Divergent paths: An exploration of the dichotomous relationship
between the COP model of policing and the hyper-masculine
police culture.
Will Berger
Criminal Justice
11/17/06
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Police training is a very important part of police work and police culture because
it lays the foundation for how our police officers will work and behave while they are
entrusted with protecting us and serving our community. From the minute a new police
recruit walks through the door of his law enforcement training center and starts his law
enforcement career at the academy, his life will never be the same. He has crossed the
thin blue line and become part of a very exclusive, inclusive and fragmented group
known as law enforcement professionals. I will argue that while the formal training an
officer receives is very important to shaping his identity and performance on duty,
informal training occurs that can be even more influential in shaping his identity and his
idea of how he and his cohorts relate to society.
The broad topic for my master’s essay will be police training. Specifically I
intend to look at the difference between formal and informal training. I plan to look at
this topic from multiple angles. First, I will discuss the dichotomous relationship that
exists between the formal police goal of Community Oriented Policing and the
conditioning that occurs leading to a hyper-masculine and militarized police force. I will
explore the theory of male peer support and how it relates to shaping police culture.
Finally, I will relate my experiences in a police academy as part of the 2005 Whitman
County Sheriff’s Department Reserve Deputy training program. I will share how I came
face to face with the Community Oriented Policing model on paper and the
hypermasuline police culture in actuality, as well as my experience in the male peersupport model, after that I will detail how I feel the training I received prepared me as a
Sheriff’s Deputy in Whitman County.
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It was very important and useful for me to see first hand how the academy process
works, and how the training in the classroom translates into work in the field. Another
portion of the training process that is very important is the training received on the job.
On the job training plays a large role in the development of an officer in the field, an
officer never stops learning. Police work is ever changing, any day, any given situation
can arise that will be new and challenging to an officer, but he is forced to handle it and
then evaluate himself and look for ways to improve. I learned a lot more about training
and the academy process with a first hand practical application approach then I ever
could by reading and doing research on the topic.
This being said, however, I think it is important to read and understand some of
the current literature on the police training process as well as the shift in law enforcement
strategy toward the Community Oriented Policing (COP) model and how academies have
attempted to adjust to reflect this new focus. In addition to the COP model of policing,
recently there have been other improvements in technology and ideology that are being
enacted to better train today’s police force. Trends in police culture definitely have an
impact on a police officer’s conditioning and behavior; the most notable is a rise in the
militarization of our police forces.
The COP model of policing represents the first significant role shift in the
ideology of American policing in the past sixty years (Pelfrey, 1998). Any discussion of
current trends in police training must reflect this change and address how instructors are
preparing their recruits for working in a COP model department. In the Whitman County
Sheriff’s Department Mission Statement it is stated that, “the philosophy of community
oriented policing is the foundation for our actions.” However at no time during the
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duration of our academy was the concept of community oriented policing discussed, nor
were any of the suggestions in the literature that would lead a training session to be more
COP friendly ever implemented. Pressing this point further, after researching the
Washington State Basic Law Enforcement Academy outline, there is no mention of any
academy hours dedicated to the subject of Community Oriented Policing. This outline
provides a breakdown of each subject and subsection of material that is to be covered
during the 720 hour Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission Academy
program, detailed to the number of hours spent and instructors used (Block Definitions,
BLEA, June, 2004). The disconnect between the COP model found in many department’s
mission statements and the practical training in the classroom is prevalent in departments
across the nation (Cheurprakobkit, 2002).
Community Oriented Policing is defined by the Office of Community-Oriented
Policing Services (COPS) as, “a philosophy that supports organizational strategies to
address the causes and reduce the fear of crime and social disorder through problemsolving tactics and community police-partnerships,” (Johnson, 2006). Essentially a police
officer is expected to work to forge strong personal relationships with community
members and work to involve the community in the public safety effort. The officer is
expected to form a partner style relationship with the community to maintain the social
order (Watson, et al, 1998). Unfortunately training and hiring processes across the
country don’t reflect this ideal. Police training academies are conducted in a very
behavioral and quasi-militaristic environment (Birzer, 2003).
Community Oriented Policing is often defined by what it is not. It is not quasimilitary, fear based policing that controls society through fear and intimidation. A central
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bureaucratic authority does not run it, with little discretion being given to line officers.
Effectiveness in this model is not measured by speed to calls, or numbers of citations and
notices of infractions written. It is certainly not reactive or hyper-masculine in nature.
This model is concerned with community consent and feedback. It strives for community
interaction and accountability (Brogden and Nijhar). The COP model can be hard to
define, and it can be hard to evaluate how well certain departments are performing the
model, as Steve Herbert writes, “what community policing means in practice is often
unclear, different police departments do different things,” (Herbert, 2006).
Debates over the capability and efficiency of our traditional police forces in the
1970s by academics and those directly involved in law enforcement led to a change in the
ideal of what an effective police force should look like in a democratic society (Zhao,
Lovrich and Thurman). Crime waves in the 1980s gave way to Clinton era policy in the
1990s that provided funding and training for the supposed shift in police culture in the
direction of the COP model. Though funding and support for the COP model has been
widespread, initiating the model through training has proven to be very difficult
(Cheurprakobkit, 2002). My research and experience has shown that this is true because
people who want to go through a police academy don’t do it because they want to be
social workers with a badge; they do it because they are excited with the idea of grabbing
a gun and going after bad guys.
The behaviorist model of teaching equates humans to virtual machines, meaning
that recruits are trained that a certain input, or stimulus, will generate a certain output, or
reaction from the recruit (Birzer, 2003). Law enforcement personnel are trained to follow
orders and stick to policy and procedure without question or hesitation. This is one reason
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why police forces across the country have historically hired a large portion of former
military personnel (Birzer, 2003). A current trend in police training and police culture is
an increase in militarization and hyper-masculinity (Kraska, 2001). This trend makes it
very hard for a real shift in policing toward the COP model.
The increasing influence that the military has had on civilian law enforcement,
most notably at the state and local levels is cause for concern when trying to train and
implement a police force in the COP model of doing business. The ways in which local
law enforcement agencies are trained and equipped by the military will effect how they
interact with the public they have been entrusted to serve and protect. The infiltration of
our military into the arena of local law enforcement is called militarization. The
definition given by Kraska is, “a set of beliefs and values that stress the use of force and
domination as appropriate means to solve problems and gain political power. It glorifies
military power, hardware, and technology as its primary problem-solving tools,” (2001).
Essentially what we have over the last forty years in American police culture is a
shift in identity, ideology, methodology, and most subtly, but perhaps most importantly,
mentality. The shift from a traditional patrol officer to hyper-masculine “warrior cop,”
instead of a more interactive, community oriented officer will deteriorate relationships
between officers and the neighborhoods they serve. The infiltration of military culture
into police culture can be traced back to an incident in Austin, Texas on August 1, 1966
(Gould, 1997). This was the infamous clock tower sniper incident at the University of
Texas that led law enforcement administration to rethink the strategies and training
needed to effectively keep the peace. On this day, it was painfully obvious to all law
enforcement personnel involved in apprehending the sniper that they were completely
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unprepared for an incident of this nature. This incident in turn led to the formation of
SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) teams, first in Los Angeles and then around the
rest of the country. As these SWAT teams needed to become more and more versatile
they began training with special military units like the British 22nd SAS, the Navy Seals,
and the Army Rangers (Kraska, 2001).
