* In the wake of the indictment of now-former Sangamon County Deputy Sheriff Sean Grayson for the on-duty murder of Sonya Massey, Gov. JB Pritzker was asked today if he supported further criminal justice reforms to state laws…
Look, when you talk to police officers and leaders in law enforcement, they will tell you that they think there should be more training, that we should put more resources to training, and that their officers should receive more training. And I couldn’t agree more. When you look at, for example, the Illinois State Police does a lot of training, more than I think almost any other police force in the state of Illinois, and they are top notch.
Almost exactly two years ago, I did a late-night walk through some of Chicago’s West Side with Fraternal Order of Police President John Catanzara. During that walk, I asked him if he believed that CPD officers needed more training. He told me he believed they did.
* If you click here and look at the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board’s training mandates, you’ll see no minimum hours are required for annual and three-year training categories.
The only minimum hour requirements are for just two of the three-year training mandates on use of force…
At least 6 hours of instruction on use of force techniques, including the use of de-escalation techniques to prevent or reduce the need for force whenever safe and feasible or when force must be used, to use force that is objectively reasonable, necessary, and proportional under the totality of the circumstances; and to ensure appropriate supervision and accountability (These hours may be all in scenario-based hours or a mixture of scenario & classroom)
At least 6 hours of training focused on high-risk traffic stops (These hours may be all in scenario- based hours or a mixture of scenario & classroom)
Specific training on officer safety techniques, including cover, concealment, and time (no hourly minimum standard established)
Specific training on the law concerning stops, searches and use of force under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution (no hourly minimum standard established)
* In comparison, this is from the state’s hair stylist training rules…
completion of at least 1,500 hours of theory and practical study in an approved cosmetology school
Thoughts?
- Homebody - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:00 pm:
As long as it isn’t “training” like the Killology crap.
Not all training is created equal, and some training actively makes things worse.
- Huh? - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:00 pm:
“You can lead a horse to water …”
- jimbo26 - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:01 pm:
great training in Decatur https://www.policeforum.org/ Response to mental health related calls https://www.policeforum.org/assets/MBHResponse.pdf
- Montessori's Mantle - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:15 pm:
Illinois law enforcement is well compensated above many other professions who require:
- secondary and tertiary education
- licensure
- ongoing training and study
Nurses, school teachers, electricians, plumbers, barbers, lawyers, and accountants all make wages either below or on par with what many municipal employers pay police officers.
Yet we require none of those things of civil servants who can play judge and jury over our very lives.
Law enforcement talk out of both sides of their mouths on this issue and, to some extent, they must. On the one hand, they say they need more training. On the other hand, the fight educational requirements at most bargaining tables because of hiring difficulties. They advocate for lower standards to lower overtime burdens but then push for minimum manning hours to then pump up their salaries. They argue they are both “overworked” and yet need more money.
It’s not all their faults. It’s not like we are asking for fewer cops to do fewer things. We call on them for all sorts of things that, seriously, shouldn’t be within their scope.
I think we need to think long term on this and grapple with the reality that some growing pains will occur. It will take a collaborative effort as policing has always been a community issue despite attempts to create standards across our state and nation. It’s easy to say “every police officer must have a bachelor’s degree and every police officer must live where they police” but extremely difficult to figure out who will work in Havana or Sherman. It’s easy to say every police officer currently employed must get licensed by the state of Illinois but what happens when 10% of the workforce becomes non-compliant, or the agency designated to maintain the database needs additional funding to run it? Who is going to foot that bill?
This is tough stuff, but we need leaders willing to step up and put forward ideas to solving it. Otherwise, critical incidents between our taxpayer funded government and our most at-risk neighbors will continue.
- Proud Papa Bear - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:17 pm:
Training is only as good as the willingness of the student to learn.
- thisjustinagain - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:18 pm:
As someone who dealt with the Training Board, they often focus on the wrong things while missing the point of what’s really needed. Yes, they need to set time requirements, while ensuring training complies with Illinois law–statutes AND case law.
- Say Her Name - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:33 pm:
Training is only half the battle. Enforcement of disciplinary requirements, the establishment of a code of ethics, external audits ensuring compliance, etc — these are the reforms that will bring about actual change. And no more hiring people who get multiple DUIs. Flagrant disregard of the law should be a disqualifying offense. I’d rather have too few cops than having an adequate amount that can’t be bothered to comply with the law.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:35 pm:
“Do not shoot into an occupied house from which you received a call for assistance unless you are being shot at.”
There you go, there’s your training module. Please pay my invoice.
- illinifan - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:49 pm:
This is definitely too little training time especially in deescalation. Many professions require continuing education to retain licensure. It may be worthwhile to require police officers go though a training program to obtain licensure or certification and require continuing education to maintain that liscensing. If training required to continue working maybe their approach to learning will improve.
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:50 pm:
The ISBE requires teachers and admin to take 20 hours of training a year (continuing ed in our parlance) to maintain licensure. We are not armed.
