Special Training for Aurora CO Police

[mikeb302000]

http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/2011/07/aurora-colorado-police-and-their.html">As we've mentioned before Aurora Colorado is about the worst place in the country to be a criminal.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_19016625">Denverpost.com reports that due to all the police shootings this year, the cops are going to get special mandatory training.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates has ordered each of the city's officers to attend specialized training after the city's eighth officer-involved shooting of the year occurred early Thursday.

In a letter Friday to all officers, Oates noted the "disproportionately high number of officer-involved shootings" this year and the wounding of two officers by gunfire. Taken together, he said, it convinces him that it is time for the force to review officer safety techniques and the proper time to use deadly force.

I was thinking maybe the cops will get a two-week intensive course at some Parris-Island type facility. My suggestion in the as-we've-mentioned-before link was a bit too much I realize.

About the training, I say every work day, one hour. Some of that can be practicing techniques like someone said above and some of it can be actual shooting.

Just like anyone else who wants to carry a gun, they need to be practiced and qualified, even more so since, as cops, that’s their job.

But what are they planning in Aurora?

The department has a new high-tech simulator to practice scenarios in which deadly or nondeadly force may come into play, and Oates said he is eager to give the simulator a full workout.

The training program will also cover "de-escalation skills," including tactical retreat, and it will stress the use of nonlethal force.

"We really like the idea of a whole day devoted to this kind of stuff,"

A WHOLE DAY! Is that a riot, or what? Some of the most trigger-happy cops in America are going to get a whole day of training to learn restraint and de-escalation techinques.

My opinion is this is pitifully inadequate. The training should be far more than that. The savings on one or two avoided unnecessary shootings would more than make up for the cost. I mention that because obviously the loss of human life doesn't seem to motivate.

What's your opinion? Do the cops have inadequate training now? Do you think a one-day program is sufficient to effect change and result in improvement?

Please leave a comment.
http://mikeb302000.blogspot.com/">(cross posted at Mikeb302000)

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[geckosfeet]

2. One can argue the requirements for training forever. I do agree that it

should be mandatory. Programs should be tailored to the individual and performance should be evaluated to meet minimum department standards.

No - I will not visit your blog.

[RSillsbee]

3. I never thought I'd say this but I agree

I think this training should be ongoing.

Still unreccing for blog spam though

[ProgressiveProfessor]

4. The type and level of training is determined by the root problems

What you have not said is what is the problem they are trying to address. A high number of shootings is not the seminal issue, there is an underlying cause, which neither you nor I nor the media apparently know.

[ileus]

5. Hopefully they'll take a 3 or 4 day carbine course and starting carrying patrol rifles.

Criminals and thugs only respect one thing....firepower.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

6. The real problem...

...is that Aurora is about 300 officers short of where they need to be. Statistics correlate crime to the ratio of officers to residents. Aurora and Pittsburgh are comparable in population and Pittsburgh has about 3 officers/1,000 residents. Aurora has about 2 officers/1,000 residents. It is sometimes difficult for growing cities to keep up. Aurora's population has quadrupled since 1970. Aurora is also a Denver suburb; Denver has a bit of crime problem but also has 25% more officers/1,000 residents than Aurora. (Statistics from 2009)

[Name removed]

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[mikeb302000]

11. What's your complaint?

That I'm posting my ideas and that they are to "push my agenda?" What do you do? Do you express someone else's ideas? Do you push someone else's agenda.

"What are you going to do next, advocate disarming the police?"

Are you asking that because you understood very well that I'm suggesting not disarming the police but that they need more training, and that's something even you agree with? Is disagreeing with me that important to you that even when I express something you agree with you make up some other shit and make believe I said it so you can disagree.

Is that a liberal and democratic trick? I mean, where are you coming from really?

[safeinOhio]

16. The rules are clear and in

black and white. I don't think some people bother to read them.

[Name removed]

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[GreenStormCloud]

8. Probably a statistical fluke.

If police shooting are distributed randomly, then there will be some places that have clusters of them. It doesn't mean anything. Since outliers always tend to regress toward the mean that means that they will experience fewer police involved shootings no matter what they do. The training program (which is not a bad thing) will get the credit.