This trend continued through the 1980s with the Military Cooperation with Law
Enforcement Officials Act (MCLEOA) of 1981. The MCLEOA eased historic divisions
between law enforcement and the military for the war on drugs. The slippery slope was
widened and steepened as the 1980’s rolled on. As the drug war continued, in 1986
President Regan implemented a National Decision Security Directive designating drugs
as an official threat to “national security.” This encouraged an even closer relationship
between civilian police and the military. Another result of the MCLEOA and Regan’s
National Decision Directive is the amount of surplus weapons that local law enforcement
agencies have been inundated with. According to Department of Defense data, between
1995 and 1997 local police agencies received 1.2 million pieces of military surplus
hardware. This includes fully automatic M16 assault rifles, the AR-15 semi-automatic
assault rifle, grenade launchers, and armored personnel carriers, (Kraska, 2001).
While it may be simple to qualitatively say that police forces around the country
are becoming more militarized by simply documenting the increasing number of military
surplus weapons they are receiving and using. That would be missing the point. The
mentality and attitudes that these officers are embracing while being trained in a
militaristic style with the military weapons they are being given is certainly not a
mentality or an attitude that is conducive to the community oriented model of policing. A
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member of the Fresno Police Department’s SWAT team illustrates this point by saying,
“We’re into saturation patrols in hot spots. We do a lot of work with the SWAT unit
because we have bigger guns. We send out two, two to four men cars, we look for minor
violations and do jump-outs, either on people on the street or automobiles. After we
jump-out the second car provides periphery cover with an ostentatious display of
weaponry. We’re sending a clear message: if the shootings don’t stop, we’ll shoot
someone,” (Kappeler & Kraska, 1997).
In his book, Culture of Control, David Garland argues that we have seen a
dramatic shift in the way we deal with our criminals over the past thirty-five years.
Coincidentally or not, that is the basic time frame for the use of Police Paramilitary Units
(PPUs) by police forces. Garland argues that we have seen a shift in crime control
thinking. The model has transformed from preventative and rehabilitative model to a
“get tough” and retributive model. This is exactly the kind of shift we have seen within
the police force with the advent of hard target PPU patrols (2001).
An example of how highly militarized police forces are conducting themselves in
a way that is distinctly hypermasculine is found when discussing the no-knock raids that
SWAT teams around the country are performing on a nightly basis. The method used is
to have a SWAT team surround a residence and then in a highly coordinated and
orchestrated way breach the residence with an ostentatious display of force and
weaponry. This is quasi- military, fear based policing that controls society through fear
and intimidation, which is exactly what the COP model of policing is trying to not be.
Another important theory to understand in the discussion of an increasingly
militaristic and hyper-masculine police force is the theory of male peer support. It is no
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secret that police work is largely a male dominated profession (Franklin, forthcoming).
Schwartz and DeKeseredy’s male peer support model is used to show how male only
populations, or predominately male populations in a macho job will often times create
hyper-masculine, destructive environments (Schwartz and DeKeseredy).
The theory of male peer support was originally formulated to explain why so
many men abuse women. The theory holds that when a man is stressed and perhaps
abusing alcohol along while interacting in a male dominated group his attitudes towards
women will become very domineering and abusive. In this case I am not saying that
police officers abuse women, but I am saying that the highly stressful, and domineering
environment often times intensified by heavy alcohol abuse is a part of a police officers’
everyday life. The job is domineering insofar as an officer dominates someone’s
freedom. It is a very powerful and dominating feeling to be able to control someone to
the point that you are denying them their freedom, and single handedly making important
decisions about their everyday life.
So, how do we rectify this increasing chasm between the culture of policing that
is shaping our officers and the intended model of policing that we would like to
implement? The solution to this problem will not come from this paper, however to
understand police training it is very important to know that this division exists and
several scholars have put forth different frameworks that can possibly strengthen the COP
model instruction in the classroom.
A police academy classroom that fosters divergent personalities, perspectives and
ideas will best prepare a recruit for a job in a COP environment, “the recruit-training
classroom should begin to mirror the community with its many voices and perspectives,
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(Birzer, 2003). The adult learning process is advocated by many scholars in the field of
police training, (Marenin, 2004, Birzer, 2003, and Cheurprakobkit, 2002). Adult learning
or andragogy is defined as a relationship between the trainee and the instructor that is
reciprocal and conducive to a student’s ability to use an experimental perspective to solve
a problem. This concept of training is much more conducive to training a recruit to be
successful in the COP model of policing because it forces him to work on interaction and
communication skills that are necessary for succeeding as a successful police officer in
the COP model.
The most common complaint that is filed by citizens against their local police
officers is that the community member feels as though they have been treated rudely
(Johnson, 2004). In 1971, a Yale sociology professor, A.J. Reiss was one of the first
academics to review citizen complaints against police officers. He reviewed complaints
filed in three cities, Boston, Chicago and Washington D.C. and found that more than
sixty per-cent of all complaints were filed because people believed that they were treated
“rudely” or “talked down to” by the police (Johnson, 2004). This trend is continuing
today, in a study done in Washington State, in 1991, the majority of complaints filed by
citizens against officers were for the manner in which the citizen was treated (Dugan and
Breda, 1991). This has implications for the public perception of law enforcement because
when people don’t believe they were treated with respect or fairly by the officer on the
street then their confidence in being treated fairly by the legal system as a whole is
decreased as well (Johnson, 2004.)
So what must be done in the criminal justice training centers to produce a more
user-friendly police officer? Again, the theory of adult learning that encourages dialog
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and exchange from the recruit could transfer to an officer on the street that is more
willing to have a respectful dialog with a citizen. This is in opposition to an officer who
is trained in a traditional quasi-militaristic academy setting where the authority figure is
in no way to be questioned. This traditional style of police training will produce an
officer that is unwilling to be flexible or understanding to a citizen’s complaints and be
forced to treat this citizen in a hostile or condescending manner.
Certainly there is more to be said about current trends in police training and
culture besides the dichotomous nature between a rapidly militarizing police force and a
COP model that wants to create a more interactive and user-friendly police force.
Historically, racial issues have been at the forefront of policing and police relations to the
community. Many in society view the police as a force of white men that impose the law
on minorities. That is why many academy curriculums across the nation are being
changed to highlight a section on public relations and cultural diversity (Marion, 1998).
Certainly, for any police agency to be community oriented it must first understand all the
cultural nuances that exist within its community. Efforts have been made in many
jurisdictions to hire officers who are fluent in Spanish to patrol Spanish-speaking
neighborhoods (Marion, 1998). One can easily see how a department making efforts to
communicate with the citizens it serves is trying to become more community oriented.
