Local law enforcement: More training is good, but not the only need

The state’s Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission has taken an extensive look at law enforcement training and discipline in recent months and has voted to require more training in de-escalation techniques and recognizing bias.

The POST Commission and the Department of Public Safety asked Missourians to participate in a survey in an effort to gain feedback from both the public and law enforcement officers.

A total of nearly 1,690 people participated in the public opinion surveys, with comments ranging from “‘we love our police’” to “‘we don’t love our police’ and in the middle,” DPS Director Sandra Karsten reported to the POST commissioners at one of its subsequent listening sessions.

The highest response area, Karsten said, was in the St. Louis/northeast area of the state with nearly 40%.

Of all the surveys, less than 7% came from the Cape Girardeau/Sikeston/Southeast Missouri region, Karsten said.

In total, according to Karsten, nearly 50% of those responding reported not having any concerns with law enforcement.

Numerous topics were raised, with de-escalation being one of the biggest, commission Chair and Platt County Sheriff Mark Owen said in the listening sessions.

“Do officers de-escalate enough,” said Owen, who indicated de-escalation can be as “simple” as “verbal judo.”

Commission member/Holt Summit Chief Gary Hill said officers do get de-escalation training, but not “enough practical” training.

A lot of times, Hill said, officers are responding to situations involving uncontrollable or irate subjects and could possibly talk the subjects down, but “we say the wrong words,” which makes the situation worse.

Hill said he is a “firm believer” of Crisis Intervention Training.

CIT training gives officers the ability to recognize and de-escalate a situation without force.

Commission member/certified training academy CEO John Worden said CIT “is very beneficial.”

The problem, Owen said, is departments can’t afford to send officers to the 40-hour CIT training.

Owen questioned what POST could do.

“So much of this is communication,” he said, and how to open the lines of communication between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Creating those lines of communication is something Poplar Bluff Police Chief Danny Whiteley said he and Bishop Ron Webb with Mt. Calvary Powerhouse Church had been “working closely” together for the past few years.

It has been about creating “relationships between law enforcement, the minority community and the community in general,” Whiteley said. “I think we have been ahead of the game in that fashion, and we are currently working together on those scenarios.”

The POST Commission’s members also discussed the need for specific training regarding racial bias and for officers to be more engaged in their communities.

The commission subsequently met in October and voted to require annual training in de-escalation techniques and recognizing implicit bias for all Missouri law enforcement officers.

Before the vote, Jefferson County Sheriff David Marshak said, he felt additional opportunities for de-escalation training would “definitely help bridge the gap, especially in the minority communities and improve that relationship” between law enforcement and the citizens.

Once the changes are implemented in 2022, officers will take a one-hour course in each as part of their required 24 hours of annual continuing education training.

“We believe these training changes … will lead to better interactions between officers and the public and can help strengthen relations with the communities we, in law enforcement, serve,” Owen said in a news release.

Continuing to put more training responsibilities and “blame on police officers for deadly situations is only going to make officers’ safety worse,” said Butler County Sheriff Mark Dobbs. “What needs to happen is more accountability for those who resist arrest and brandish weapons in the presence of police.”

Police officers, Dobbs said, engage in de-escalation situations on a daily basis.

“For people to infer that police officers aren’t good at de-escalation techniques is absurd,” Dobbs said. “What needs to be emphasized is teaching young men not to fight with police officers and resisting arrest.”

Whiteley said it was hard for him to make a “fully informed and educated opinion on what they’ve done” since he has not been “exposed to the full information packet of what (POST is) going to require.”

Normally, the POST Commission or DPS “will put out some sort of joint statement as to the ramifications and requirements of what they have passed,” said Whiteley. “With that being said, I don’t have a good base to form my opinion, but, as always, law enforcement in particular is a fluid situation at best.”

Law enforcement, Whiteley said, has to “adapt and innovate as you go.”

Whiteley said he certainly supports any training, which “makes it safer for the public and the officers and looks forward to seeing what they came up with.”

The problem, he said, is sometimes federal or state government will start “adding required training with no solution to the funding.

“To train each individual officer, in our case 40-plus officers, is very expensive. When they are coming up with new techniques, technology or training, they need to figure out how to pay for it.”

Dobbs said he is “all for” good training for officers, but, “in these violent situations, police officers are only half of the equation.

“We seldom see the other side of the equation addressed when we talk about things that need to be changed. If we go too far in trying to concentrate on de-escalation, it gives the inference that a police officer should even further hesitate in taking the necessary action.”