Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lincoln Augustin
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Police behavior................................................................................................................................3
Education.........................................................................................................................................5
Training............................................................................................................................................8
Environmental..................................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12
FINAL EXPLANATORY 3
Introduction
In this explanatory paper, the goal is to determine whether higher education and training
can prevent the initiated shooting, or if it would be too late due to personal bias. Growing up
people have learned that police brutality has been a major issue throughout America. Even
though it was always a concern to society, there was not much talk about it until the last couple
of years, due to negative police interaction with the community. Due to this development, our
society was able to learn that most of the initiated shootings were against individuals in lower
socioeconomic backgrounds, and anyone that was not white. Today as a society, citizens are
more aware of what is going on. This is due to social media like; Facebook, Twitter, Google, and
YouTube. The main concerns a lot of scholars are researching have to do with the lack of training
and education that leads to police brutality. The key point for this paper will be to look to find the
main reasoning behind this issue. Today as a nation we are more educated on this matter than
ever before, due to the development of technology and the usefulness of social media. Now that
the media is informing society, and people are recording everything, people have been able to see
and hear about all the shootings and police brutalities that are going on here within the U.S.
However, we are still struggling to figure out what has happened to cause the initiated shootings.
Furthermore, the goal for this paper is to identify how personal biases, training, and lower
education affects the officer’s decision. Will different levels of education or training the officers
have really make a difference? This paper will examine if police-initiated shootings could be
Police behavior
Scholars believe that throughout the United States there has been lots of tension between
police and the community that is affecting both sides. According to the article Firearm Deaths by
FINAL EXPLANATORY 4
Law Enforcement; “the vast majority of shooting occurred with the police responding in a crime
and 90% of the decedents were armed (26 handguns, six knives, one axe, one metal pipe, and
one toy gun)” (Gill & Pasquale-Styles). However, the authors believe that when investigating
situations like that, medical examiners should consider all possible causes of deaths. Even if the
police are involved in such issues, or crimes, it does not mean the police committed the crime.
Nevertheless, should the police be blamed for all deaths that were caused during their response to
a call that was made in a high crime area? Gill and Melissa believe that some of those crimes
were caused by other peers or gang members, but people automatically blame the police officers
due to the misconceptions between the police and the people in the community.
Moreover, to better understand the tension between the police and the citizens of the
community, the United States Department of Justice Civil Right Division and the United States
Attorney’s Office Northern District of Illinois decided to do a deeper investigation on the matter.
The two organizations worked together to gather information on the Chicago Police Department
to figure out if the officers were using unlawful force and what the reason behind it was. In doing
so the two departments spent an extensive time in Chicago talking with people from all over the
city such as attorneys, researchers, lawyers, organizations etc. to get their input on that issue,
We reviewed CPD’s practice mindful that officers routinely place themselves in harm’s
way in order to uphold their commitment to serve and protect the people of the city of
Chicago, and that officers regularly encounter individuals who may be armed and
determined to avoid arrest. We likewise recognize that officers have not only a right, but
an obligation, to protect themselves and others from threats of harm, including deadly
FINAL EXPLANATORY 5
harm, which may arise an instant. (“The United states Department of Justice Civil Right
After long research and an eventful investigation both departments found that police
officers were using unreasonable deadly force. Especially if the citizens of the community did
not obey their rules or agree with them. Based on the investigation the authors believe that the
use of force and unlawful misconduct was due to poor police practices and lack of training. They
also believe that due to lack of training, discipline, and education it was easy for law
enforcement to discharge their weapons when it came to physical activity with the citizen.
Another quote that support the evidence from Chicago police department is: “we found officers
shoot at vehicles without justification and in contradiction to CPD policy. We found further that
officers exhibit poor discipline when discharging their weapons and engage in tactics that
themselves and public safety, including failing to await backup when they safely could and
should; using unsound tactics in approaching vehicles; and using their own vehicles in a manner
that is dangerous”
Education
Many scholars believe the different level of education can play important roll in the
decision when dealing with high risk situations. In the article “preferred Caribbean
Commissioners Recruit Attributes for Successful Police Training and Careers” the author
Richard H. Martin takes a different stance by using surveys from a different part of the country
and in the Caribbean in his research to help police departments understand what successful
recruits looking for a job, such as being a police officer, look like. Martin includes four steps that
most PD need use in their training programs for any entry level officer. The four steps are: basic,
in-service training, specialized training for career development, and pre-employment training
FINAL EXPLANATORY 6
(Bolton, 2017). Education can be added to the list but it is not an important aspect according to
Martin. Martin believes if any police department take those steps before hiring a recruit, she or
he would come ready to perform, whatever is required of them. Based on the study there will
always be problems involved within police departments, if the departments don’t start selecting
the right candidates for the job or start spending time to training officers correctly.