One way in which technology is being used to better prepare our officers is with
the Firearms Training Systems (FATS). The FATS consists of a computerized projection
device that is attached to a normal duty weapon that emits a laser (Marion 1998, & Plant
& Peruche, 2005). This system is not only used to allow recruits to quickly identify a
target, based on whether or not the image on the screen possesses a gun or other weapon,
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but it also can be used to break down racially motivated shooting decisions (Plant &
Peruche, 2005). This was shown by a study conducted at Florida State University with a
group of 50 certified sworn law-enforcement personnel in the state of Florida.
The purpose of this study was not only to see if the group of selected law
enforcement personnel that was 83% male and 84% white would more likely shoot a
minority suspect than a white suspect, but also to see that if indeed this was the case,
could the officers be trained to act differently. The study showed that in preliminary
trials the officers were more likely to incorrectly shoot a minority suspect. However as
the officers practiced with the machine the administrators of the test were satisfied that
the original bias could be removed through repetition and the officers were choosing
targets regardless of the suspect’s race (Plant & Peruche, 2005).
I began this paper with the point of view that any amount of research I can do
regarding police training will not be as important as the “learning by doing” approach I
employed to get a handle on police training. With this in mind, I would like to outline
my experiences in the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Deputy Program. I
learned a great deal about the training process, and the culture behind law enforcement in
the fifteen months I spent with the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office (WCSO). When I
began my course work at WSU, I was a little skeptical about the literature I read
regarding policing. It was very validating for me to see concepts like “us vs. them”, “thin
blue line”, “seven veils of trust” “hyper masculinity” and “militarization” in a real
setting. I can give detailed description of how I saw each of these concepts play out in
this Sheriff’s Office. However, at no time throughout this paper, do I want it to appear as
I am coming down on the WCSO. In my mind it is a solid department run by a great
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sheriff, but it is not immune to some of the problems that academics have discovered
while studying law enforcement agencies across the country.
I started my academy training program on Tuesday, Jan 18, 2005 in Colfax,
Washington. The academy concluded, after 7 months and almost 300 hours of training
with a graduation ceremony on Saturday, August 27th, 2005. This academy was
conducted by the WCSO. Upon graduation, all thirteen recruits retained the rank of
reserve deputy. As a reserve deputy, I, along with my fellow recruits retained all the
power and authority of a full-time deputy. There are however, a few notable exceptions.
As a reserve deputy, our power and authority exist only when we are on duty, and
checked in to service through dispatch. A full-time deputy is never really off duty. A
full-time deputy not only has the power and authority to respond to an incident twentyfour hours a day, but the duty and obligation as well. This is why some deputies elect to
carry a badge and gun with them wherever they go. Secondly, the reserve deputy
position is a purely volunteer position; we don’t get paid for our work, while the full-time
deputies of course do. I volunteered as a Reserve Deputy from the time I was sworn in
on August 27, 2005 until I resigned on March 31, 2006, in this time I volunteered roughly
280 hours for the WCSO, though I have received no pay, it was a great opportunity that
gave me some invaluable experience.
It is important to note that the full-time academy that all full-time Sheriff’s
Deputies or police officers in the state of Washington must attend is 720 hours long. The
full-time academy covers topics that we did not get a chance to cover in the 300 hours of
training we received. Not only were more topics covered in the full-time academy but
also many of the very important topics received more in depth attention. According to
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Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers, the state regulates what topics must be covered in
a reserve academy but it is up to him to allocate the hours of the academy and make the
schedule. Reserve academies and reserve deputy programs vary greatly from county to
county in this state. Again, according to Sheriff Myers many counties have no reserve
program to speak of, and in others the reserve deputies are very limited in what duties
they are able to perform. Myers believes that the Whitman County Reserve Program and
the Kittitas County Reserve Program are the two best in the state in terms of providing
experience and opportunities for the reserve deputies. The opportunity to work in all
areas of police work as a volunteer is rare, yet it is something that my reserve program
offered.
The bulk of our academy classes were held on Tuesday and Thursday evening
from 6pm until 10pm at the Colfax City Hall. The first section of our training program
consisted of criminal law. This section lasted for five weeks, which translates into 40
hours of study, during this time we were expected to gain a working knowledge of the
Revised Code of Washington (RCW). This is not to say that we are expected to know the
RCWs front to back, we are expected to know the key points, such as definitions of
necessary, reasonable suspicion, probable cause, and 10.31.100 Gross Misdemeanor
exceptions. We are also expected to know how to find specific statutes within the RCW
book. The book is broken into chapters, called titles. Title 9 is Crimes and Punishments,
Title 9A is Washington Criminal Code; Title 10 is Criminal Procedure, etc. Any specific
statute has a title, chapter and section. For example, the definition of homicide is found
in title 9A, chapter 32, section .010, it is abbreviated 9A.32.010.
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The style of teaching used during the academy was very similar to a high school
class. We had a deputy for a teacher who lectured and then quizzed us on our
knowledge, we as students were asked to participate and actively take notes. The
criminal law section was very dry because it was presented very much out of the book,
while little contextual examples were given. It is important in any learning environment
to not only provide information, but also provide context for when and how this
information is valuable. It can easily be said that the criminal law section of any
academy class is the most important because without a firm understanding of the law and
how it is to be used, a law enforcement officer can’t do his job.
Following criminal law, we turned to evidence law. Evidence law was a twentyhour section, six-class session that dealt with the proper techniques of obtaining and
storing evidence so it can be used during the course of an investigation and also during a
trial. It is very important to methodically care for evidence so it will stand up in the court
of law. Many criminals have gone free because of improper care taken by law
enforcement personnel at a crime scene leading to non-credible evidence. There is an
important theory of evidence collection that is covered in this section; it states that it is
impossible for one to enter a crime scene with out introducing something foreign, and
impossible to leave the crime scene with out removing something. This theory of
evidence transference is important because it has shaped the way that crime scene
procedure has been taught at the academy.
After evidence law, we turned to criminal procedure. Criminal procedure was an
eighty-hour course and dealt with proper procedures to be taken during a criminal
investigation, dealing with such things as regulation of search and seizure, powers of
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arrest, proper interrogation techniques as well as prosecution limitation. This section is
important because it details how successful law enforcement agents successfully
prosecute criminals, how to reduce criminal as well as civil liability to the police officer.
One point that was made very clear throughout this section is that if one is going to work
as a law enforcement officer, one will most likely get sued. People file lawsuits against
law enforcement personnel all the time for things such as excessive force or denial of
constitutional rights, following the procedural steps outlined in the criminal procedure
section one could successfully avoid being found guilty of professional misconduct.
These first three sections lasted for the first two months of class and were all
taught in a very similar way. Full-time academy sections are taught in a similar
classroom setting. The major difference is that a typical full-time academy class is much
larger than the 13 individuals in my reserve class; a typical academy class could have as
many as sixty or seventy people. The evidence law section stood apart from the other
two because we were allowed to practice storing and gathering evidence. An interesting
part was when we were allowed to handle drugs and perform field-testing to determine
what they were. We also, on several occasions, smelled burning marijuana in order to
develop a sense for it. Many times a routine car stop will turn into a drug bust because an
officer can articulate based on his training and experience that he smelled the odor of
marijuana coming from the window of a car and can subsequently search the car and find
the drugs. Of the first three sections, evidence law was the most valuable because we
were allowed hands on training of drug identification and evidence storage.