[SteveM]

9. "...Intergrading between Mule Deer and Whitetaill Deer works in favor of the latter..."

[PavePusher]

10. Wait a damn minute....!

I thought Police were the "only ones" well trained enough to carry guns in public?

Oh, the inescapable IRONY, it hits like a fucking brick, don't it?

Yet Citizens, who as a group, routinely shoot far fewer innocent people, and miss their target less often, are the ones we need to worry about?

Un-Freaking-believable......

/sarcasm

[iverglas]

12. "I thought Police were the 'only ones' well trained enough to carry guns in public?"

Where do you get these thoughts?

I dunno, maybe Mike really did say that someplace.

I know that what I've always said is that the police are the only ones subject to public oversight in their carrying and use of firearms.

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[ileus]

13. wrong...police are basically civilians...only FEDs should carry guns in public.

[spin]

21. Nah. Only the military and the soldiers of fortune that work for companies like Blackwater Worldwide

now named Xe Services. They do the dirty jobs no one else wants to take credit for.

Xe Services

Xe Services LLC is a private military company founded in 1997 by Erik Prince and Al Clark.;<2><3> it is better known by its former names, Blackwater USA and Blackwater Worldwide. Xe is currently the largest of the U.S. State Department's three private security contractors. Xe provided diplomatic security services in Iraq to the United States federal government on a contractual basis.<1> Xe Services also has a research and development wing that was responsible for developing the Grizzly APC along with other innovative military technology. The company's headquarters is located in Arlington, VA.<4>

***snip***

The Obama administration awarded Xe Services a quarter of a billion dollar contract to work for the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.<6>

***snip***

Non-Iraq services

According to a company press release, Blackwater provided airlift, security, logistics, and transportation services, as well as humanitarian support. It was reported that the company also acted as law enforcement in the disaster-stricken areas, for example securing neighborhoods and confronting criminals.<142> Blackwater moved about 200 personnel into the area hit by Hurricane Katrina, most of whom (164 employees) were working under a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to protect government facilities,<72> but the company held contracts with private clients as well. Overall, Blackwater had a "visible, and financially lucrative, presence in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as the use of the company contractors cost U.S. taxpayers $240,000 a day."<80>

Xe is one of five companies picked by the Department of Defense Counter-Narcotics Technology Program Office in a five-year contract for equipment, material and services in support of counter-narcotics activities. The contract is worth up to $15 billion. The other companies picked are Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, OHI, and Arinc Inc.<143> Blackwater USA has also been contracted by various foreign governments. The DEA and DoD counternarcotics program is supported by Blackwater Worldwide in Afghanistan as well.<144> “Blackwater is involved on DoD side” of the counter-narcotics program in Afghanistan says Jeff Gibson, vice president for international training at Blackwater. “We interdict. The NIU surgically goes after shipments going to Iran or Pakistan. We provide training to set up roadblocks, identify where drug lords are, and act so as not to impact the community.”<144> About 16 Blackwater personnel are in Afghanistan at any given time to support DoD and DEA efforts at training facilities around the country.<144> Blackwater is also involved in mentoring Afghan officials in drug interdiction and counter narcotics.<145> As Richard Douglas, a deputy assistant secretary of defense, explained, "The fact is, we use Blackwater to do a lot of our training of counternarcotics police in Afghanistan. I have to say that Blackwater has done a very good job."<146>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xe_Services

[petronius]

14. All police training should be comprehensive and continuous (especially that

focusing on civil rights and liberties, IMO).

But it's not valid to conclude from a negative incident, or even a cluster of them, that police training is flawed or insufficient without knowing what that training actually entails. And personally, I don't know enough about the training programs in my local departments to say that, when a cop screws up, it's a problem with the training schedule rather than something else...

[jeepnstein]

18. You're the expert, tell us the answer.

Oh, you don't have one. You want them to spend five hours a week on firearm training? That's hilarious.

Taking the good time and effort to do an eight hour training session is a huge undertaking for a police department. They don't have unlimited funds. How do you think they'd pay for two weeks' travel to a private facility?

The eight hour course probably has as much to do with minimizing worker's comp costs as it does anything.

[Atypical Liberal]

20. How much training do police in Italy get?

Just wonderin'.

[rl6214]

22. Maybe enough to disarm illegal gun owners