There have been many questions about how the police have been using deadly force to
take down citizens when facing risk in the community. According to Pub, in the article
“Accountability” police officers are using deadly force to take citizens down who do as little as
refuse to provide their name to the officer. Officers think it is their duty or that they are required
to use deadly force when facing a situation that is high risk. Pub also talks about how sometimes
officers get aggressive, or unlawful, because they abuse their authority. This may happen even if
they are a good cop, but they lose their composure. Officers also use force because they do not
have a complete understanding of the law in the book, so they act based on personal experience.
According to the article, a way to prevent this from happening is to train the officers more on
intention of acts, on the rules, on what is too much force and discipline the sue of too much force
(Pub, 2012). The police department needs to take these steps seriously to reduce the behavior of
police officers who brutalize citizens. Nevertheless, that may not end the problem but for now it
will slow it down enough until scholars can come up with a better situation.
In addition to the above article other scholars looking to find a solution that can work for
both the police but also the justice system. The scholar believes the environment the police are a
part of is also part of the problem. In the article “Gathering evidence: problems, training
requirements, and good practices in the Italian Judicial Police force” the authors take a different
angle by looking at what training can be provided to assist both the police and the judicial
FINAL EXPLANATORY 7
system. Anna Bussu believes that you cannot provide training for one group but not the other. If
that’s the case, then society is more likely to be fair to the citizens when it comes to officers’
misconduct. The study believes that the judicial system and police department need to work
together to help each other out and to come up with a solution to help the citizens, in the
community, regain the police trust again. For example, the next article takes a completely
Like the author below many scholars use their personal experiences to education readers
about police misconduct within the America culture. In the article “combining Storytelling with
problem solving to Improve Criminal Justice Education and Training” the author used his own
personal storytelling to give his student another way to analyze and problem solve instead of
using only statistical data. Michael Bolton believes that students learn best from personal and
professional experiences. In his way of teaching, he told the students personal experiences and
real-life examples of what he did as a police officer. “Few can dispute the obvious risks
associated with combining well-told tales from one’s personal and professional experiences with
that of materials taken from textbooks and other academic writings.” Personal experience does
not always replicate academic findings, which can always become a problem. (Bolton, 2017).
Other scholars like the author of this article believe police need more than just agency’s
training and education to be great at their job. Police need culture training in all aspects before
there can be a low rate of police misbehavior. The article, “promoting a Culture of Fairness:
Police Training, Procedural justice, and compliance” suggest that we do not use procedural
justice as a training tool for a police officer because they will not follow the rules. According to
the article, cultural training would be the program for officers; because it would teach them about
the culture and the community they are a part of. However, there was another post and pre-
FINAL EXPLANATORY 8
training done with several recruit’s officers using (voice 4 values), or control condition, to show
how the officers would respond to the procedural justice or compliance with supervisor. After
selecting enough information, the study showed that those recruits who receive the voice 4
values did not respond as well as those who did not receives it, (Sargeant, Antrobus, and Platz,
2017).
Training
Many scholars believe the lack of training is the reason for police unlawful misbehavior
against citizens in the community. In the article Police Education, Experience, and the Use of
Force the author discussed the most likely cause of an officer to use force and what can prevent
that from happening. Based on the article even though education plays a key role in police
officer’s decision, it's still not the most important part of reducing officer involved shootings.
What was found to be the most effective in training program was the police officers experience
on the job. Even though they believe officers with higher education are less likely to be involved
compared to a lower educated officer, they still believe experience on the job is the way to go to
reduce unlawful behavior. On the other hand, according to James P. Mcelvain and Augustine J.
Kposowa officers who have already been involved in a shooting, are more likely to be in an
encounter with another shooting in the future. “Interestingly, there was no difference between
officers with some college and those with a high school diploma when it comes to using physical
force” (Mcelvain and Kposowa 2008). The author of this article believes that education level has
nothing to do with police officer misbehavior. Based on their research, they found that from 1990
to 2004 most of the officers that were involved in incidents like police shootings were officers
between 30 to 34 years of age. However, the more experience you have the more likely you will
FINAL EXPLANATORY 9
have an encounter that contains the using force, which lead to the next article that over look all
the area where police officers provide on if they reservice the right training.