One of my children has serious mental health issues. I am terrified of my child interacting with police. The one time it happened I was there fortunately. I almost got arrested as I had to put myself between an over aggressive, authoritarian cop who had his hand on his taser (fortunately he had that or it could have been a gun. My 4 11 98 pound child was having an anxiety attack in a mall parking lot (my then 14 year old could not find me) and was not responding to his profane yelling when I arrived. He was totally clueless and only knew yelling. Thankfully that is not how all police respond.
Police need a more thorough vetting process and so much more training.
- Now I'm down in it. - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:52 pm:
It’s wild to me that personal service licensees, like cosmetologists and barbers, require at least 14 hours a year of continuing ed training annually while law enforcement requires only 6 hours of use of force training. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:55 pm:
I don’t think it is a good idea to answer a Q about whether police reform is needed with an A about training.
But particularly in the wake of a first-degree murder charge and prior to public release of any information about the case, including the officer’s background, if any, of misconduct accusations at Sangamon Co or previous positions.
- Stephanie Kollmann - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 1:56 pm:
Put another way: the governor is correct that police do answer Qs about police reform by pointing to training but I do not think the rest of us need to follow suit.
- Anyone Remember - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:22 pm:
Is more training required? Yes, however, multiple obstacles to doing so. For example, ILETSB’s “law enforcement officer basic training curriculum” is the same for all agencies, whether CPD (12,000 officers) or Grandview (3 officers). Any additional “required” training is up to the agency.
Other states set training requirements based upon agency size (3 or fewer paid full-time officers, Indiana has Marshals, not Law Enforcement Officers). Is this something Illinois should consider? What would that cost?
- Unionman - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:23 pm:
FOP says they need more training. Is FOP going to Springfield and making it mandatory? I doubt it.
If they make it mandatory, then the FOPs can go to their departments and say, hey state law says everyone needs X number of hours of training. You need to provide it at no cost to the officers.
- Google Is Your Friend - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:42 pm:
1) If they need more training, why do their associations (Sheriffs, Chiefs of Police, etc.) come to the Capitol and testify against and attack such requirements on a regular basis? They did so for legislation this year that would improve police training to address hate crimes.
2) Professional development training by police needs intense scrutiny and oversight, little of which is currently provided in Illinois or elsewhere. To wit, one of the largest police training firms in America taught officers to:
a) pepper spray people recording them in the line of duty, a violation of the constitution
b) only offer medical aid because it is practice in case another cop needs it, otherwise it wouldn’t be important (so much for serve and protect)
c) encouraged violence against people the police come into contact with and to have a high batting average when you use your service weapon (i.e. use the gun if you unholster and shoot to kill everyone)
d) to knowingly make unconstitutional stops
3) We all know that if any government agency that wasn’t the police failed as badly and as often with as much money spent on them as police departments, they’d have been defunded, disbanded, and reconstituted a long time ago. Yet for some reason, we constantly accept the failure of police departments and look the other way. This is even out of line with historical practice towards policing in America! New York, just in its time as a consolidated city, has had its police department disbanded and reconstituted multiple times.
- Huh? - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:42 pm:
I hold numerous professional certifications with training requirements for renewal. I attend about 50 hours of conferences and webinars per year to qualify for certificate renewal. I have to keep a log of the conferences and meetings I attend. If audited, I have to produce certificates of attendance for at least the number of hours required for renewal.
I gave up 1 certification because I thought the “training requirement” was to read their professional journal, a waste of time and completely unsuitable. There was no way to audit the time spent reading a magazine.
Over the years, I have noticed some conference attendees essential coffee punch the meeting. They will sit in one or two sessions, then spend the rest of the time chatting with friends.
- Garfield Ridge Guy - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:46 pm:
Regardless of whether police need more training (the answer is probably yes, but proponents should be asking what set of facts would lead them to say that training is sufficient, and whether such a set of facts is achievable), I don’t think “we have ludicrous requirements for cosmetologists as a barrier for entry into the profession” is a good argument for why law enforcement officers need more training.
- Give Us Barabbas - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:52 pm:
Based on the amount of YouTube clips, very few cops seem to understand what a Terry stop is, what constitutes a reasonable suspicion and how to articulate that reasonable suspicion or cause for a stop. Breaking patterns of traffic stops that are statistically out of racial balance, and other traffic stop abuses, should be gone over.
“Training” is not just repeating runs in a Hoga’s alley until you’re out of bullets and twitching to reach for a weapon as the first response.
- Retired ISP - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 2:56 pm:
At ISP we received plenty of training. Some of it was useful, and some of it was not. All the training in the world isn’t going to fix a person who should not be involved in law enforcement. I did several cadet background investigations during my career. They are relatively extensive, but some bad apples still slip through. Not everybody is cut out for police work. Most people don’t want their kids to become police officers because it is a tough job and there is a stigma. I’m thankful none of mine went into law enforcement. It’s a hard job and you see some terrible things you will never ever forget. Training alone will never prevent these types of tragedies.
- In_The_Middle - Thursday, Jul 18, 24 @ 3:55 pm:
I wonder which police academy Grayson attended.
- Mike - Friday, Jul 19, 24 @ 1:39 pm:
Training? No amount of training could have saved Sonya Massey. That man hated her for who she was. God rest her soul.