The fourth section of our academy program dealt with traffic laws. Traffic was a
thirty-five hour section, the sheer volume of material presented in this section was
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staggering. The amount of information contained in both the RCWs and WAC
(Washington State Administrative Code) dealing with both rules of the road and vehicle
regulation makes nearly impossible to have a mastery of the subject. However, we are
expected to have a working knowledge of both the RCW traffic section and the WAC
vehicle regulation section. The deputy that instructed us on this portion of the academy is
convinced that with all of the knowledge he has regarding the WAC codes he could pull
any vehicle over at any time and find a violation. This includes brand new cars coming
off dealership lots.
It was revealed in this section of the training program that the main reason that
many policemen make many of their traffic stops is to establish reasonable suspicion to
pursue a more critical infraction. For example a technique widely used in this particular
law enforcement agency, and agencies across the state, would be to pull over a car
because it had a front headlight out, and then work your way to a marijuana arrest. It was
explained in detail how an officer can establish probable cause for an arrest after a
routine traffic stop. For instance, as the officer approaches the vehicle to retrieve license,
registration, and proof of insurance, he is watching the driver and passengers for furtive
movements. If, while contacting the driver, and in the process of the driver rolling down
his window, the officer detects the odor of marijuana, and can articulate, based on his
training and experience that there is marijuana or marijuana paraphernalia in the car, he
can at that point remove the driver and any passengers from the car and conduct a search.
Furthermore, if during the course of a traffic stop, the officer notices any drugs, or drug
paraphernalia in plain view he is allowed to search the vehicle and arrest if warranted.
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It is important to realize that many arrests made by officers are a result of a
routine traffic stop. Another major point of the four week traffic section is that a majority
of your time as either a deputy sheriff, city policeman, or state patrolman will be spent
working traffic and writing tickets for various traffic infractions, most commonly RCW
46.61.350, speed over legal. In listening to a Lieutenant from the Spokane detachment of
the Washington State Patrol, he emphasized that traffic fatalities far outweigh all other
fatalities that law enforcement deals with annually, and that is why the WSP makes safe,
legal driving a priority of enforcement.
Throughout the duration of my time spent with the WSCO the majority of my
time spent working with the Sheriff’s Department has been dealing with traffic
enforcement. I have worked a few domestic violence calls, several warrant services and
theft investigations, however as advertised, traffic patrol does take up the bulk of a
deputy’s day. This may be something that many people on the outside looking in at law
enforcement don’t realize, if your idea of police work comes from watching Cops, or
police dramas you may have a skewed notion of reality. Much of police work is
mundane and boring; it has been described as hours of banality with minutes of
excitement thrown in. Never is this more apparent than when you are parked on the side
of a county road, with little traffic, running radar, trying to catch a speeder.
Following traffic, my class and I embarked on patrol procedures. This was a
seventy-five hour portion of the training program that focused on procedural steps
necessary to successfully handle a variety of high-stress situations. Some of these
situations include, high-risk vehicle stops, building searches, arrests, alarm response,
hostage and or standoff situations. Potentially, as a reserve deputy, I could face a variety
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of high stress, high danger situations. Knowing that both my training and experience
would be and are at a much lower level than the other deputies, it is crucial for not only
myself, but the other reserves to have a working knowledge of different procedural steps
we should perform during any or all of these high risk situations.
This section of the academy training program was also very important because it
dealt with the force continuum. This is a critical piece of information that comes into
play with officers on the street, as it clearly details what degree of force an officer is
allowed to use in different circumstances. There is a hierarchy of levels of force an
officer can use, starting with police presence and ending with an officer’s firearm, which
is considered lethal force. Between officer presence and lethal force there are several
steps of non-lethal force that the officer is trained to deploy. We were trained at all levels
of the force continuum.
We were trained at using our police presence by performing mock scenes of
various situations that we will encounter during patrol. Mock scenes were a large part of
this training academy; we used actors (usually the full-time deputies) to create scenes
such as domestic violence, trespassing, burglary, building searches, etc. The mock scene
portion of the academy lasted two weeks for sixteen hours of class time. We, as reserve
deputies would play the roll of deputies and try to take the appropriate actions at the
different scenes. After the scene was over we would be evaluated, not only by the
deputies taking part in the scene, but by deputy observers as well.
In the specific case of a domestic violence, by simply showing up to the
residence, knocking and announcing and entering the dwelling we were using our police
presence. Police presence is loosely defined as an officer’s ability to control a scene by
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his body language and authoritative demeanor. After presence the next step up the force
continuum would be an officer’s voice. In all of our mock scenes, and most certainly in
real incidents, simply showing up will not be enough to resolve a dispute. We were
trained in using an authoritative voice to take control of a scene.
In February of 2006, I responded to a domestic violence call at Colfax Hospital.
Even though the dispute was occurring away from a residence, the fact that the two
engaged in the dispute were married and living together made it a domestic violence
situation. This particular case was an example when police presence and command voice
were enough to quell the situation, however this won’t always be the case. In certain
situations physical force must be used to neutralize the offender. The first level of
physical force would be considered “hands on”. It is at this point where an officer puts
his hands on a suspect and uses his strength along with his training in order to subdue the
subject.
The “hands on” level of force was demonstrated during the defensive tactics
portion of the academy class. Defensive tactics was a six-session course taught by
instructors with the Pullman Police Department. We were trained in hand to hand
fighting, wrist lock submission holds, weapon retention, as well as techniques in
disarming an adversary. This was an abbreviated version of the course taught at the fulltime academy. We practiced these moves not only on each other, but on the instructors
as well. Instructors dressed in fully padded body suits, and allowed us to practice and
perform our tactics on them. The overriding theme of this class however, was that
defensive tactics taught in the classroom are rarely the exact ones you will be using on
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the street. Stressed was the idea that you shouldn’t meet force with equal force, you
should meet a level of force with a greater force.
This gets tricky however, when the concept of excessive force is discussed. It’s
certainly a balancing act that law enforcement personnel must walk between using too
little force and too much. We were instructed on ways to avoid personal liability and
excessive force charges. A good rule discussed during this portion of the training was to
stop applying force once the suspect is in handcuffs. Once a suspect is in handcuffs, no
matter how much one may want to add another punch or kick, this is never the right thing
to do. The instructors were very clear on the fact that officers use force solely for the
purpose of subduing suspects and in no way should it be used as a punishment for crimes
committed. Punishment is up to the courts.
There are certain situations where force is needed but going “hands on” is not the
best option. Examples of these situations would be if the opponent is much larger and
stronger than the officer, or if the opponent is on some kind of drug that will give him
extreme strength and make him impervious to pain, or if the opponent has a mastery of
martial arts or other hand-to-hand combat skills. In all these situations an alternative is
the use of non-lethal weapons. We were trained with Oleoresin Capsicum otherwise
known as O.C. or pepper spray. Not only were we trained on how and when to use our
pepper spray, but also we were all individually sprayed and forced to experience the
horrific thirty-five to forty minutes of pain that followed. The theory here is that it is
important for an officer to know what effect the weapons he uses will have on someone.
