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Of course they don't want to fix it. Those barriers help drive up the value of the people that control those barriers. In my state, its also a huge problem wit

Of course they don't want to fix it. Those barriers help drive up the value of the people that control those barriers. In my state, its also a huge problem with Nursing and Police Certification. Especially over the last 3 years. If you hire a police officer in Oregon today, you will wait at least 9 months until they can start at the state run academy. And they might not graduate. So you have to pay them for 9 months to 'study' and not be police, and hope they graduate. Most deparments here put their recruiting efforts into getting licensed officers from other departments, with a huge bonus. (and of course, massive overtime for existing officers, and complaining about the shortages, turnover, etc) As the average age of Nurses, Police, etc over the years crept up, there was no movement to increase the capacity of training replacements, as the senior people liked the wages they got.

petsfed 3y ago
Given some of the controversies around poorly trained police, I'm not sure the problem here is that it takes too long to become a police officer. Rather, there aren't enough people trying to become officers, so the normal latency exacerbates issues surrounding the existing officer shortage. The absence of good candidates also drives down the quality of the average candidate, and has downstream affects as you mentioned. Maybe, like with the other trades, something should be done to make the job more appealing, so more people try to enter the pipeline.
nradov 3y ago
How is that a problem? Policing is a hard, complex job. Even 9 months of training isn't nearly enough. Law enforcement officers ought to have a minimum of two years of full time training before being sworn in and sent out on patrol with arrest powers. Many of the problems we see with police brutality and poor community relations come down to lack of proper training. This is a issue for small police departments which can't afford to pay a non-productive trainee for years. Realistically some of them aren't going to be viable going forward and will either have to merge with departments in neighboring cities, or dissolve and rely on a county sheriff's department.
themaninthedark 3y ago
I like how we just spent a couple years talking about how the police are are dumb and uneducated and now we are saying that 9 months of education is too long.
Tangurena2 3y ago
In some states, community colleges do the police training. That's what I did. Depending on state, such programs can range from 6 months to 2 years. Again, depending on state, the individual can just enroll on their own, or in other states the requirements range from "sponsored" by an agency ("yeah, we think this person might make a good cop" - but not getting paid) to actually hired and sworn in. Generally, the state police have their own academies/training facilities. Only the largest police departments (like Los Angeles) can afford to support their own schools. States where any kid (like I was!) can enroll before getting hired will have too many trained/educated prospective police officers chasing too few jobs, while your state has too many jobs chasing insufficient workers.

petsfed 3y ago

Given some of the controversies around poorly trained police, I'm not sure the problem here is that it takes too long to become a police officer. Rather, there aren't enough people trying to become officers, so the normal latency exacerbates issues surrounding the existing officer shortage. The absence of good candidates also drives down the quality of the average candidate, and has downstream affects as you mentioned. Maybe, like with the other trades, something should be done to make the job more appealing, so more people try to enter the pipeline.

nradov 3y ago

How is that a problem? Policing is a hard, complex job. Even 9 months of training isn't nearly enough. Law enforcement officers ought to have a minimum of two years of full time training before being sworn in and sent out on patrol with arrest powers. Many of the problems we see with police brutality and poor community relations come down to lack of proper training. This is a issue for small police departments which can't afford to pay a non-productive trainee for years. Realistically some of them aren't going to be viable going forward and will either have to merge with departments in neighboring cities, or dissolve and rely on a county sheriff's department.

themaninthedark 3y ago

I like how we just spent a couple years talking about how the police are are dumb and uneducated and now we are saying that 9 months of education is too long.

Tangurena2 3y ago

In some states, community colleges do the police training. That's what I did. Depending on state, such programs can range from 6 months to 2 years. Again, depending on state, the individual can just enroll on their own, or in other states the requirements range from "sponsored" by an agency ("yeah, we think this person might make a good cop" - but not getting paid) to actually hired and sworn in. Generally, the state police have their own academies/training facilities. Only the largest police departments (like Los Angeles) can afford to support their own schools. States where any kid (like I was!) can enroll before getting hired will have too many trained/educated prospective police officers chasing too few jobs, while your state has too many jobs chasing insufficient workers.