Curriculum for California police officers

After reading the required text on the many hours of police training the officer candidates receive during their days at the academy I found many items to be lacking in their training. Ethics and crisis intervention made the top of the list. We can all say that firing a gun, using a taser, or having a nice pressed uniform is important but in all truth knowing right from wrong as a police officer is paramount as well a being able to render assistance to a family during a crisis, be it a loss of a family member, a break in, or a fire. There were other classes the had more hours to them that many officers might experience only once or twice in their careers but are still important. Training in such areas as ethics, community responsibility, and the proper role of the police is seen as boring and unimportant. While skills training is engaging and captures recruits’ attention, the non-skills training is routinely provided through lectures in a “cold, preachy fashion.” This problem calls into question the ability of a department to adequately train and instill community service and problem-solving values in recruits. (Gaines, 2012) Having experienced “Death by Powerpoint” many times in my military career I understand that the information being put forth is boring and dry. It could be utilized in better ways by using improvisation to improve the officers ability to think on their feet instead of sitting in a cold classroom staring at a screen. Mock citizen senerios are a great way to test how an officer will react to a situation during training and know how better to improve and prepare them for their future. Another way to improve in officer training it to have refresher classes over time after graduation.

Gaines Larry K. POLICE ADMINISTRATION. 2012. Delmar, Cengage Learning. Prior editions, published by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,

STUDENT2:

On page 303 in the table chart 10-6, the most important areas that I see in the list are report writing, physical fitness and weaponless defense. The reason why writing reports are important because an officer is the first point of contact in a criminal situation. “A written report is often the first impression an officer makes on commanding, lawyers, or judges and a poorly written report can cause an inaccurate portrayal of competence level” (Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. 2012). The importance of physical fitness is because police work can be physically demanding. Being fit helps to protect police officers from becoming victims and good muscular strength will have an impact on officers ability to apprehend and agitated suspect sprint up a set of stairs, or burst through locked doors” (Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. 2012). The importance of weaponless defense is knowing that the officers can be more effective in an hands on type of situation when not utilizing a weapon. Some weaponless training would consists of many different types of martial arts practices. What I would do to alter the curriculum to ensure that officers receive adequate training would be to put more hours into ethics and professionalism. I say this because people must be able to trust the police to protect the community and uphold the law. “In policing, ethics includes values such as allegiance, honestly, loyalty and courage” (Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. 2012). This would be adequate training because being professional is good conduct and qualities that characterizes a particular profession. “Professionalism is policing necessitates viewing the position of police officer as a profession, rather than simply as a job” (Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. 2012).

Gaines, L., & Worrall, J. (2012). Police administration (3rd ed.). United States: Delmar Cengage Learning

STUDENT 3:

Police Productivity.

The administrator may select strategies that will not produce the maximum results but that can be afforded. In essence, budgetary constraints are one of the factors that determine which strategies will be implemented. In other words, the budget often drives police activities. The administrator will be willing to implement more expensive strategies on higher-priority goals while implementing less expensive strategies for lower-level goals. The end result is maximizing the department’s resources by expending a greater proportion of the resources for the most important goals. (Gaines, 2012) Using my experience from the military at a Headquarters, Many times the budget would be limited but we would always start with what we needed for training and everything else would fall in line where it could. There were times when we would be months from the new fiscal year and be dead broke on the budget for everything. The people above me would decide what was priority for the year and what could be passed up for another year. Saving money was not an option. Sometimes we would have to cut out certain training just because we could not afford it at that time. The budget can be a tricky item to work with. You as a manager know that you have a limited amount of money and that is it. If it is wasted you have no more in reserves to work with. Today, most governments and police departments use the line-item budget for several reasons. First, its departmental breakdowns (departmental budgets) make it fairly simple to administer. Cuts in line-item budgets do not give the appearance of cutting programs. Second, the line-item budget allows mayors and other executive branch officials to exert maximum control over expenditures and agency heads. (Gaines, 2012) Looking at what departments have the most priority of action and assets needed to accomplish their appointed jobs can help break it down.

Gaines Larry K. POLICE ADMINISTRATION. 2012. Delmar, Cengage Learning. Prior editions, published by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.,

STUDENT4:

If I were a police chief the techniques and strategies I would use to improve productivity and maintain it at a high level is to start off by making sure I know the different schedules of my employees. I would have a meeting with everyone and encourage my employees to keep up a routine everyday because doing this will benefit both employees and the department. For example, a person is able to keep their personal errands, like dropping off their kids at school in a timely manner and still make it to work without stressing out. This will benefit the department because the person can go to work without having that stress to rush things through and instead they would be able to start their job calmly. Another thing I believe would help productivity would be to encourage my employees to get enough rest and not to over work themselves because it will benefit them and the department too. For example, getting enough rest will rejuvenate their brain function and it can help the department because the person can have better reaction time and reduce mistakes at work. Also making sure officers are physically fit because this will increase their energy level, blood flow and they are better alert. This would also reduce illness and reduce injuries. Getting mid-level managers to agree productivity shouldn’t be that difficult because they want the same things, they want officers to be productive and to do their job to the best of their abilities.When it comes to motivating officers to do their job maybe given them capital investment. For example, issuing updated equipment to help them do their job better. Using productivity bargaining can increase productivity with police employee unions. Another point is that police managers cannot afford to make strategic decisions without giving due consideration to rank-and-file police officers. Managers could also use principled negotiations when dealing with unions and employee associations. Management audit can be used to manage the effectiveness of operations.

Gaines, L. K., & Worrall, J. L. (2003, 1991). Police Administration (3rd ed.). Clifton Park, New York: The McGraw- Hill Companies, Inc

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