Recruiting and Developing Compassionate Officers

摘要

WHEN I FIRST BEGAN MY LAW ENFORCEMENT CAREER EIGHT YEARS AGO, like most eager and excited law enforcement recruits across the United States, I was taught laws in the academy so I could recognize and arrest people who violated those laws. During field training, and once I was released for independent duty, I was taught and encouraged to generate arrest and traffic stop statistics to prove my productivity and organizational value. At no point during my development from recruit to patrol officer was the notion of problem-solving ever glorified. When I was released for independent duty, I was not provided a list of support resources that could potentially generate lasting and socially impactful alternatives to incarceration. My patrol training officer (PTO) did not teach me how to build relationships with community stakeholders, nor did my supervisor speak to me of the resounding effect that an arrest could have on an offender's family, finances, job, and social standing within the community. These skills I had to develop on my own, and I began to call this skill set "compassionate policing." If law enforcement is to build community trust and truly make social change, we have to begin developing compassionate police officers early on in their careers, from hiring through academy training, field training, and patrol development.