Several of my law enforcement friends have heard me speak of this concept before. I firmly believe that we approach the law enforcement profession the wrong way here in America; not that any other country does it the right way either. I believe that being a police officer or deputy sheriff should be closer to being a priest or knight than “just another job.”
For sure and certain it’s not just another job. Anyone who has ever been in the profession for longer than a few months understands at a visceral level that it’s a life style. While it is a profession and one you work on a schedule (when crime and criminals cooperate with that schedule), it’s also a profession that impacts your behavior and actions when you’re not on the clock; not in uniform; not actively getting paid.
During those off-duty hours, the reality of your employment as a law enforcement professional can have a negative impact on your quality of life and that of your family as well. We are all very familiar with the stress caused to a law enforcement spouse and the sacrifices made by law enforcement families due to missed birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, etc. Every married law enforcement officer and deputy sheriff knows the pain of seeing anguish in the eyes of a spouse or those of children. It’s not anguish due to loss of anything except time spent and peace of mind. When a law enforcement professional goes off to work, there’s always some lingering little voice of doubt in the back of a family member’s mind: will I ever see this person alive again?
We officers also know the pain (maybe not the right word… frustration?) of going to work and being put into situations for which we either haven’t had the correct training or we haven’t been issued the right equipment (or both). We’re expected to ‘suck it up’ and do the job anyway because whatever increased risk or inconvenience there may be is ‘just part of the job,’ right? When you experience that enough you learn this little phrase: We have done so much with so little for so long that we’re now qualified to do anything with nothing.
But the challenge here is this: There is simply no way to prepare a person, even with six months of an academy and six months of a Field Training Program, for all of the changes that will occur in their life. Everywhere in America (that I know of), you’re required to be 21 years old to be a police officer. Some places have a cadet program where you can start at 18 but you’re not sworn or armed until 21. Even if you start the academy at twenty and a half years old, that’s still 20.5 years of living your life one way; learning habits; building outlooks; establishing basic beliefs and values; developing a persona level of compassion and all of the skills that each of us has but at different levels and with different filters because they are all specific to our own upbringing, education and experiences. Maybe you are a military veteran and some of the lifestyle changes are added into your life at 18 or 19 years of age, but that’s still only a few months of training compared to your life as you knew it before that, reinforced day in and day out.
So, after either 18 or 20.5 years of a given life style, you get a job as a law enforcement recruit, attend a six month academy, get through a six month field training program and then, voila, you’re a police officer or deputy sheriff. In that one year’s worth of training and coaching, roughly 40 hours per week, we’ve “changed” you into a law enforcement professional from what you were when you came in: whatever your life up to that point had molded you to be.
Certainly we’re picky about who we recruit: no criminals, no druggies, no habitual drunkards, no people with violent tendencies (although we require you to be violent in a controlled way at times). We pick people with good driving records, reasonably articulate, minimally educated, acceptable in their personal appearance. We try to weed out the people who are prejudiced (although we all are to some minimal degree). In short, we do our best to pick people that we feel can be molded into a true professional; who will exercise good judgment based on the training and mentoring we provide; and who will be committed to their job, striving to uphold the highest standards of the profession.
Our challenge is that we might be trying to overcome 18-20 years’ worth of experience, beliefs or values with a few months of training. That 18-20 years of life was 24/7 while the few months of training is only 40 hours per week. Right off the bat the implication is that this new recruit only has to meet the standards we set while s/he’s ‘on the clock’, in uniform or on duty. The rest of the time they’re free to be themselves and not worry about the job, right?
WRONG. In the framework of a forty hour work week we train people for a LIFESTYLE. Being a law enforcement professional requires a 24/7 commitment, 365 days per year, and – for some – it may not stop even when the officer retires. So many LE retirees stay in the work in some way that the lifestyle may never truly leave their day to day life. I retired in October ’07, although I’m now sworn with a different agency, and I no longer put on a uniform five days a week and go on patrol. I no longer go out to protect and serve a given community. I provide training and administrative oversight to a smaller community and I’ve not even been issued a uniform to wear. Does that make me any less motivated about, dedicated to or impacted by the last 30+ years I’ve spent as a law enforcement professional? Absolutely not. The impact on my family has been minimized, but every day I still wake up with ‘protect and serve’ on my mind in some way.
