Summary: Improving Community Policing

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There are a few different ways to improve community policing. What I propose is to extend the Basic Peace Officer Training Academy up to a year to implement a mental health & safety course. The reason it is crucial to implement a Mental Health & Safety course is because the extra courses will give the Deputy Sheriff Trainee time to learn and practice their knowledge. As part of the job description, a deputy sheriff is required to build relationships with community members. However, if the officers who respond to mental health calls do not know how to effectively communicate with the victim or the family, the trusting relationship between law enforcement and that community will deteriorate. Additionally, mental health is one of the leading factors …show more content…

Currently, the police academy is six months long, giving instructors a limited amount of time to cover the basics of search and seizure, reports, defensive tactics, and other necessary in-depth educational topics. As a result, the lack of time results in the trainees lacking proper training in communicating with the mentally ill. Regarding this, according to the academic journal, “A Co-Responder Model for Policing Mental Health Problems at Crime Hot Spots: Findings from a Pilot Project” the author stresses that, “police are often the first and only community resource to respond to a situation where a person is having a mental health crisis, but they do not necessarily have the training and resources to respond properly to these encounters” (par.1). By implementing a mental health and safety course in the academy, this course allows deputy trainees to learn and practice their knowledge in a learning environment. This will improve the communication between law enforcement and the mentally ill, which is likely to increase relationships within the …show more content…

The main reason why is that this party is associated with defunding the police (Cillizza, par. 4). This movement started after the incident with George Floyd. To reconstruct the community and public safety, Minneapolis liberal members “(and the activist community) were pushing for the party to embrace the ‘defund the police’ movement” (Cillizza, par 8). The main reason why the community and some liberal government members believe in defunding the police is to move more funds to schools and other resources that will not “criminalize your own kids” (Cillizza 7). In fact, according to an article by ABC News, “64% of Americans oppose the 'defund the police' movement, key goals: POLL” states that “a majority of black Americans support the movement to ‘defund the police,’ (57%) and put the money towards other community programs (64%), a departure from the other groups” (par.4). Although this movement took place during the year 2020 when the George Floyd incident happened, the idea of funding the police academy to include a mental health and safety course is bound to stir conflict with the individuals who want to defund the police. Mental health and safety courses at the academy have the potential to improve community

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