police Academy (MPA). One of the recommendations from Schlosser's project was to, 'find ways to create more class participation for racial and ethnic diversity related topics' (p.105). This was coupled with information from the existing literature that advocated not attempting to change officer's beliefs in short cultural diversity courses. Instead, they advocated teaching cultural awareness. Attempts were made to make the MPA recruits aware of racial issues like colorblindness and tolerance. The recruits were given the Colorblind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS) during their first and last week at the academy. A focus group made up of the full-time instructors at the MPA was convened to discuss teaching cultural diversity. There was no significant change in CoBRAS scores. There needs to be a definite overhaul of the State curriculum and more time should be devoted to cultural diversity. Academy instructors should be taught the history of racism and the covert forms it takes in modern society. Details: Urban, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012. 125p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed June 13, 2017 at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/31029/Zimny_Kenneth.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/31029/Zimny_Kenneth.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 146078 Keywords: Cultural DiversityPolice AcademyPolice Education and TrainingPolice RecruitsRacial Attitudes |
Author: Valgoi, Maria J. Title: A Practical-Participatory Evaluation of a Racial Diversity education program for police recruits Summary: he purpose of this study was to use a practical-participatory evaluative method (Cousins & Whitmore, 1998) to develop and critically evaluate a diversity education program for police recruits. The Policing in a Multiracial Society Program (PMSP) was developed on the basis of the literature and using the input of a core academic team, veteran police officers, and community members. The PMSP is an approximately 10-hour intervention incorporated into a Midwestern police training institute curricula. The intervention was developed over the course of a year in which stakeholders met to discuss the goals and objectives of the program and to provide feedback about its implementation with two cohorts of recruits. A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the influence of the PMSP intervention on a third cohort. Recruits participated in either the PMSP intervention (n = 34) or a Nonracial Diversity intervention (n = 37). Participants' pre- and posttest scores were compared on colorblind racial beliefs (or denial and minimization of racism), ethnocultural empathic feelings, and equitable policing practices/skills. Counter to the hypotheses of this study, there were no significant differences on posttest racial colorblindness and policing practices/skills scores across the two intervention groups. Also, surprisingly, recruits in the PMSP intervention group displayed lower levels of empathetic feeling toward people of color at posttest compared to their Nonracial Diversity intervention group counterparts. Additionally, the levels of ethnocultural empathy among the PMSP intervention participants decreased from pretest to posttest. These findings suggest that 10 hours of exposure to racial diversity education is insufficient in producing desired changes compared to changes that have been demonstrated in previous studies in which officers completed a semester long college course (Bornstein, Domingo, & Solis, 2012). Several recommendations for future development of the PMSP are included. Details: Urbana, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016. 106p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed June 13, 2017 at: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/92775/VALGOI-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/92775/VALGOI-DISSERTATION-2016.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 146080 Keywords: Cultural Diversity Police Education and Training Police Recruits |
Author: Vish, Jeff Title: Measuring Excellence: Planning and Managing Evaluations of Law Enforcement Initiatives Summary: Recommended Audience The recommended audience for this research project includes senior police executives, police trainers, state, city and county executives and legislators. This research examines the ways in which training programs differ for large and small police departments. Summary These studies found a difference between the amount of training new officers in large departments receive vs. the training that officers in small departments receive. Tins study shows that police training is not equal for new officers between large and small departments in terms of hours of training, the location of training, the number of FTOs available per officer, and the minim time officers are held on probation. Specific recommendations are made for changes in training and for future studies of this problem, by state. Literature Review A major impact on the state of police training was made by the Wickersham Commission in 1931. One of the findings of the commission was that 80 percent of police agencies provide no formalized training to their recruits and that this was especially a problem in smaller cities. The President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration, formed in 1967 to study the criminal justice system in light of civil unrest, made recommendations to improve training for new recruits that included formalized classroom training and the addition of Field Training Officer programs. The Commission for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) was the first to offer a national standard for police agencies that included training standards. In 1983 they offered 45 recommendations to standardize and improve the level of training available to officers. Wilson and McLaren (1972) stated that training programs should provide a smooth transition between the classroom and the street. Goldstein (1977) found that police training would be improved if it found a way to realistically teach the required skill sets. Roberg (1976) found that police recruits should have at least a four-month "break-in period" following their police academies. Details: AIR FORCE INST OF TECH WRIGHT-PATTERSONAFB OH, 2000. 12p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 17, 2017 at: http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA387261 Year: 2000 Country: United States URL: http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA387261 Shelf Number: 146250 Keywords: Police Academy Police Education and Training Police Recruits |
Author: LaLonde, Mark Title: Assessment in Police Recruit Training Simulations Summary: The author discusses what can be done to improve the assessment instrument used in the assessment of demonstrated knowledge and competency in police recruit training simulations. Details: Victoria, British Columbia : Royal Roads University, 2004. 132p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed June 17, 2017 at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk4/etd/MQ93535.PDF Year: 2004 Country: Canada URL: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk4/etd/MQ93535.PDF Shelf Number: 146309 Keywords: Police Education and TrainingPolice Recruits |