Program for police and Other Criminal Justice Professionals, “training can increase knowledge,
skills, and attitudes related to violence risk assessment in criminal justice professionals.” (Story,
Gibas, Reeves, & Hart, 2008). The author believes that all police officers can be trained to act the
right way and its very important for them to get the right training if they want to improve their
careers as policemen. There was a post and pre-training done with a number of officers, and
other CRJ professions, which showed the increase of knowledge, skills and attitudes. The author
Scholars are working together to come up with other resources that will be useful for
agencies to help police officers become better at their duty. According to Hyeyoung Lim and
Hoon Lee in the article the effects of supervisor education and training on police use of force,
misbehavior is shaped by their environments. In addition, the article argues that higher or lower
education does not have an effect on police officers; neither can education reduce officers’
unlawful behaviors. The author believes that, the only way to reduce police officers’ misconduct
is daily supervision and training programs. “education is the development of knowledge and
attitude in performing job tasks and in understanding the reason behind those tasks.” (Lim and
Lee, 2015). They have confidence education will benefit the supervisor more than the actual
officers. Many believe better supervisors make better officers, because officers do what their
boss tells them to do. That’s why its more important for police departments to focus on high
education levels for the supervisors while doing daily field training programs with police
officers.
FINAL EXPLANATORY 10
Environmental
In addition to affects scholars have named a few more issues that can be leading to the
tension between the police and the citizens in the community. In the Officer versus Suspect
resistance: A gendered analysis of patrol officers in an urban police department the author
believes gendered different play a rule when it came to use aggravated force against criminal in
the community, “male officers, however, tended to act aggressively to control situations.”
(Bazley, Lersch, and Mieczkowski, 2007). Moreover, the article argues that female officers had
to go through hard training to prove themselves, where it was not the same for the male officers.
Based on the finding scholars were able to find that male officers were more likely to be
involved a misbehavior situation compare to the female officer. Moreover, the study found that
both female and male officers have used the capacity and their authority to overpower the
resistance.
Another way scholars believe police officers can be affected by, are the environments
they apart of; which mean the officers can be acting based on what their boss or peers told them
to do. Based on the article Wellbeing, occupational justice and police practice: an affirming
environment’? Philip Birch, Margaret H, Vickers, Michael Kennedy and Sally Galovic believe
the use of force and police misconduct can be caused by the environment that they are part of.
For example, facts such as a persons workplace environment and the colleagues they work with
contribute to levels of wellbeing. According to the study it’s great that the researchers focus and
worry about the citizens in the community. What happened to the officer’s wellbeing? Does
anyone care how they can be affected as well? In addition, the authors believe there should be
high training programs being provided to law enforcement to help support their wellbeing. Also,
FINAL EXPLANATORY 11
they believe that the classes will reduce unreasonable force and improve police relationship
There are also many questions scholars ask about whether or not the police officers are
healthy enough to perform their duties. According to the article, “Shooting Behavior: How
working Memory and Negative Emotionality” Influence Police Officer Shoot decisions “Study
indicate that when threatened and experiencing highly arousing negative emotion, police officers
with limited working memory capacity are at increased risk of shooting error.” Based on this
article, the short-term memory and high-speed memory are affecting the officer’s decision. It’s
not their education level or the experience on the job. The author believes that the agencies
should spend some time training their officers on making healthy decision so all the problems the
Conclusion
and training? There was not a specific answer to the question. However, there was a lot of
suggestions on what can be done in regard to that matter. In addition, there was a 50/50 argument
on both sides whether or not education and training can help reduce police-initiated shooting.
Some researchers believe it is the training and experience that get you ready for the job and
education will tag along as you grow in the field. Others argue it is the high education that gets
you prepared for the job. Officers will be gaining the experience they need to become more
comfortable at the job during work. Moreover, other studies believe that lack of supervision and
environment play a key role on police officers shooting and poor preforming. Many scholars and
studies give a handful of suggestions on how the police departments and other organizations can
work together to fix the issue. That’s something that can be addressed later since the goal of this
FINAL EXPLANATORY 12
assignment was to be determining whether or not high education and training can prevent police-
initiated shootings.
FINAL EXPLANATORY 13
Reference
Bazley, T. D., Lersch, K. M., and Mieczkowski. (2007) Officer force versus suspect resistance: A
Kleider H. M., Parrott D. J., & King T. Z. (2009). Shooting behavior: How working memory and
Lebrón, M. (2012). Neocolonial Policing in Puerto Rico. NACLA Report on the Americas,45(1),
12-16. doi:10.1080/10714839.2012.11722106.
Mcelvain, J. P., & Kposowa, A. J. (2008). Police Officer Characteristics and the Likelihood of
doi:10.1177/0093854807313995.
Paoline III, E. A., & Terrill, W. (2007). Police Education, Experience, and the Use of Force.
Storey, J. E., Gibas, A. L., Reeves, K. A., & Hart, S. D. (2011). Evaluation of a Violence Risk
(Threat) Assessment Training Program for Police and Other Criminal Justice