Before being sprayed, my classmates and I had no idea how unimaginably painful pepper
21
spray is. I made my mind up that day that an offender will really have to deserve it
before I ever use pepper spray on him.
At a similar level to pepper spray on the force continuum we find the M26/X26
Taser. This is a non-lethal weapon that shoots fifty thousand volts of electricity through a
suspect leaving them incapacitated. The weapon is programmed to cycle at five-second
bursts, but that can be decreased. Often times, an officer will elect to use the taser instead
of the pepper spray because the duration of pain is much shorter, and the incapacitation is
more effective. Additionally, it should be considered that while using pepper spray the
officer will become exposed himself, but not in the case of the taser. We all got the
privilege of feeling first hand what the taser feels like and what it does. Also very
important, we were instructed on the limitations of the taser. The taser fires two fishhook
like prongs attached to electrodes up to twenty-one feet. You must hit the perpetrator
with both prongs in order for the device to be effective. We were taught in certain
circumstances the pepper spray would be a more effective weapon because it can be used
on multiple targets and is more forgiving in terms of accuracy.
Continuing up the force continuum, after the Taser and O.C. spray, we find the
baton and asp. These are slightly different but used in the same manner and found at the
same level of the force continuum. Most deputies carry an asp. An asp is a collapsible
weapon that when extended is 25.5 inches long, but when collapsed is only 9.5 inches
long. The weapon is a strong metal stick capable of inflicting great damage to an
individual. We were informed that it is very rare that an officer will actually use his stick
weapon. Deputies are instructed to use this weapon in x-like slashing motions. These
weapons can easily break bones. The baton is a black hard polymer plastic weapon used
22
in the same fashion as the asp. The main difference between a baton and an asp is that a
baton is always carried at its ready state; it is never collapsed or extended. Deputies are
instructed to employ batons only as a defensive weapon or to subdue a violent prisoner.
In no case, except in a life-threatening emergency, will a member use a baton as a club
with the intention of causing death or life threatening injuries.
Finally, at the top of the force continuum we find the firearm. As reserve deputies
we were all issued a .40 cal. semi-automatic Glock handgun. We received three full
weeks of handgun training in the classroom, and three full weekends of training on the
shooting range. This was by far the most serious and stressful portion of the training.
Our instructor was a retired military man and took his job as firearms instructor very
seriously.
The three weeks in the classroom came first.
We were instructed on
circumstances that would warrant using the weapon, as well as firearm maintenance and
firearm safety. We were instructed how to properly draw, and holster our weapon, we
were taught how to properly position and use the weapon, as well as our trigger finger
during a building search.
It was mentioned during this portion of training that
statistically an officer who works a full twenty year career probably will never fire his
weapon in the line of duty, but circumstances may present themselves that would require
a rookie to use his weapon on the first day, so every one in law enforcement must be
thoroughly trained in firearms.
After the three weeks of classroom training we spent weekends on the firing
range.
Firing range training was conducted very much in a military fashion.
As
mentioned before, our senior firearms instructor is a retired military man, and he
definitely brings a militaristic mentality to the range. Prior to going to the range, we were
23
all instructed on hand strengthening exercises as well as dry-firing techniques to prepare
us for live fire drills. The Glock handgun has an internal safety within the trigger
mechanism. As such, finger strength and coordination are vital to successfully firing the
weapon. Proper hand and finger placement on the weapon is also vital to success, and we
were instructed at length regarding the proper techniques. It was explained that the slide,
or recoil device, on the handgun comes back with the same amount of force that the
bullet is fired forward. Such being the case, keeping ones fingers clear of the slide is
vital.
While on the range, our every move was orchestrated down to the last detail.
There is tremendous liability in taking 13 rookie shooters out on a firearms range, and
constant and stern supervision was the department’s way to ensure safety. The learning
curve at the range was incredible. Every member of my class passed required proficiency
levels after the third full day of shooting, as mentioned before we had six hour, eight
hour, or over eight hour days on the range. As a result of our rapid progression, we were
able to do some additional training on the fourth, fifth and sixth days. We did many
varied shooting drills with the AR-15. The AR-15 is the duty rifle that accompanies
every deputy in his patrol car. It is very similar to the military issue M-16. It fires a .223
caliber round in a semi-automatic fashion. The trijicon scope mounted on the rifle
ensured very accurate shooting. In addition to gaining certification with the AR-15, we
also did some night firing and mock scene shooting drills.
Following the shooting range, we went back into the classroom.
Cultural
diversity and ethics were our next topics. This was a one-week, eight-hour section. Law
enforcement agencies nation wide are under scrutiny when it comes to how they deal
24
with minorities. Nation wide, an overwhelming percentage of law enforcement officials
are white men.
Whitman County is certainly no exception, of the twenty law
enforcement officials with the Sheriff’s Department, eighteen are white men, one is a
black man and one is a white woman. A major point of this section of training dealt with
consistency. We were taught to be very consistent with the ways we handle traffic stops
and calls. This way it could never be said that anyone of us was giving a certain situation
preferential treatment based on an offender or victim’s race. It is important to note that
many times an officer doesn’t know the race or gender of the occupants of a car before he
stops it or doesn’t know the race or gender of a victim or offender while responding to a
call.
Next, we worked on a portion of the class dedicated to criminal investigation.
This was a three-week course that accounted for twenty-four hours of class time. This
portion was interesting because we were given instruction on crime scene investigation.
We were taught how to behave at a crime scene, and how to collect evidence with out
contaminating it. As police work is becoming more and more technologically advanced
with ever changing and ever improving evidence collection and evidence evaluation
tools, an officer must be very careful and meticulous while handling evidence. Many
cases have been thrown out, and criminals have gone free because an officer wasn’t
meticulous enough while handling evidence or filling out one of the many pieces of paper
work he must do on a daily basis.
After criminal investigation, we turned to communication skills. This portion of
the academy lasted for three weeks, accounting for twenty-four hours. Additionally, on
two separate occasions, once as a class and once alone, we went to the Whitman County
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Dispatch station to watch the dispatchers do their work.
This building, known as
WHITCOM, is responsible for dispatching WCSO, Pullman Police Department, Latah
County Sheriff’s Department, Moscow Police Department, Washington State University
Police Department, Colfax Police Department as well as all Whitman County and Latah
County Fire and EMS services. I was very impressed with the dispatcher’s abilities to
handle a variety of calls and work with a variety of agencies. We were taught how to
effectively communicate with dispatch, other officers and the general public during this
portion of training.