Author: Czarnecki, Fabrice Title: Trooper-Trainee Active Countermeasures Training Evaluation Summary: This report is presented in response to the request from the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS) to conduct a study of the current Active Countermeasures Training program utilized by the Department to train Trooper-Trainees in the Training Academy and advise the agency on new or alternative training programs, methodologies, techniques, equipment or other related factors that could improve and/or enhance the safety and overall effectiveness of the program. As a part of this evaluation, we performed an extensive review of the current TXDPS Academy program and injuries, research on the use of boxing as a law enforcement training tool, research on evaluating and treating sports-related head injuries, and an analysis of other law enforcement training methods. Key Recommendation: TXDPS should discontinue boxing-based exercises, and replace them with a scenario-based simulation training program. TXDPS uses full force, toe-to-toe simulation, or boxing, in its Survival and Control Tactics training, the culmination of its Active Countermeasures training. Our review of the TXDPS Survival and Control Tactics training reveals a significant rate of serious head injuries over the past two years, significantly greater than other law enforcement agency training programs, even those currently using boxing. This type of training has its strong supporters and detractors, but the clear trend in law enforcement training is to move away from toe-to-toe full force simulation training and towards scenario-based training that is likely to avoid head strikes. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and the Florida Highway Patrol have all discontinued boxing in their training programs. We recommend that TXDPS discontinue boxing in its Survival and Control Tactics training. Enhancing medical screening procedures or modifying protective equipment, such as head gear, will not significantly reduce future serious head injuries due to boxing. If boxing is continued, which we do not recommend, reduction of future serious head injuries would require changing the way that boxing is conducted, and allocating significant additional resources to the boxing program. Specifically, several trained instructors would have to monitor each pair of recruits continuously throughout each fight. Also, more stringent safety procedures would have to be strictly observed, and post-fight medical screening in case of injury would have to be mandatory. This report provides defensive tactic simulation alternatives to the current TXDPS Survival and Control Tactics training, which should achieve the same training goals with significantly fewer training injuries. Key Recommendation: TXDPS should change safety procedures for Survival and Control Tactics Training This report includes our recommendations for improved safety procedures for Survival and Control Tactics training. Key Recommendation: TXDPS should regularly collect and analyze data on recruit training injuries This report includes our recommendations on how to collect and review data on recruit training injuries. Details: Miami, FL: Gables Group, 2006. 68p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 21, 2017 at: http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Czarnecki/Active.Countermeasures.Training.Evaluation.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://www.theppsc.org/Staff_Views/Czarnecki/Active.Countermeasures.Training.Evaluation.pdf Shelf Number: 147328 Keywords: Police Academy Police Defensive Skills Police Education and Training Police RecruitsPolice Training Survival and Control Tactics Training |
Author: Green, David B. Title: A Different Shade of Blue: An .Evaluation of the Civilian Detective Concept and Its Impact on Police Capabilities Summary: Financial distress and shrinking police candidate pools have diminished cities' abilities to protect the public. This thesis examines the manner in which cities have adapted by using civilians to perform the duties of sworn detectives-specifically, whether this practice enhances cities' contributions to public safety. Nine law enforcement organizations across the country that applied this policy were analyzed. It focused on cost implications, impacts on investigative and emergency response capabilities, job qualifications, training standards, scope of duties, and overall efficacy. Similar themes include the ability of cities to reduce costs and to achieve equivalent work output from civilian personnel. Dissimilar themes surrounded the reasons cities adopted the policy and how they trained the personnel. From the analysis, this thesis determined that the use of civilian personnel does enhance cities' contributions to public safety. This thesis also identified a need for a uniform national framework for policy adoption and for state peace officer accrediting commissions to develop guidelines for training and certification. Details: Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2016. 75p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed June 21, 2017 at: http://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/48528 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: http://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/48528 Shelf Number: 146330 Keywords: Civilian EmployeesCosts of PolicingDetectivesPolice Civilian EmployeesPolice InvestigationPolice PersonnelPolice RecruitsPolice Training and Education |
Author: Weber, Amber Ann Marie Title: An Evaluation of a Midwestern Police Academy Summary: The purpose of this research was to examine and evaluate the 2009 police recruit academy at the Duluth Police Department (DPD) in Duluth, MN, from the perspectives of those involved and gauge which components of the academy were 1) sufficient; 2) unnecessary; or 3) in need of further explanation (or needed to be added); and 4) how the community policing ethos of DPD, in connection with adult learning practices, aided training. This research was conducted because this was the first formal academy at DPD and all eleven recruits had successfully completed training that year. Fifty-two officers at DPD were contacted about participating in interviews; forty-three officers responded, with an additional three who volunteered. During interviews, officers were asked questions about their opinion on aspects of the academy, based on their category (recruit, lieutenant/sergeant, field training officer, or coordinator/instructor). Further, statistics were compiled on all officers hired from 1999-2009 by sending out sixty-seven emails (sixty-one officers responded) and going through the employee files of thirty-one additional previous employees in reference to each officer's schooling and prior experience. The primary results of the interviews revealed five themes, including the perceived success of the academy, the hands-on approach used, the reasons surrounding the creation of the academy, the "good candidate versus good training" debate, and the department and community benefit of this program. A statistical analysis of the compiled data indicated a moderately strong significant relationship between retaining the recruits and 1) prior experience, and separately, 2) schooling. An analysis was also done on a combined variable of experience and/or schooling, versus neither variable; no significant relationship was found between the variables in this case. A section was also included on the author’s firsthand experience going through the second academy (in 2010) at DPD and a discussion comparing the 2009 and 2010 academies. The principal conclusions included that the success of the recruits through training had to do with both the quality of the candidates as well as the provided training, and that a higher level of training, even if it does not prevent all candidates from being washed out, is a great tool to any agency. Details: Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2012. 118p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed June 26, 2017 at: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/131249/Weber_Amber_May2012.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/131249/Weber_Amber_May2012.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 146427 Keywords: Law Enforcement TrainingPolice AcademyPolice Recruitment and SelectionPolice RecruitsPolice Training |