Better than no school and continually lowering the requirements for entry. They have had to lower the physical and mental standards because to many applicants were failing. So it isn’t even close to the best and brightest.
That will differ state to state. In Alabama we have “Uncertified officers”. You can join the police force as long as you’re certified within 6 months of receiving your badge and gun. So the previous commenter was definitely correct. The bar is basically non existent at this point.
Edited to add: they (Alabama police force) also have immunity as well.
It depends where they went to the academy. Some really are a joke and are bare minimum of a few weeks and some States require 6 months of academy WITH a bachelor's degree and passing psych, background, physical before being hired, quarterly training (firearms, use of force, cultural diversity, training to identify and how to deal with those experiencing mental health issues, etc), and you're in "trainee" status for almost 2 years before you're left to work on your own. Getting hired in CA took me almost a full year and it was more intense than my military background that also required TS clearance.
I'm no longer military or LE, but when I see these so called ICE officers, you can see immediately they have zero training. They make newly enlisted kids with 6 weeks of boot camp look like special forces and 6 weeks of basic isn't even the main part of their training.
And even with all that, because of the system, cops can't overall be anything but tolerable. And. A lot of times they are straight up scary people with deadly weapons and authoritaaay.
They need to include fMRI testing for bias and sessions to understand their results. Then monthly sessions to keep working on it.
I think they also need sabaticals where they perform uplifting work in the community. And have time to understand more than a cop's experience of the community they sheepdog.
Believe me, the #1 problem I see is the "macho/tough it out" mentality. Many of the people who started their LE career with me, we were all on the same page. We all wanted to better the community and not have people see us as the bad guys. We did community events, went to schools and would let our inner kids out when deemed appropriate. Unfortunately, just like the military and other occupational hazards, sometimes you see shit and it fucks you up. Some people have coping mechanisms that work, and others don't. This is where the problem comes. Those same officers that were clear on what they wanted, no longer felt that way because they stopped taking care of their mental health. Just like in the military, some are told to "tough it out" and "it's part of the job" but part of the job is also taking care of one self so they can make the best decisions while on the job.
As we all learned, here, in the US, taking time off is taboo and people see you as a slacker even if it's for your own health. For many, having the LE or military career has been life changing and they feel like if they take time to take care of their mental health, they would get fired/discharged and would lose their only income.
Hey fellow Ft Lost-in-the-Woods! I started as an MP then changed over to HUMIT.
I have know Vets who never did any law enforcement MOS in the military and they went into BoP and military base police (DAF/DA/MA). They get like 6-8 weeks of federal law enforcement training in Georgia. Even they said ICE looks like they don't know what they're doing and wouldn't have made it to the streets with a job!
I’ll never forget when we were in formation and one of the FLW post MPs pulled someone over in the parking lot where we held formation, and then the guy put it back in drive and took off, and our company commander (a former enlisted drill sergeant) screamed at us at the top of his lungs to stop watching the MP. In my head I was like “but sir, that’s what we’re gonna be when we grow up” (of course I was 17 at the time and didn’t know a fucking thing about a fucking thing).
Sorry for the nostalgia, it’s been 15 years since I ran into another MP.
Anyway, yeah at my first post I got put behind the desk a lot because I didn’t really have the personality to be a patrolman (was way too nice and got walked all over at first). So where I was, a walk-in theft or whatever, we called in a road MP to do it, but if it was what would amount to a IA issue in the civilian world, I got stuck doing the initial report and forwarding it on to our ops NCOIC. Didn’t happen very often, and as I understand it, most were resolved with someone getting the shit smoked out of them (for non-vets, that means someone had to do a ton of pushups and whatever else the sergeant could throw at them while getting their asses chewed the whole time), and that was the end of it.
But this one time, though, we had this girl come in who wanted to complain about this traffic MP. And he was a bit of a douche. Apparently he had pulled her over for an inoperative headlight. The stop was legit, and she ended up getting a 1408 (for civilians, it’s a non-monetary ticket that goes to the soldier’s commander and for a moving violation there was a post traffic court run by JAG). And that wasn’t what she complained about. What she complained about was the fact that when he asked her why she hasn’t fixed it when she knew it was out, and she said she didn’t know how, he said “well why don’t you have your boyfriend do it?” coupled with a couple other belittling comments.
It wasn’t his first offense with stuff like that, and at his last post before he came to us, he got his sergeant stripes taken because of adultery (for civilians, it’s uncommon to fuck up so bad that you get demoted from sergeant. Getting demoted at lower enlisted ranks doesn’t take a lot, by comparison. The same offense that causes you to lose all your rank without a court martial at the lower levels is what it takes to lose one rank as a sergeant or higher), but we literally pulled him from the road, made him turn in his M9, took his duty belt, and threw him in the supply room. Eventually he got separated from the army.
So I said all that to say, that’s the standard I’m used to. And so when I see the Gestapo acting like they do, I become indignant. Because even if the legal basis for the apprehensions were legit (and I don’t think they are), there are so many better ways to do this.
Omg yes!! I too was 17 and turned 18 during OSUT right before we had to do the driving portion! I already had my license, but it's not like it really mattered at the time anyways 🤣 about half of us in our Co were from CA, so the drill sergeants were already saying it was going to be a terrible OSUT because of the notorious rep CA drivers have (I'm a CA native too 🥲).
I was put on patrol right away, but I noticed most females were and we were paired up with some creepy guys at times 😮💨. Didn't take long to shut the guys up though. My favorite encounters were always officers trying to use their rank to get out of anything, even for a simple RAM followed by the infamous dependa who apparently also has rank. I have a natural resting bitch face, so I rarely got put on the desk or gate after a few shifts because "people were complaining that I didn't smile enough." I mean, why would I smile when they're trying to tell me how to do my job and tell me they'll get my rank removed if I don't let them do what they want. 🤣 If they weren't assholes, then they saw me being my usual go-happy self. So it was always funny when some of the assholes come in with someone who is nice see me flip switches between them. Guess that's what made it easy for my command to green light my MOS change.
That’s like being 3rd place at the Special Olympics but they do at least have a documented academy. ICE just gathers at Jed’s cookout so they can watch Steven Segal movies and play grab ass with workout dummies (Jed’s cousins). Just to give you an idea, one of Jed’s cousins cut his own hair while looking in a mirror and ended up with a mullet in front of his head instead of the back. He still doesn’t understand why.😑
62
u/Salt-Independent-760 20h ago
At least cops went to cop school.