There were a few points that the instructors made during the course of this section
that were continually stressed. First the point was made that our body language and voice
projection were much more important than the words we used. As for the statistical
breakdown, we were taught that a message consists of 55% body language, 38% voice
tone, pitch, pace and volume, and finally 7% of the message is the actual words being
used. It was important for us to realize that how we said it was more important than what
we actually said. A second point that was used as an over-arching theme in this section
was that 97% of the time we will be trying to get our point across with our
communication skills and 3% of the time we will be using physical force.
The next portion of the class was the crisis intervention portion of the academy.
This section lasted for two and a half weeks and consisted of twenty hours of classroom
time. Law enforcement personnel face a wide range of crisis situations such as car
collisions, barricade stand-offs and suicide attempts. It is important, no matter how
horrific the scene that law enforcement personnel remains calm and does their job in a
professional manner. At the WCSO the Chaplin, Deputy Ron McMurray, also acts as the
26
grief councilor, he taught the class and tried to tell us just how difficult our job would be
when faced with delivering bad news to a family. He is the one, usually along with
another deputy that must go to a family’s house and tell them that a loved one has been
lost in a tragic accident. There is a “text book” way of dealing with a situation like this,
but as he says “one never gets used to it.” He told us about a “thousand-yard stare” that
most deputies will develop after a long time on the force, as a result of all the horrific
things they have seen. McMurray says that many times when he is at a party or another
social situation, he will find himself staring blankly into space, thinking of a recent car
wreck or suicide he has been to. This is the thousand-yard stare he is talking about, and
he says it takes his wife to come over to him, ask him how he is, to bring him back to
reality.
It was made clear to us during the crisis intervention portion of the training
program, that as deputies we would be dealing with mentally disturbed people. As it
would turn out the first person I arrested was a certified schizophrenic with psychopathic,
violent and suicidal tendencies. We were taught that officer safety is our first concern.
In my particular situation this individual behaved normally until we got him into the
booking station at the county jail. By this time, my fellow deputy and I had surrendered
our firearms and it was the two of us as well as the jailer that was trusted to control this
individual. He didn’t get violent but standing in the booking room he began to rock back
and forth, chant in a (probably made up) demonic sounding language, drool and sweat
profusely. It was definitely a wake up call that the people I will be dealing with through
out the job would not always behave normally.
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We were also instructed that the most common form of crisis intervention that we
would be called upon to perform is response to a domestic violence situation.
I
responded to numerous domestic violence calls. I can say without hesitation that every
time I worked a weekend night I went to at least one of these situations. As it was
explained to us in this section there is a four-step cycle of abuse. This consists of
romance, issue and confrontation, violence then finally, cooling down and apology. As a
result of the size of the county, often times we would respond to a situation where the
cycle was complete and the couple had calmed down and resolved their confrontation.
However, if upon our arrival, we could find any evidence of a physical confrontation, we
were forced to make an arrest.
The last portion of our training was the Emergency Vehicle Operation Course
(EVOC) section of the academy. This section was broken into two parts, two classroom
sections and four course sections. The classroom sections lasted four hours, and the
course sections lasted eight hours. In the classroom sections we had two EVOC
instructors, one from the WSU Police Department, and one from the Liberty Lake Police
Department who explained to us the great responsibility that comes with driving a police
car. Responding to calls at a high rate of speed is part of the job. This is especially true
when dealing with a Sheriff’s Department. Whitman County is roughly 2,200 square
miles so responding to a call from a great distance is a reality of the job. The most
important thing regarding traveling to any call is arriving safely; we were reminded that
we could do no good at a call if we don’t arrive safely. This being said we were also
faced with the reality that certain types of calls like domestic violence, or robbery, will
force us to try to respond to the call as quickly as we can.
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In the classroom, some videos were shown and an information packet was handed
out that detailed the types of risks involved in a high-speed pursuit situation. The
instructors made it clear that if we stay in law enforcement long enough, we will be
involved in a car chase. In fact, as a reserve deputy, I was involved in a pursuit.
Working in Pullman, we responded to a car chase that culminated with a Jeep Cherokee
striking an apartment building in the North Campus Heights apartments and coming to a
stop because it rolled over. Location and time of day are important factors to consider
before becoming involved in a chase. The instructors reminded us that public safety is
our main concern, and any chase that will be very likely to endanger innocent bystander’s
lives should be broken off.
Factors such as relative location of a pursuit to school,
factories, shopping centers, apartment complexes, churches and high-density work areas,
as well as weather and road conditions need to be considered to determine the relative
safety of a pursuit. Considering these factors, one can easily see how chasing someone
on a dry clear night down a county road would be relatively safer than pursuing someone
at a high speed down Colorado Street in Pullman on a weekend night.
Time and
circumstance must be considered when deciding whether or not to engage in a pursuit.
After the classroom portion of EVOC was completed, we continued our training
on the weekends at the Pullman Industrial Park near Shweitzer Laboratories. We closed
off a loop of road and worked on navigating obstacles and taking turns at a high rate of
speed.
The two instructors demonstrated and explained the proper techniques for
navigating the course. During the four eight hour days of the course portion, occurring
on consecutive weekends, we were trained with a Ford Crown Victoria, a Chevrolet
Caprice and a Ford Blazer. At the Sheriff’s Department we use the Ford Crown Victoria,
29
so this vehicle was given the bulk of the attention at the course. The Crown Victoria is a
rear wheel drive car with an automatic transmission, several techniques were
demonstrated for this particular type of car, such as tapping the breaks before making a
sharp turn to “load” the two front wheels for better maneuverability. While driving a
Crown Victoria in a normal situation the weight distribution of the car sits more heavily
on the rear wheels, because these are the wheels that are driving car. By hitting the
breaks more of the cars weight is distributed to the wheels in the front of the car, this
gives the front wheels more traction and thus more maneuverability.
After passing the basic maneuverability tests on the course we engaged in some
mock scenes to recreate the excitement and speed of a felony pursuit. In this mock scene
a routine car stop was as set up, but as soon as the officer got out of his car and
approached the suspect vehicle, the suspect fled. We were instructed to return to our car,
contact dispatch and inform them of the pursuit, and then hit lights and sirens and begin
pursuit. We have been instructed to use our lights and/or sirens anytime we will be
breaking traffic laws to pursue a vehicle. Of all the portions of the training program, this
one was the most enjoyable. I feel like not only did I learn a lot from this section, but I
can take what they taught and work on these skills every time I drive a patrol car. After
EVOC, we had graduation where we were sworn in by the county auditor to uphold the
laws of the state of Washington in Whitman County.
We graduated in August, and immediately after graduation I logged a lot of hours
on the road for the county. Not only did I patrol, but also I worked such events as the
Whitman County Fair, high school mock scenes and prisoner guard duty at the hospital.
Early on, I was able to take place in a mock DUI fatality crash at St. John – Endicott
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High School. This was an all school assembly where a few students recreated a fatal car
accident scene and then the rest of the school watched as I, with the Sheriff’s
Department, along with the Washington State Patrol, and Fire and EMS crews responded
to the scene. This was a great event to take part in and I feel that many high school kids
got to see a sobering reality of what a DUI fatality crash scene is like. The student actors
were in full makeup to give the appearance of serious injury and death, they did an
excellent job and the scene truly had some impact.
