Thoughts on “better training” for police:

Thoughts on “better training” for police:

I saw this Facebook post today that started with the premise that people calling for better training have no idea what level of train our police officers are actually provided.  In the comments a mother with a non-verbal autist son told how she creates positive interactions with the police by introducing him to officers that appear to have a few minutes to spend with them. 

The fact of the matter is that we are constantly training our police force.  There’s a quote floating around the InterWebs, “You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop and what you reinforce.”  Many management classes teach the concept of mirrored behavior to help service staff deal with difficult people.  The idea is that people tend to mirror any emotion/attitude/behavior that is directed at them. I usually sum this up as “act like a thug get treated like a thug.”

This is not a black or white thing. The typical police interaction is stressful and dangerous and the people they come into contact with a usually at their worst or in a very difficult situation.  When you add to this mix hostility, anger, disrespect and defiance the situation quickly escalates. If every interaction with a segment of our population is negative then every interaction with that segment of society reinforces the belief that every interaction with that segment will always be negative. 

We have been training our police force to treat us with the same attitude that we present to them.