ADEQUACY OF POLICE TRAINING IN AMERICA: DOUBTFUL AND QUESTIONABLE.

ICHEOKU says certain developments during the past few weeks necessitated this appraisal of police training in America, to see if it is in fact adequate and professionalized enough as should be expected.  Could a better trained police, with the right mindset and disposition, have avoided some of the incidents which occurred this past weeks. Could a reimagined police outfit act in a manner which would avoid the frequent triggering of public dissatisfaction against the police, expressed in riots, protests and vandalism. 

Other professionals in other fields of life are usually held to a higher standard and when they err in the execution of their profession, are held responsible for professional malpractice and misconduct because of a breach of the professionalism which they hold out to possess. So, why not police professionals too and why are they not held to the same standard of higher expectations, such that whenever they fail to live up to it, they are similarly held to account for breaching their professed professionalism. What causes the constant failure to act professionally by the police or is it the inadequacy of their training that is to blame or what?

On February 4th 2021, a police officer Darrian Jarrott was gunned down during a traffic stop on Interstate-10 highway in New Mexico by an AR-15 assault rifle wielding criminal Omar Felix Cueva. The whole incident was captured on the police officer's dash cam which ICHEOKU has viewed several times, trying to figure out what exactly led to what. In conclusion, ICHEOKU says that the police officer was partly at fault for at least not having a fighting chance when the confrontation  erupted. He was too lackadaisical and carefree in conducting the whole exercise and thus compromised his safety by being so cavalierly in dealing with the driver. 

First he made a traffic stop of a completely unknown driver in a truck, he proceeded to the passengers side of the vehicle where the driver informed him that he has a firearm which would have set off all red alert alarm in his head. But instead of ordering the driver to remain put inside his vehicle and rushed back to his squad car to call for backup, he asked the driver if he could take the firearm off him for his own safety. Then he watched the driver alight from his vehicle as he casually walked back to meet with the driver towards the tailgate of the pickup truck. At which time the mad criminal raised his assault rifle and point blankly shot and killed the officer from across the bed of the truck. 

Everything was captured on the cop's dashboard camera and it could have been prevented or at least the police officer would have had some time to react and space to return fire in defense of himself. But he was caught unawares and he put himself in that dire straits by the manner he conducted the traffic stop encounter with an unknown driver in a pick up white Chevy truck. Why would a well trained police officer conduct a traffic stop in this manner; of a completely unknown stranger who was driving a truck and whose background he does not know. 

What if he was an armed and dangerous wanted criminal, a murderer or violent rapist. Why did the police officer take matters concerning his safety for granted and not effectively police the driver while he was exiting his vehicle with the usual command of show me your hands, gradually open the door with your right hand and slowly alight from the vehicle. Why did the police officer put himself in the defenseless position he was in by walking back to his squad car in tandem with an unknown driver who has already admitted to having a firearm was coming out of his pickup truck. Where was the police officer's backup officers and why did he allow the driver to exit the pickup before he could have his eyes completely affixed on the driver. 

ICHEOKU has been pulled over before but the experience was definitely different from what was seen in the video out of New Mexico. So, is it possible that the officer was a new recruit with no real experience on how to properly protect himself while conducting a traffic stop. Even when he sighted the rifle, instead of reflectively beating a quick defensive retreat, he became transfixed, as he looked at the pointed barrel and it was seconds too late. A better trained and experienced police officer would have ducked and ran back towards the front of the pickup truck in a life saving lightening speed mad dash. But it is now Monday night quarterbacking as ICHEOKU is not particularly blaming the police officer for his death, but that his lack of sufficient alertness possibly due to inadequate police training could have contributed to his killing. 

First he did everything wrong in the manner he handled the traffic stop, as police officer do not normally leave the driver's side of a vehicle unattended to while they approach the passenger's side. Second, they do not allow a driver to exit the vehicle without being totally in charge and completely focused on the driver. He had no complete visual on the driver to ensure that he had no pointed weapon in his hands, which of course proved fatal as he had one and it ended the officer's life. 