Early on in my patrol work for the county I was able to make some arrests, for
DUI and other warrant issues. I learned quickly that even though the academy had taught
me many things, the real learning took place on the job. It was very clear the first time I
responded to a domestic violence that these were no longer mock scenes; the bloody
broken nose was enough to convince me of that. Dealing with people can be challenging
because they are all different, they react differently, and they act with different
motivations and attitudes toward the police.
It is also important to note that some of my training I received in the academy
were skills and tactics that I hoped I would never have to use. I have made a few arrests,
and been forced to put my hands on a few people, but never in an aggressive or violent
manner. In reality, if I worked long enough on the force, at some point, my defensive
tactics training would help, sooner or later someone will try to resist arrest and fight back.
Furthermore, I certainly hoped, as I believe most cops do, that I would never have to
shoot at anyone. Not to say that the training on the gun range was wasted, but simply,
this is a skill I have that I hoped I never had to use.
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In retrospect, the most valuable training came during the Field Training Officer
(FTO) portion of my instruction. This is the portion after graduation, where I worked as
a deputy, while being evaluated and instructed by a fulltime deputy. As with many
things, the training in the classroom pales in comparison to the training and experience I
have received through actively doing. We were given a Policy and Procedures manual
along with a FTO manual that we were required to complete. These manuals coincide
with the things we have been taught and the duties we perform on the street. It is very
valuable to go out and work an eight or ten hour shift and then receive feedback from an
experienced deputy regarding my performance.
First thing out of the academy I only rode as a passenger with a fulltime deputy.
This gave me a great opportunity to see how a deputy applied the training I had been
given to real on the street situations. What struck me was the relative calm and
easygoing manner in which the deputies talked to people they had stopped or had been
dispatched to go contact. I had a perception that the police deal with people in a very
business-like, cold and detached manner. This was certainly not the case for these
particular deputies; I think they were better able to deal with people in this manner. As I
progressed through my FTO manual, I was allowed to do more things in the squad car; I
drove, pulled people over, and used the radio. As I progressed with my training, I was
allowed to drive the squad car while on patrol; it was a great help to have a deputy riding
with me. However, it was up to me to decide whom we pulled over and when we did it.
There are certainly responsibility issues when dealing with a traffic stop, it is important to
be fair and judicious with your arbitration of punishment, as well as consistent with
choosing which individuals to stop.
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The first time I worked as a reserve deputy on patrol I made a felony arrest. I,
along with a full time deputy served a warrant for felony harassment in Albion. We
knew going in that this particular individual had been arrested a number of times and had
a history of violence towards law enforcement officers. One thing that was going
through my mind as we approached his residence was the issue of back up that comes in
to play when working for the Sheriff’s Department. This happened to be an evening
during the weekday, so normally there would be two other deputies on duty and a
sergeant. This particular evening however, due to special circumstances the deputy I was
with was the only one on, in addition to a sergeant back at the sheriff’s office. This
meant that if things went bad during the warrant service, the most we could hope for
would be one unit, responding from ten miles away.
Luckily the arrest went off with out a hitch, I was able to handcuff the individual
and do a complete search of his person incident to arrest. Reflecting on the incident after
we had transported him to the county jail, I realized just how great of a responsibility I
have been entrusted with. It is quite an experience when you take someone’s freedom
away from them. It is a power and responsibility that all law enforcement personnel need
to take very seriously. The situation did not leave me with a good feeling; the individual
we arrested was living in poverty, in an old broken down trailer, with some serious
mental health issues. A reality of this job is that law enforcement officials are forced to
deal with a segment of society on a daily basis that the rest of society likes to ignore,
specifically the very poor and mentally disturbed. During the academy, one of our
instructors made the statement that after his first arrest he got such an adrenaline rush that
he couldn’t go to sleep when he got home, in my case, after my first arrest I really just
33
felt bad for the arrestee and bad for the situation. From my experience, it is the down and
out that seem to receive the brunt of the law. Often times during a car stop, it is the
person with the broken down car, and the broken windshield, and the busted taillight, and
the suspended license and the lack of insurance that will receive hundreds of dollars in
tickets that they certainly can’t afford.
Another part of this training process that has helped a great deal is the training
sessions we received after the completion of the Reserve Academy. Every month, on the
first Thursday, we have a reserve meeting at the Sheriff’s office in Colfax. In many of
the meetings we have been given training. We have practiced and received training on
such topics as; felony stops, field sobriety tests, accident report writing and BAC (BloodAlcohol Content) machine use. Additionally, we have been given opportunities to
receive training on RADAR, and straight stick defensive tactics at other locations being
coordinated by outside agencies. Continuing training after the academy is a big part of a
reserve or full-time deputy’s commitment to law enforcement. The full-time deputies
from our sheriff’s department regularly attend trainings to either train them on new
techniques or to keep them current on old skills. It’s important to note that even though a
recruit goes to the academy as a rookie; after he comes out he is annually tested on such
skills as firearms and FST administration to make sure he stays competent.
As a member of the 2005 Whitman County Reserve Sheriff’s Deputy program, I
had first hand experience in the hyper-masculine world of policing as well as the male
peer support model. Though I realize my experiences can’t be generalized and every
ounce of evidence I gathered from my experience is purely anecdotal, as far as this paper
is concerned I think my experiences are important. For starters, the WCSO is a
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masculine place, purely based on the demographics. Of the eighteen working deputies,
along with the sheriff and undersherrif, only one was female, and of the roughly thirty
active reserve deputies, only two were female. The number of active reserve deputies can
fluctuate, but assuming that there are fifty deputies, counting both reserve and full-time
deputies, forty-seven of these deputies are males and three are female.
The overwhelming proportion of male to females in the work place at the sheriff’s
office fosters a masculine work environment. Additionally, the job of law enforcement is
inherently masculine. As law enforcement officers, we carry guns, an array of other
weapons such as straight sticks and pepper spray, as well as handcuffs and other
restraints. We have a lot of power, insofar as we have the ability to use deadly force
when warranted, as well as deny citizens of their freedoms. The power trip and ego trip
that result from this are very conducive to the growth of a masculine ego. I can only
assume that the “machismo” found at the WCSO is representative of the attitudes found
in law enforcement settings across the country. I can make this assumption because the
demographics of law enforcement personnel are consistent across the county as is the
equipment and job description.
There was an incident that reflects the male peer support model that I personally
experienced during the academy. It occurred during a training session on the shooting
range. We worked on our shooting from eight in the morning until roughly five in the
evening. During a break at around noon, one of the instructors spotted an animal on the
bank above the shooting pit. He then proceeded to get dressed in camouflage, grab a
semi-automatic AR-15 and stalk the animal. After a few minutes of waiting he shot and
killed the animal, for no other reason than just to kill it. The killing of an animal purely
35
for the sake of killing it bothered me, but the other deputies and trainees seemed
impressed so I kept quiet. This was an overwhelmingly male group with many highpowered weapons, because of this I think certain behaviors were encouraged and
validated that would not have been otherwise.