Oh, and that ‘protect and serve’ outlook is a high imperative in today’s LE world. With all of the mainstream media negative ‘reporting’ blitz; with ‘news’ agencies actually editing and altering information so as to create the greatest sensationalistic story they can, we in LE are being targeted as never before both for character/professional attacks and for violent attacks that cost a lot of us injuries and some of us our lives. The mainstream media is working hard every day to convince the public that we don’t protect and serve but that we instead enforce and abuse. Now more than ever we need to demonstrate to the public that we do indeed protect and serve and we need to be able to articulate in a way that even the simplest first grader can understand, that when we do take enforcement action it’s in the service of protecting others.
Where I’m going with all this is here: As I said at the beginning, I think we go about the law enforcement profession all wrong. I think George Lucas had it right with the Jedi Knights in Star Wars. I don’t think we need to start our selection and apprenticeships when future peacekeepers are children, but I DO think we need to do it either immediately upon their graduation from high school or in conjunction with their college education.
I believe that every peacekeeper (different ‘flavor’ from law enforcer) should meet some fairly rigorous selection standards: physical fit, above average in intelligence, proven quick thinking skills, articulate at a college level (not what most of our country accepts as high school level today) and more. That recruit should clearly understand that s/he’s making a commitment to a lifestyle, not a job. That recruit should clearly understand that the commitment to the lifestyle of a peacekeeper comes before and is valued above all else. That recruit should clearly understand that the commitment is to a family consisting of other peacekeepers and dedicated to the service of fair and impartial justice while protecting the populace in whatever community is served.
The recruit should commit to a three year training program with a mentor or coach and that mentor/coach would be responsible for teaching the recruit everything about the lifestyle s/he needs to know. Every skill that is necessary for the recruit to master to be ‘cut loose’ to work on his/her own should be taught by the mentoring peacekeeper. The mentor himself should have at least ten years of service and experience and have demonstrated exceptional performance.
The recruit would commit to a minimum of 22 years of service after completion of the three year apprenticeship for a total of 25 years of service starting as early as 18 years of age. That would allow all peacekeepers to retire somewhere between the ages of 43-47 (in general). Additional years of service would be welcome provided the peacekeeper could meet the standards set and tested each year. Every year each peacekeeper would be tested for fitness, knowledge and job-related skills such as shooting, hand to hand, arrest skills, less-lethal tools, etc. There would be no scheduled annual training. Every peacekeeper would be required to CONSTANTLY train themselves in conjunction with other peacekeepers around them.
Three uniforms would be approved: one for recruits/apprentices, one for peacekeepers and one for master peacekeepers – those who had been peacekeepers for 15 years or more. There would be no rank. All would be equal once attaining peacekeeper status. An elected body of master peacekeepers would meet twice annually to set, modify or update standards as might be necessary to maintain the above-reproach image and status of peacekeepers in general.
Weapons wouldn’t be issued. Guidelines would be set and reimbursement authorized. Peacekeepers would purchase their own weapons within those guidelines. This would apply to firearms, less-lethal and non-lethal tools. Items such as handcuffs, etc would be reimbursed as well, but purchased by the peacekeeper recruit. Vehicles would be treated the same way. Communications would be via digital devices with an app used for peacekeeper communications on a smart phone. That would work in sync with a ruggedized on-board mobile device.
Like the current Texas Rangers, peacekeepers would be limited in number by state or population density. Attaining peacekeeper status would be an impressive accomplishment and, as such, garner a higher level of respect from the public. The master peacekeeper council would be empowered to take representative action, as necessary, if the mainstream media decided to torque reality and report ‘inaccurately’ on an event involving peacekeepers.
Peacekeepers would not get married until they had retired. They would not be required to be celibate or refrain from alcohol use but parenting a child would be cause for immediate dismissal as would be inebriation. Obviously any non-prescription drug use would be immediate cause for dismissal. Accusations of improper behavior or ‘unprofessional conduct’ would be investigated by a representative of the master peacekeeper council and the council would determine punishment if wrong-doing was upheld.
I know this all sounds very ‘out there.’ It sounds very futuristic and science-fiction-ish. By the same token, take a moment to consider it without any prejudices toward how different it is. Consider the impact it would have if law enforcement was viewed with the same reverence as Jedi Knights were in the Star Wars movies. It would be far more difficult for the mainstream media to demonize peacekeepers given the overall commitment levels and the amount of training and length of apprenticeships. If the mainstream media attacked a peacekeeper’s performance with some serious substantiation, it would almost be like they had unreasonably attacked a priest, reverend, minister, etc.
So… thoughts? Agreements? Disagreements? Laughs? Suggestions?
