Back in the 1970’s police officers went to the Police Academy then went on the street. An experienced officer may have tagged along with you but when he said you were ready, well then you were on your own. Once a year we were qualified on the shooting range with the duty revolver and riot shotgun.

In my second year as a police officer, I learned of a free school at the Ohio State Patrol Academy put on by the professors from the Northwestern University Traffic Institute. It was a two week school teaching advanced accident investigation. NUTI wrote the textbook for accident investigation and this school was not a disappointment.

The instructors taught us how to take measurements, including tread marks in an arc. With training in square roots and different formulas, we were able to determine the minimum speed a vehicle was traveling. With the NUTI Nomo graph we were able to estimate speeds, drag factor and so on without laying our own test skid marks. We also learned how to lay test skid marks to determine speed.

Now that school has expanded and the Accident Reconstructionist will use physics to determine more precisely the speed at the time of impact by using damage results, stress factors of aged steel and so on. I felt privileged to have taken this school and used it until my retirement 36 years later.

Slowly as time passed, the OSP Academy and the Ohio Peace Officer’s Training Academy added new, more scientific based schooling. For instance at the Police Academy we were taught how to administer a field sobriety test. There were no accepted testing procedures, only the experience of each officer. We used to carry coins to have the suspect bend over and pick them up off the ground. If the guy fell, he was drunk.

Some officers would have a suspect stand, close his eyes and touch his nose. If he missed his nose, he was drunk. Now we have a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guideline and classes on standardized testing, Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus and so on.

When a husband would beat up his wife, she would never file charges and there was nothing we could do about it. Then came Domestic Violence laws and classes. Now if an officer sees evidence of DV or has a witness, an arrest of the person who instigated the incident is arrested. If no arrest is made, a police report is mandatory to explain why. This is called a Pro Arrest Policy.

Each year we have classes on the use of non-lethal weapons such as stun guns, pepper spray, night sticks, CPR/First Aid and sexual harassment. There has always been a vulgar term stating to the effect that “A badge will get you lots of loving ladies, but the loving ladies will get your badge.” The italics are my attempt to keep it clean. And I have seen many officers resign over a lady.

Even in the jail, Corrections Officers are constantly being trained on the use of force, sexual harassment, verbal de-escalation, non-lethal weapons and so on the same as police officer training.

What is the leading force behind all this change in training? Law suits are the simple answer. When a governmental agency, thought to have “deep pockets,” is sued and loses, not only do they have to pay out big bucks of the taxpayer’s money, but their insurance rates increase tremendously. Those governmental agencies have found it is much cheaper to pay for training than it is to pay out the big bucks.

I have only touched on the training today’s LEO’s go through. In fact I have two 3” binders holding all my certificates and examples of my work. Some officers have taken advantage of all the training made available to them over the years such as the FBI Academy, Northwestern University School for Police Command Officers, Certified Police Chief courses and so on. These officers spend so much time in training that they don’t go out on the street and make arrests. A questionable arrest or claim of wrong doing, whether right or wrong may blemish their reputation and ruin any chance of being a Chief.

Then there are the rest of us who are considered “Old School” and still try to make a good arrest in spite of all the rules, policies and cameras watching the officer’s every move.

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First Group 2x2
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