Another example of the male peer support model that I recently experienced
occurred on a fishing boat. After working with the WCSO for fifteen months, I spent five
months on a commercial fishing boat in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. I was on
the boat with four other men. I realize my experience is purely anecdotal, and
commercial fishermen are a roughneck kind of bunch to begin with, but it was a “manly”,
“macho” environment and a lot of cussing and crude remarks went on that probably
wouldn’t have occurred if women were present. I don’t know exactly why this is, but has
been true in my last two work environments.
For a brief period of time I was socialized as a commercial fisherman, it is
interesting how as people, we adapt and change based on our environment and external
stimuli. Already after being off the boat and back in normal culture for five weeks, I can
already see a change in myself. This is an example of socialization. I was socialized on
the boat, and now I am being socialized back into mainstream society. Police are
socialized too, as a result of their environments and the people they associate with.
Current policing literature, as well as my experience reflects the fact that cops hang out
with cops. I can’t say that I was socialized into police culture during my fifteen months
with the WCSO. I was living in Pullman, going to the W.S.U. campus everyday, and
working at DGSS, so really my identity remained a college student. However, I was
around men who were steeped in police culture.
36
One thing I noticed that I think speaks volumes about police culture was how the
deputies referred to other people in society. To a deputy, a fellow deputy was a friend
and everyone else was a “sh--bag.” I could also see how in their day-to-day lives they
associated with themselves and really operated as an inclusive group. From the deputies
I worked with and got to know personally, it was apparent that they all stuck to a pretty
similar schedule. They would work for ten hours, sleep a lot and stay around the house
until they work again. There is a very good reason that deputies off duty generally stay
home. A full-time deputy is on duty, though not checked into service, twenty-four hours
a day, seven days a week. If they are in public, though not on duty and see a crime occur,
they have a duty and responsibility to act. Many of the WSCO deputies I spoke with
didn’t want that burden of responsibility while walking around in their daily lives.
While on duty, but not while in the course of duty, deputies interacted with other
deputies; they would either meet up on break, or talk on cell phones. Not one time,
during the entire eight months that I spent working as a reserve deputy, did I see another
deputy approach a citizen and do any “community oriented” preventative police work.
Through my observation, as well as reading some of the literature on police socialization
it is easy to see how and why cops behave the way they do.
In “’There Oughtta Be a Law Against Bitches’: Masculinity Lessons in Police
Academy Training,” Prokos and Padavic look at the police training process through the
eyes of a woman trainee. Anastasia Prokos went through a five-month law enforcementtraining program in 1997, and she detailed her experiences in her article. She found, as I
did that men bond through talking about violence, hunting, sports, weapons, and the
objectification of women. The title of her piece came from a segment of the television
37
show COPS that the class watched at the beginning of the training program. At one
point, on the television show, a man was being arrested and yelled out, “there oughtta be
a law against bitches,” from that point on whenever an academy member wanted to
belittle something a woman did, or belittle women in general, he would exclaim “there
oughtta be a law against bitches,” (Prokos and Padavic, 2002).
The way that male officers relate to one another during and after the training
process is something that I can describe because I saw it first hand. We were instructed
during the academy sessions on how to handle certain situations, but then as I talked to
my different FTOs during that process of the training program, they would tell me how to
handle things a little bit differently. Not to say that the deputies were behaving in an
underhanded manner, but in the pursuit of efficiency certain steps of certain procedures
could be left out, while still accomplishing the desired task. For example, in the academy
we would be instructed to fill out every single box on a speeding ticket, but on the road
the deputy would tell me to fill out only the necessary boxes to make the ticket work.
There is definitely a “by the book” way of doing things, and then an actual way that the
sheriff’s deputies perform their jobs. Almost every time I worked, we would meet other
deputies, state troopers and Colfax city cops at the Subway sandwich restaurant, during
this time they would all talk about how the real police work should be done. Cops are
like anyone else, and want to keep their paper work to a minimum, so I would be told, not
only in these lunch break situations, but also in the station house, how to do the minimum
amount of paper work to get an arrest or a conviction.
These are examples of the informal police socialization process that I believe is
very important. I didn’t go to the full time academy, but many deputies that did relayed
38
to me that after they got out of the academy and to their respective departments, their
FTOs would say, “I know what they told you in the academy, but this is how we do
things here.” The training, both formal and informal as well as the socialization that goes
on after the trainee leaves the academy and starts working in his respective department is
more important than the training the trainee gets at the academy. I can’t prove this
statistically, but I can say from my experience around both a formal and informal training
program, as well as exposure to the socialization process that goes on between officers
that I believe this to be true.
In the end I did feel like the Reserve Academy did prepare me to work as a
reserve deputy in Whitman County. However, after graduating from the academy I
would not have felt comfortable working in a squad car by myself, a full time deputy was
definitely needed. The academy didn’t prepare me to be a full-time cop. I would have
needed substantially more mock scene training and much more work with field sobriety
testing. Eventually, a reserve deputy can work his way up to a position known as “class
one” where he can take a squad car and work by himself. This is after logging a
substantial number of hours with another deputy and passing additional tests.
Working with the WSCO was a great experience for me. After reading numerous
textbooks and journal articles about the world of policing, most notably the training and
socialization process, I was able to see it first hand for myself. I will argue that until one
actually straps on a weapon, and puts on a bulletproof vest, and checks into service, he
can’t really know what it means to be a police officer. This being said, I felt that many of
the authors I read during my course work towards this master’s degree were validated in
my mind because the theories of “us vs. them”, “thin blue line”, “hyper-masculine and
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militarized police force”, as well as the “male-peer support model” theories hold water, I
have witnessed them first hand. I think it is important for us in the world of academia to
understand just how important the informal socialization process that goes on in police
departments is, and if we want to make changes within the department, and in police
culture in general we must address this portion of the training and socialization process.
As far as the divergence found between the idealistic textbook path of the COP
model of policing and the hypermasculine path that police culture is actually heading
down, the gap will continue to widen and not converge back together. Ever since 1966
when the SWAT team was invented and military-style tactics became the methods for
effective police work, the idealistic notion of an “Andy Griffith” style small town cop
was lost forever. America is changing, the 1950’s are over. There are 300,000,000 legal
residents of this country, and millions more that are illegal residents. Roughly 1,000,000
law enforcement personal across this country are empowered to use coercive tactics to
keep this mass of humanity in order.
So as citizens we must realize that the days of “touchy, feely” police work are
over. Every cop is trained that each traffic stop or domestic violence call could be his
last, and is shown videos throughout his training process to illustrate this point. So, the
next time you are stopped by a cop and it doesn’t leave you with a “warm, fuzzy” feeling
inside, toughen up, just remember, these men are doing a very difficult job, that at a
moments notice may require them to put their life on the line for you, and they’ll do it,
without hesitation. It’s a big bad world out there and we should be thankful that there are
still men and women who are willing to except relatively low pay to put on a bulletproof
vest, strap on a weapon and check into service and engage in a extremely stressful and
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difficult job, while asking for no thanks, and getting very little, so you can sleep just a
little bit safer tonight.
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