Reflections on the color of my skin | Hacker News Reader

Reflections on the color of my skin

haydenplanetarium.org

55 pointssheharyarn42 comments

6 months training for a police officer is appallingly low. German police officers undergo 3 years of training, including extensive training in de-escalation.

Yeah, one would also hope that the police officers handling military equipment would get even more training than those who carry only one small handgun.

I presume this is to cut costs. But the logical conclusion of that - giving people a companion app and only 1 month of training - appears very inhumane to me. And it wouldn't be surprising to me if less training with other humans leads to less care for other humans in the field.

That’s 6 months in the academy, they are then made probationary officers for about 2 years.

In Germany it depends on the path, the police academy includes not only police training but general education (hence why they are called police universities and offer degree programs too) to at least college levels in the US and you may also elect to get your bachelors degree as part of the training.

If you already have a degree your training would be substantially shorter.

While I don’t disagree that the police officer training might need to be reviewed the 4-6 months for the most part is a clickbait that if you look at how most other countries train their police force it’s not that different.

Please note that many police forces in the US require a 2 year college degree / enough credits for one or higher to join the academy in the first place and you have to be 21, countries with much longer “academic” studies for police forces tend to allow people to join the academy at 16-18 and get their 2 years of secondary education as part of their training.

I think the big difference is that most police forces in the US exempt you from this requirement if you have served 2 years or more of active military duty and were honorably discharged.

I've heard claims that a large part of the problem is this probation period, during which the candidates are made to unlearn all the teaching from the academy and taught the real ways of the street: that is to say the actual practice at the station that has been handed down since time immemorial.

Could be, but they are still tested on the book throughout their probationary period the question is really how well the training officers are vetted.

However again it’s not that terribly different than many other countries where you either get an academic degree and then practical training or if you already have a degree you are essentially given a crash course and sent into practical training as an apprentice/trainee officer for about the same time frame as the probationary period in the US.

In the UK you have 3 main paths, apprenticeship which takes about 3 years, a degree program which takes about 3 years and a degree to policing program which takes about 2 years.

The first and the last pretty much put you on the street right away the middle is a combination of academic learning and on duty training.

Yet with their three year they still said “sorry it happens all the time, nothing we can do” when we got burglarized.

And just like that, everybody is obsessed with race again. Such a progress.

What utopia of a country do you live in where people didn't care about race up until people started protesting about police brutality against black people?

you missed the word "obsessed"

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