For years, Lowcountry chiefs of police and sheriffs have been in a tug of war with the South Carolina Police Training Council over a proposal to open a second state police academy in the Charleston area. Well, not exactly a tug of war, since the council said no, and the only recourse for local authorities was to complain.
The police had a legitimate complaint about the expenses and interruptions of requiring newly hired Charleston officers to spend 12 weeks at the SC Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia – a complaint that has been compounded by increased waiting times to even be able to go through the mandate of the Training status.
The Training Council had an equally legitimate concern about keeping police training consistent across the state and about the consequences: As sure as the day goes on at night, a Charleston academy would have inspired demands for an academy in Greenville. And Aiken. And in Florence. And Myrtle Beach. Until there was no state training academy.
Fortunately, finally, state officials collaborated to produce a solution that has the potential not only to eliminate delays in the training schedule and allow prospective officers to stay home for much of the training, but also to improve that training.
As Gregory Yee of the Post and Courier reports, instead of allowing officers in Charleston to take on the training of some officers, the Training Council struck a deal with our acclaimed state Technical College System to split the training into two parts, with the first part conducted by technical colleges – not just Trident Technical College, but all 16 colleges.
The final eight weeks of training will still be conducted at the gym in Columbia. But technical colleges will offer a 14-week Police Pre-Academy Training certificate for students who complete four courses covering standard topics such as introduction to criminal law, courts, crimes and procedures, basic patrol operations, domestic violence, report writing. , drug enforcement and basic crash investigation.
This should be much more convenient than the old Columbia 12-week course and much more effective than the reduced substitute that the academy designed in 2019 to reduce waiting time, which allowed students to attend eight weeks of training at the academy after completing four weeks of online training and video at home.
Of course, it will be essential for the Training Council to maintain control over what is taught and who teaches in technical faculties. Just as important, the board needs to make the best use of that extra time.
Unfortunately, despite what looked like promising efforts in both the House and the Senate, the Legislature has not moved bills to put limits on the use of force, demand external investigations of the use of force by the police, demand consistent use of body cameras and video become public and, in other ways, solve the problems in our communities and in our police departments caused by police officers who abuse their authority and injure or even kill innocent people.
But there is nothing to stop the Training Council from laying the groundwork for new leaders who could begin to solve some of the problems while we wait for legislative action.
Ten extra weeks of training need to incorporate essential components that don’t exist today or that trainees look like add-ons – things that some politicians said they should be taught, but that don’t really matter.
This extra time gives us a chance to start creating a new generation of police officers who understand that it is just as important for them to know how to narrow down potentially dangerous encounters as hitting a target with their service weapon. That they know that an essential part of their job is to recognize mental and addiction problems, and to understand that these problems require a solution different from common illegality.
This allows us to teach new officers that the fellow police officer who hits suspects against the sidewalk to respond, who twists their handcuffs wrists to inflict pain because they cannot withstand the adrenaline rush, poses a far greater danger to them than just about any criminal that they find. That they need to call their fellow officers and report them in the chain of command, if necessary, because these officers erode community support for all officers and lead to a culture that creates illegality.
And if those extra 10 weeks are properly structured, they should also free up some time in the eight-week course at the Criminal Justice Academy to allow instructors there to focus on identifying those students who lack the self-control and temperament necessary to serve as police officers. . Because figuring out who shouldn’t carry a badge and weapon is the most difficult – and probably the most important – part of police training.