There are several commands which precedes the exiting of a driver from a traffic stopped vehicle which the police officer did not implement, which if he had done would have made a whole lot of difference. If his training was adequate and he was not a newbie, them he unreasonably exposed himself to the danger which took his life.  He let his guard and it proved a very costly mistake. May his soul now rest.

The other case which ICHEOKU wants to discuss pertaining to this topic, the adequacy of police training in America, is the latest shooting and killing of an unarmed black man in Brooklyn Minnesota. A white police officer Kimberly Potter shot and killed Duante Wright and claimed that she mistook her gun for a taser; and this police woman has been with the Brooklyn police department for more than 25 years, but wants people to believe her tall tale. She is an experienced police officer by all standards imagined and must have pulled her gun and taser several times in the past.  She is therefore well acquainted with the feel of the butt of gun and taser or at least is affixed with it, assuming she sincerely believed her own sect of peculiar facts.  

She must also have fired both weapons and is aware how their triggers respond including difference in their heaviness or weight. A matter made worse because she was even on a training drive beat of a new police recruit when they made the traffic stop leading to the killing too Daunte Wright. So, to believe her explanation is to accept that she herself was not a properly trained police officer as that is the only other thing which could possibly explain the gravity of her mistake, assuming she indeed made a mistake. 

It is therefore evident from the circumstances that there is no adequate training or continuing education or assessment retraining going on at various police departments where police officers are constantly updated and upgraded in the knowledge of their profession's best practices. It is also possible that she was simply overworked, tired and not functioning at the highest level of required alertness when she discharged her weapon killing the young black man. 

It is unfortunate that another black man has to die in the hands of a white police officer because of lack of proper diligence in the handling of a police gun. It might also be a willful indifference on her part with regard to a black person's life that made her not to be overly conscious of which of her two weapons she actually pulled out and fired. All these suggests that some of these police officers are not well prepared through adequate training, both mentally and psychologically, for the duty which they are asked to discharge. 

Any well trained and experienced police officer should automatically, like a clock work, know which holster he or she puts the gun and taser and which side of the harness the teargas, handcuffs and baton are. It is just like having the mouth, the nose, the eyes and the ears and nobody mistakenly puts food in the eyes or hurriedly puts eye drop into the nose or a vaporizer into their eyes. Certain things come to us sort of naturally because of their repetitiveness and a police officer of 25 years experience should have become so acquainted with her weapons not to just mistakenly shoot somebody to death with her gun which she allegedly mistook for her taser. 

Therefore, it is about time police academies in America rejig their training to ensure that every officer they graduate understands the burden of the badge they were. They are professionals just like other professionals in the country and they cannot be allowed to make mistakes which ordinary lay persons might be excused for. The message needs to be continuously driven into the men and women in blue that there will be consequences for their unprofessional behavior and that they will be held accountable for any poor judgment on their part in conducting their duties especially those resulting in death or which caused serious bodily harm to any member of the public which they swore an oath to serve and protect. 

Most of these cases that result in the shooting deaths of people in America by the police or the killing of police officers as well in America are somewhat otherwise avoidable deaths. Every effort should be made to prevent such deaths whenever possible as the ensuing resignations of such involved officers is no longer enough. Proactive measures to prevent deaths from occurring is better than the after the fact blame game including destructive riots and protests which always follow. The police should exercise additional caution and restraint before they pull the trigger, except in a life and death threatening situation when they have no meaningful alternative. 

The police should also protect themselves better and always be on alert non stop while on clock in order to prevent suffering such fate as befell the officer in New Mexico. Enough of the never ending police grabbing news headlines about police killings and police being killed in America. An extended training and continuing training and retraining of police officers might help in mitigating this ugly never ending damaging police tale in America which is now a readily recurring decimal.