imported post
Perhaps because of the fact that the only reason that they are training them is because they are a "liability". I think in this country nowadays thats the only thing some of these agencies understand anymore. They don't function to police themselves, whether its a corperation, a 3 letter agency, or a small town police department. They just understand terms like "lawsuit" and "civil litigation" as well as "media frenzy". Leadership has failed here...
Perhaps back in the day it might have been easier to put Barney Fife on the street with a badge gun and handcuffs, but nowadays I think not. Police respond to everything from terrorist hostage situations to snakes in a house. The constitutional rights of citizens are much more complex now as well after hundreds of years of supreme court rulings and incidents that have taken place... from the time this country started until the present.
Theres alot of grey area's... as well. For example, Auxillary Police Departments. Theres alot of police departments that have auxillary or volunteer police force. People who hold limited powers, but at the same time are power of the police and government. Has the same authority as a regular law enforcement official but doesnt get paid to do it as a full time job.
I think that police can be ok, and then there are other police officers that think they are above the law, or enforce it how they see fit, not how its written to be enforced. There are cops out there who also write their own law.
I think that dispatchers should go through some sort of law training as well.... A prime example is in the case of the Manasas 7.... If the dispatcher had known the law, they could have stopped wasting the time of 911 with calls of people questioning what the law is... Should an emergency number be used to educate the masses on the finer points of gun laws?
The biggest thing I see is that these police departments, who are put there to enforce the laws that are made, not a big deal, have dissassociated themselves from the communities in which they serve. The fact that they feel that they are not held accountable to the citizens in which they were hired to protect. Why it takes protests, lawsuits, and town council meetings to FIX an organization in which it should already be held to some sort of standard because they are in fact the "model citizens". They are a representation of the community and the government. Their personal integrity, character, fitness, and judgement and common sense along with their honed street smarts should be above reproach. They should not only enforce the law but promote good citizenship by educating the community on laws and their constitutional rights.
For example a police chief using his status as a chief, colonel, sheriff, to view his point on gun laws, and what the law should be. Or try and speak to the media for the people by telling them that the guns are the cause of crime in the district of columbia, and the people do not need to have them, like he know's whats best. Nobody questions that?
