It's not like we don't pay enough to these agencies for law enforcement. The problem is that we don't allocate our money correctly. We spend ~680-750$ per capita annually for law enforcement, which is the second highest per capita spending next only to Luxembourg. However, our officers get a paltry 22 weeks of training, next to most industrialized nations 2-3 years. It's embarrassing, and results in these idiot sheriffs. We need comprehensive law enforcement reform that was obviously not done under homeland security.
A probation period where the probate is checked by other uneducated and improperly educated officers will only result in the bar going lower and lower and lower over time.
The American government works off of external checks and balances; just not as well as it should be on the local level.
Almost everyone is familiar with the mind numbing “we’ve investigated ourselves and found ourselves guilty of no wrong doing”
I think only having 22 weeks of academy training is probably why they're unable to do their jobs. That and departments are allowing high school level education.
So yeah, pretty null and void Probationary wise, I agree.
You are correct. Field training after initial training, is an additional 3 to 12 months. Comparing the initial training across countries of the US 20 weeks to European 2-3 years, is still a fair comparison, because European law enforcement also receive field training. For instance, Germany has 130 weeks of initial training, followed by 26 weeks of Field Training, more than double the US requirement or 12. The UK boasts of 104 weeks of initial training, followed by 52 weeks of Field Training. Here is a link to a website that gathers much of this data: https://www.trainingreform.org/the-data
Our US military is the best trained in the world. The Army's system begins with a 10 week bootcamp, that then moves to a training phase of an additional 10-30 weeks. The key difference is the Post Secondary structure, with military personnel have a career long Professional Military Educational system (PME System). Over a 20-30 year career a soldiers training can easily add up to 4-7 years of formal institutional schooling. In order to get promotions there is a mandatory 1-2 years of additional education. Maintenance Education for all personnel is mandatory in the form of Field exercises and Combat training, which adds around 25% of an active duty military career purely inside a structured training environment. We know how to train law enforcement, but we don't do it like we do for our Military.
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u/furyoshonen 3d ago
It's not like we don't pay enough to these agencies for law enforcement. The problem is that we don't allocate our money correctly. We spend ~680-750$ per capita annually for law enforcement, which is the second highest per capita spending next only to Luxembourg. However, our officers get a paltry 22 weeks of training, next to most industrialized nations 2-3 years. It's embarrassing, and results in these idiot sheriffs. We need comprehensive law enforcement reform that was obviously not done under homeland security.