Posted on Sep 23, 2016
ENS Ansi Officer
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CPT Jack Durish
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When I was assigned to Hawaii, I arrived at a time when the Honolulu Police Department was stung by several allegations of excessive force. They chose to provide officers with additional training in hand-to-hand combat and other alternatives to use of deadly weapons, and psychological training in dealing with confrontations. Shortly after this program of training was completed, there was an incident when two police officers were confronted by two armed perpetrators. One of the officers was shot and wounded, and his partner talked the perps into surrendering. It was a very surprising response. Also, I believe, instructive. If you want better policing, you have to invest in your police, their equipment and their training.
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SSG Program Control Manager
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We are sometimes too quick to point fingers at the police or at people who are on the receiving end of police violence, when the real problem is the resources available to police.
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SPC Kevin Ford
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There does certainly appear to be multiple cases of the escalation of force policy breaking down. for example, the Tulsa shooting would seem like a case where passive resistance was met with deadly force. The police forces in general do have rules around escalation of force but it also appears that there is a breakdown between policy and execution in some cases.

The real dangerous thing is that breakdown in escalation of force naturally results in a breakdown of trust between law enforcement forces and the communities they are interacting with. If we ever get to the point where substantial portions of those communities believe their lives are in danger whenever they have contact with law enforcement and they need to arm and defend themselves, we as a larger community are going to be in a world of hurt.

Cameras and the internet didn't create this problem, but they have exposed it.
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SGM Erik Marquez
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Is it the training and concept? Or the lack of following procedure, policies and the force continuum?
If it needs to be updated, should it include the fact, LEOS these days do not have respected power of authority. Many of us less young members here remember a time when you did what was asked of you by an offcier, just because they were an officer.. use of force to gain compliance was not common place..and when it was, unarmed "hands on" was often all that was required.
Today, no respect, no perceived athority, and refusal to follow instructions for anything from traffic citation to armed robbery is common place, and the person likley to be encountered by a LEO on the street is as likley to physically resist as not. Physically attack as comply. Words are no longer an effect tool of compliance...
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