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Sources: Cops Take Naps During Eric Garner Retraining
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 22, 2015
Modified Feb 22, 2015
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Christopher Parypa / Shutterstock.com
By
Ben Yakas
Published Feb 22, 2015
Modified Feb 22, 2015
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Following the grand jury's decision not to indict the officer who fatally choked Eric Garner on Staten Island last year, Police Commissioner William Bratton promised that around 22,000 police officers would take part in a three-day retraining program in order to "enhance community and police officer safety." Now that the training has begun, the reviews are in—and unsurprisingly, anonymous NYPD officers are complaining to the NY Post that it's been a "waste of time."
About 4,000 cops have already gone through the retraining course, which was meant to change how officers understand and work with their communities, presumably in hopes of establishing more trust between cops and the people they're served with protecting. But the anonymous sources tell the Post that the actual training mostly involved eight-hour lectures, during which many officers fell asleep.
"Officers thought they were going to get some real hands-on, quality training on how to deal with a hostile prisoner or arrestee. They didn’t get that," one anonymous officer griped. "It’s three days, it’s boring and there’s no real tactics. They’re not putting them in scenarios. Cops felt they would get more tactical training in light of the Eric Garner case."
For the first day of training, officers take part in "Blue Courage," a cultural-sensitivity workshop created by a consulting group. The anonymous source described it as "a self-reflection kind of course," which is not something cops apparently find much value in.
For the second session, the anonymous source says officers get lectures on "the legitimacy of policing — why police officers do what they do," which again, cops apparently don't find much value in. The final session is the only on which includes any hands-on training: officers are taught the "high-low takedown," which teaches them how to take down a suspect from behind the legs and from the front of the torso.
"Instructors are saying that students are falling asleep," the anonymous source continued. "You wouldn’t take a college course at midnight." The program costs $35 million altogether, and the anonymous cop claims that 'eight out of every 10 cops give it negative reviews when they finish the training.'
While it is entirely possible that the smart policing sessions are falling on deaf (or sleepy) ears, it's important to keep in mind that there's a rich history of anonymous officers bitching to the Post, regardless of the real temperature of the police force. That includes complaining that stop-and-frisk oversight will make society collapse or that any anti-bias laws would erode their ability to do police work.
So take these initial negative reviews with a grain of salt, since anonymous cops do tend to get a bit hysterical.
Tagged
anonymous sources
cops
eric garner
ny post
nypd
police
retraining
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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