phill4paul
01-17-2014, 09:01 AM
Deputy dog is droopy.... <sad face>.
Police departments across the country are struggling with staffing shortages as a result of a weak economy, hiring freezes, furloughs, layoffs, and cutbacks to salaries, benefits, and retirement incentives.
As baby-boomers in departments look toward retirement, issues surrounding differences among officers who grew up as Generation X-ers or Millennials appear to be surfacing. Veteran SWAT officers within the group of attendees say that too many new recruits look at SWAT as a “stepping stone” or “résumé builder” to other areas of law enforcement, so finding new recruits who are willing to stay on SWAT teams for the long haul is becoming more difficult.
“Instead of having 20 people staying there 20 years, you have people stay there five to seven years,” said Captain Ed Allen, NTOA Eastern Region Director and Instructor.
Additionally, new recruits are likely to be college graduates with a different mindset than their predecessors of 20 to 45 years ago. Attendees in the class gave their views on recruits in their early 20s who enter police departments with college degrees.
“What’s gone is police departments looking for the defenseman on the hockey team – the rough guy who can prepare to visit violence [on] a bad guy who would do us harm... [replaced by] the university graduate and all who comes with his entitled attitude,” said one officer.
Another claimed, “These news guys... come in that say, ‘I’m in here for just three to five years,’ and they check the box and they go on to do something else.”
“We got lawyers. We got Ph.Ds. We got everything but police officers. They can’t clear a corner. You tell them, 'Get out of the squad car and go clear the corner;' but they can recite to you a formula – you know, Starling’s law for cardiac help or something,” said one attendee.
He added, “But I think the worse thing we did was that we focused so much on law enforcement getting college degrees to move up that the type-A personalities out there in the streets kicking people’s asses and locking people up – well, they had to go to court. They didn’t have a lot of time to work on their master's.”
“I got this kid who wants to be in law enforcement. He wants to go get his degree, but he wants to meet me first.” Allen continues, “So he comes to my office; and as he walks in the door, this shadow is right behind him – his mom. (the room laughs) He was about to get into the law profession. He’s a freshman in college and he wanted to come meet us – with his manager.”
Agata says that too many just “want to put the uniform on and work the street,” learning along the way. “And these kids say, 'Hey, why should I put a uniform on? I’m smart. I need to throttle back,'” he says.
“The challenge is we got a mindset that says, 'I don’t need to pay the price to get to where I need to go,' or they really don’t understand the job that they really have to do. Why? Because they haven’t done their homework,” Agata explains.
“Again, we have all this great technology, but I got a kid. He can probably text 250 words a minute, but can they write a report? Do they actually know what it is to educate? Can you tell me what your authority is? Can you tell me how to apply your authority? Can you tell me what levels of force would be applicable and proper while doing that? And then, what are we offering them?”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/16/SHOT-Show-Police-Officers-Explain-Why-Millennials-Make-Terrible-Cops
Police departments across the country are struggling with staffing shortages as a result of a weak economy, hiring freezes, furloughs, layoffs, and cutbacks to salaries, benefits, and retirement incentives.
As baby-boomers in departments look toward retirement, issues surrounding differences among officers who grew up as Generation X-ers or Millennials appear to be surfacing. Veteran SWAT officers within the group of attendees say that too many new recruits look at SWAT as a “stepping stone” or “résumé builder” to other areas of law enforcement, so finding new recruits who are willing to stay on SWAT teams for the long haul is becoming more difficult.
“Instead of having 20 people staying there 20 years, you have people stay there five to seven years,” said Captain Ed Allen, NTOA Eastern Region Director and Instructor.
Additionally, new recruits are likely to be college graduates with a different mindset than their predecessors of 20 to 45 years ago. Attendees in the class gave their views on recruits in their early 20s who enter police departments with college degrees.
“What’s gone is police departments looking for the defenseman on the hockey team – the rough guy who can prepare to visit violence [on] a bad guy who would do us harm... [replaced by] the university graduate and all who comes with his entitled attitude,” said one officer.
Another claimed, “These news guys... come in that say, ‘I’m in here for just three to five years,’ and they check the box and they go on to do something else.”
“We got lawyers. We got Ph.Ds. We got everything but police officers. They can’t clear a corner. You tell them, 'Get out of the squad car and go clear the corner;' but they can recite to you a formula – you know, Starling’s law for cardiac help or something,” said one attendee.
He added, “But I think the worse thing we did was that we focused so much on law enforcement getting college degrees to move up that the type-A personalities out there in the streets kicking people’s asses and locking people up – well, they had to go to court. They didn’t have a lot of time to work on their master's.”
“I got this kid who wants to be in law enforcement. He wants to go get his degree, but he wants to meet me first.” Allen continues, “So he comes to my office; and as he walks in the door, this shadow is right behind him – his mom. (the room laughs) He was about to get into the law profession. He’s a freshman in college and he wanted to come meet us – with his manager.”
Agata says that too many just “want to put the uniform on and work the street,” learning along the way. “And these kids say, 'Hey, why should I put a uniform on? I’m smart. I need to throttle back,'” he says.
“The challenge is we got a mindset that says, 'I don’t need to pay the price to get to where I need to go,' or they really don’t understand the job that they really have to do. Why? Because they haven’t done their homework,” Agata explains.
“Again, we have all this great technology, but I got a kid. He can probably text 250 words a minute, but can they write a report? Do they actually know what it is to educate? Can you tell me what your authority is? Can you tell me how to apply your authority? Can you tell me what levels of force would be applicable and proper while doing that? And then, what are we offering them?”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/01/16/SHOT-Show-Police-Officers-Explain-Why-Millennials-Make-Terrible-Cops