America’s law enforcement agency has seen better days. Days’ where the way they went about police issues was not as visible as it is now. But, with news media outlets, and the publics ability to become instant news journalist by record police/civilian encounters with their smartphones, the public has been able to see a problem. Some of these questionable videos that show forms of police misconduct such as excessive force, police brutality and racial profiling, have had Americans to fight back about these issues. With this being said, should police be more properly trained in first-hand interaction with civilians to better counter the public’s fear of police and to address excessive force used by some officers? There’s no doubt that many civilians
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The high profile killings of black men Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina and Eric Garner in New York City have brought light to excessive force by police. In North Charleston, an unarmed Walter Scott was shot several times in the back while sprinting away from Officer Michael Slager. Mr. Scott was at least 18 feet away from Slager and was showing no signs of turning around before being fired upon. The shooting was caught on video by a bystander. In Tennessee v. Garner 1985, the justices held that, “A police officer may not seize an unarmed, non-dangerous suspect by shooting him dead.” In the opinion of the court, the only exception was if the suspect posed a threat of serious harm to the officer or others. Walter Scott was clearly unarmed and the probable cause that initiated the initial encounter was a broken taillight, so officer Slager had no reason to believe Mr. Scott was a threat. Michael Slager was charged with murder and manslaughter. This incident may have been avoided if Slager was properly trained in the use of deadly …show more content…
Police officers have to make quick decisions under pressure and in unpredictable circumstances. Many officers claim that they simply respond to the actions of their suspect. They are always reacting, so they are always behind no matter what. Studies show that it takes roughly a half a second for an officer to recognize a threat and then to draw his or her weapon to react to said threat. Any hesitation could mean death. Recruits are taught to look for motions that resemble a gun being drawn. They’re taught to always know what’s going on with a suspect’s hands because it’s the hands that are going to hurt them according to use-of-force expert and defensive tactics instructor for the San Diego Police Department Ken Kries. Officers are expected to take in a lot of information including a person’s behavior and body language, as well as their surrounding area. This is a lot of information to analyze in such a short time not to mention still having to deal with the situation at hand. Kries says that a major goal of police training is to give officers trained responses to as many realistic and variable scenarios as possible. Having trained responses could reduce the time needed to access a situation and come up with a plan by as much as nine seconds. Law enforcement points us to the majority of other police contacts that end without incident, or to the several times an officer should have used deadly force but chose
The high profile killings of black men Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina and Eric Garner in New York City have brought light to excessive force by police. In North Charleston, an unarmed Walter Scott was shot several times in the back while sprinting away from Officer Michael Slager. Mr. Scott was at least 18 feet away from Slager and was showing no signs of turning around before being fired upon. The shooting was caught on video by a bystander. In Tennessee v. Garner 1985, the justices held that, “A police officer may not seize an unarmed, non-dangerous suspect by shooting him dead.” In the opinion of the court, the only exception was if the suspect posed a threat of serious harm to the officer or others. Walter Scott was clearly unarmed and the probable cause that initiated the initial encounter was a broken taillight, so officer Slager had no reason to believe Mr. Scott was a threat. Michael Slager was charged with murder and manslaughter. This incident may have been avoided if Slager was properly trained in the use of deadly …show more content…
Police officers have to make quick decisions under pressure and in unpredictable circumstances. Many officers claim that they simply respond to the actions of their suspect. They are always reacting, so they are always behind no matter what. Studies show that it takes roughly a half a second for an officer to recognize a threat and then to draw his or her weapon to react to said threat. Any hesitation could mean death. Recruits are taught to look for motions that resemble a gun being drawn. They’re taught to always know what’s going on with a suspect’s hands because it’s the hands that are going to hurt them according to use-of-force expert and defensive tactics instructor for the San Diego Police Department Ken Kries. Officers are expected to take in a lot of information including a person’s behavior and body language, as well as their surrounding area. This is a lot of information to analyze in such a short time not to mention still having to deal with the situation at hand. Kries says that a major goal of police training is to give officers trained responses to as many realistic and variable scenarios as possible. Having trained responses could reduce the time needed to access a situation and come up with a plan by as much as nine seconds. Law enforcement points us to the majority of other police contacts that end without incident, or to the several times an officer should have used deadly force but chose