A small crowd of mostly law enforcement officers gathered at St. Louis Community College – Florissant Valley on September 24 to offer suggestions on police training to the Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission and Missouri Department of Safety.
The Missouri POST Commission was established by state statute in 1988. The commission is responsible for the curriculum for law enforcement officer basic training and continued education.
On August 6, Gov. Jay Nixon directed the POST Commission and the Department of Public Safety to update the law enforcement training standards in Missouri. The directive included holding public meetings around the state to gather input from Missourians, including law enforcement agencies, advocacy groups and other stakeholders.
Although Missouri statute prevents the POST Commission from exceeding a 600-hour training requirement, statute also provides that a political subdivision or law enforcement agency may require more stringent standards for training hours and other requirements.
St. Charles County Police Chief David Todd said it’s a critical time for the commission to take suggestions. “At the end of the day, it’s all about protecting our citizens. But we can’t protect our citizens if we don’t train and educate our officers to move forward,” Todd told the panel.
The current POST requirement for Missouri is for officers ranked sergeant and above to complete 40 hours of basic CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) every three years. According to research conducted by the Crisis Intervention Team International organization, CIT helps to reduce arrest rates, SWAT call outs and officer injuries, as well as to improve community relations.
Todd recommended that officers be required to spend more hours in CIT.
“We think it’s crucial that all agencies of sergeants and above should have [CIT] because they’re the supervisors responding and dealing with this,” said Todd. “It helps us deal with emotional disorders and mental illnesses. For many years, that was not something we addressed. We just moved along. There are citizens we need to help.”
Karen Aroesty, regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, works with educating law enforcement officers on the history of the Holocaust, hate crimes, and domestic and international extremism. “I really don’t have a good answer on how many hours are effective hours of learning,” Aroesty told the panel.
Aroesty, who also volunteered for the Ferguson Commission Citizen-Law Enforcement Relations Working Group, suggested that incentives or rewards be given to officers in exchange for completing anti-bias training sessions.
“Reality is, by the end of the year, you would have officers engaging in a whole lot more than just the required number of hours,” Aroesty told the panel. “It’s something that wouldn’t become an administrative burden because it would be something officers want to do because it makes them better at their job.”
It was highlighted this year in Attorney General Chris Koster’s “Vehicle Stops Report” that blacks in the St. Louis region are disproportionately stopped and arrested compared to whites. Throughout the year, many police have spoken at public forums and in news interviews to defend their policing style, saying they are unaware of race when they pull vehicles over for speeding and other traffic violations. Aroesty said there is still discrimination in that process.
“When you pull up behind the car and you run the plate, or get some sense of the car, something happens when you learn what that person’s name is that may be reflective of the race,” Aroesty said. “So, by the time you walk up to the driver, there’s a potential for bias to kick in.”
Lane Roberts, Department of Safety director, said the overall goal for the group is to recommend “meaningful and achievable” change to police training centers.
After Aroesty’s remarks, Roberts’ expressed to the room the challenge of finding a middle ground between quality and quantity in training stipulations.
“Whatever it is that we do, it’s going to be an initial step. There is going to be an evolution that will go along that will dictate both of our powers and the quality and content we provide,” said Roberts.
Officer wellness
Officer wellness was a recurring topic during the forum. Craig Politte, a mental health therapist and former police officer who was once shot on duty, worked with debriefing police officers during the Ferguson unrest. Politte said, “There’s no one I believe in this world that could handle what was happening to them on the daily basis and come out mentally healthy.”
Politte presented research to the panel stating alarming statistics about police officers.
“Seventeen of a 100,000 police officers commit suicide. That’s only second to combat veterans,” Politte told the panel. “Sixty to 70 percent of all officers’ marriages end in divorce. Domestic violence occurs in 40 percent of all police officers’ families.”
Politte most likely gathered his information from the Badge of Life program, an organization dedicated to helping police officers cope with psychological issues. Its website states the same statistics.
During recruitment, Politte said, officers go into the field with a hero complex, wanting to get the bad guy, stop the bullying and help people. “Officers quickly find out they don’t have the respect they were wanting,” said Politte.
Politte also said there are few chances of promotion for officers and they are strained because of poor pay and the daily grind of their jobs.
Politte has created a program for first responders that outlines mental health evaluations, specialized mental training, and counseling. Politte said U.S. Representative Wm. Lacy Clay is willing to seek funding for the program.
SB5 debated
The forum veered off the topic of police training when Vinita Park Mayor James McGee addressed the panel about Senate Bill Five, a new law that lowers the cap on the amount of revenue a municipality can collect from court fees and fines to 12.5 percent throughout St. Louis County and mandates a set of best practices for municipal administration.
McGee, a former police officer, expressed his dislike for the bill and concerns of it being unfair. State Representative Sharon Pace agreed with McGee and pointed out several bills on police officer training that didn’t pass this session.
“For civilians, SB5 actually has been a godsend,” responded Chelsea Merta, a municipal defense attorney for ArchCity Defenders. “It was supposed to create an undue burden on municipalities to address the abuse for decades. Many people have saw SB5 as meaningful and achievable change.”
More information about the commission and Missouri’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Program is available at http://dps.mo.gov/dir/programs/post/. Public commits can be emailed to POST@dps.mo.gov through Oct. 15.
This story is published as part of a partnership between The St. Louis American and The Huffington Post.
