Wednesday, April 14, 1999
Sentinels leader says young cops aggressive
Black police group seeks better training
BY TANYA BRICKING
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati's black police organization says today's young officers are too aggressive in the way they handle arrests.
In light of last month's fatal shooting by police of Michael Carpenter, which prompted criticism from leaders in the black community, Sentinel Police Association President Cecil Thomas is proposing improvements for police training.
Under his suggestions, officers assigned to train rookies would have at least eight years of patrol experience, the training academy would be staffed with more veteran officers, and the limit of age 34 for police recruits would be eliminated.
He says it would lead to a more courteous and respectful force, whose officers have a better relationship with people they serve.
For years, veteran officers have complained officers who train rookies have little experience themselves, said Spc. Thomas, who leads the Sentinel Police Association of about 250 black officers.
He has sent his recommendations to city council's Law
and Public Safety Committee. He said he was prompted by March 19's shooting of Mr. Carpenter.
Two officers said they opened fired on Mr. Carpenter during a traffic stop in Northside because they feared for their lives. The officers were Michael B. Miller II, 24, a rookie just out the police academy in December, and his field training officer, Brent McCurley, 27, a four-year veteran.
Field training officers are role models. Once recruits graduate, they work with field training officers for at least 12 weeks before working on their own. Typical of their peers on the 1,000-member force, most field training officers are part of the 70 percent of the force that has fewer than 10 years' experience.
Councilman Todd Portune introduced a motion Monday asking the city to require seven years' experience for field training officers, to staff the night shifts with more veteran officers, allow more retired officers to be involved in training and to eliminate the age limitation for recruits.
The recommendations from Spc. Thomas and Mr. Portune will be discussed by council and referred to the administration for evaluation.
Their ideas have merit, said Keith Fangman, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Queen City Lodge.But because of the demographics of the force, having training officers with at least seven years' experience might be impractical, he said.
Officers need only three years' experience to take the test to become sergeants, who can command up to 25 people, he said.
The force faced the same problem two years ago, Spc. Thomas said, with the death of Lorenzo Collins, a mental patient shot by police after charging them with a brick. Mr. Collins was surrounded by officers who all had fewer than four years' experi ence.
“You can't teach the kind of street training that an officer would need unless you've done it yourself,” Spc. Thomas said. “That takes seven to 10 years (to learn). The only thing the four-year guy can teach you is the aggressive style.”
Ted Schoch, training academy commander, said it would be ideal to raise the level of experience for training officers, but it's a matter of time before the division develops more of a veteran staff.
In the past few years, training has expanded to include things as basic as teaching Spanish to as complicated as developing a sophisticated way to teach officers how to deal better with mentally ill people, he said.
“Training has always been an area to point to as a cure-all type of thing,” he said. “But improving training is generally going to improve the way the units operate.”
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