Should we license cops?

If a police department sets above standards of what a PD would normally require there should be no need for a license. For a Pennsylvania State Police Trooper to achieve becoming a Trooper, he or she must serve 28 weeks of training, which includes classroom work. A Cadet also needs a degree in Criminal Justice, although due to the shortage of Cadets at this time, the college degree has been temporarily waived, but the new recruit is still given a cognition test, along with other testing.

Cadets applying for service must also go through physical testing, which includes being able to run a given distance within a certain amount of time. This is based on a Cadet’s height and weight, which must conform to the state police standards. Cadets must also go though a background check. They are also given special training and most Cadets will go through Taser training and unless due to medical conditions, they will need to be Tasered him or herself. (See picture below.) A Taser can put out up to 50,000 volts. I had it done once and don’t need to have it done again.

There is also continual training at the Academy and at the FBI headquarters in Virginia. There is a lot more education in training and handling person to person contact. We may not get a “license,” but we do get a certificate of completion of training. I have probably missed something, but I can assure our residents that the PSP is here to help you when called upon us to do so. Our motto is:
“Honor, Service, Integrity, Respect, Trust, Courage, Duty.“

I am proud to say that the PSP has been named one of the five top State Police organizations in the U.S. California is ranked 1. We do not wear a Metal badge. Our badge is sewn on our outer shirts, jackets and caps or hat.

This is a picture of a Cadet that was just Tasered. His beard will come off before Graduation and stay off while in service. Investigators may wear a trim, neat mustache.

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I always thought the training the PD supplies is a form of vetting and licensing. But I am only familiar with big city systems. Maybe for rural areas a license and a uniform training certification nationwide would be a good idea.
 
rgp said:
But they are there if needed , and after the Texas school incident society expects them to rush the shooter , shooting a semi-automatic rifle ...... Would you do it ?? For how much of a salary ??
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I notice, with cops I've known, salary is not what motivates them towards this career. Usually, they are responding to something within themselves..........a calling, if you will.
 

We need an entire new police culture than the one that exists now.
Pepper said:
I notice, with cops I've known, salary is not what motivates them towards this career. Usually, they are responding to something within themselves..........a calling, if you will.
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Many enter the military because they have zero prospects, and then after they leave the military they still have zero prospects so they become cops. So we've trained generations of cops to be killers in the armed forces, many w PTSD, and then turn them loose on the public w qualified immunity to protect them from any personal responsibility for their actions under the cover of law.

Removing qualified immunity would eliminate protections for wrongdoing to make cops like any other person that can be sued for illegal actions taken in the course of doing their job.
 
I would like to see a license to be a cop. The reason would be a license board with powers that is not associated with the police.
There are 474 in house "police academies", run mostly local police depts. On-the-job training is done by local police depts. Complaints are handle by in house methods. The certification is a police run certification process. There is a tendency for a "good ol' boy" attitude about dealing with a 'man's livelihood'.
I think it's time to recognize that police are practitioners just as doctors are. I think having licenses would elevate police in the eyes of the public.
 
Jules said:
Do you think the police forces that fired them list all their bad behaviour. There’s always a fear of being sued for some detail the person can fight.
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Jules. In Canada, any applicant for a position as a Police officer WILL be deeply researched by the hiring Police Service. If the person was previously a sworn Police officer anywhere in Canada, their previous Police employer MUST supply the person's entire employment record to the potential hiring Police Service for investigation. Any Canadian Police officer who had been dismissed from their position for cause, will not be hired by any other Canadian Police Service. Why would they when there are plenty of solid potential applicants on file ? JIMB.
 
Jules said:
Except if they choose not to list everything. This is not uncommon in the termination of workplace firings.
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"They" being the department captains? They don't control what goes into that data base. The data includes the arrest records, arresting officer reports, and court records...the charges and filings and court dates; everything that goes on record in court.

So, it doesn't give the department's reasons for firings and suspensions, it just shows a nuts-and-bolts record of the charges and proceedings against individual officers. And charges that are dropped or dismissed are listed on there, too, unless the officer's record is expunged.
 
jimintoronto said:
Jules. In Canada, any applicant for a position as a Police officer WILL be deeply researched by the hiring Police Service. If the person was previously a sworn Police officer anywhere in Canada, their previous Police employer MUST supply the person's entire employment record to the potential hiring Police Service for investigation. Any Canadian Police officer who had been dismissed from their position for cause, will not be hired by any other Canadian Police Service. Why would they when there are plenty of solid potential applicants on file ? JIMB.
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Same here. In addition, there's a national online data base.

There was a time when a police officer who was fired for misconduct could go to another state and get hired as a police officer, but that was decades ago, and it could only happen if the hiring department simply didn't call the previous department. That kind of laziness might still exist here and there, but otherwise it's impossible to game the system anymore.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
I would like to see a license to be a cop. The reason would be a license board with powers that is not associated with the police.
There are 474 in house "police academies", run mostly local police depts. On-the-job training is done by local police depts. Complaints are handle by in house methods. The certification is a police run certification process. There is a tendency for a "good ol' boy" attitude about dealing with a 'man's livelihood'.
I think it's time to recognize that police are practitioners just as doctors are. I think having licenses would elevate police in the eyes of the public.
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Their certification IS their license. It's the same thing. It isn't something they carry on their person, that's what the badge is for. It shows you're looking at a trained certified cop.

I don't buy this bad-cop good-ol-boy's-club BS. That's old-old-school. I'm not saying there are no bad cops or that cops don't do crimes, but it isn't a systemic problem, it's an individual one....there are bad individuals who become cops just as there are bad individuals who become bankers and realtors and grocery baggers. And indeed, they gravitate toward others in their workplace like them.
 
Pepper said:
I notice, with cops I've known, salary is not what motivates them towards this career. Usually, they are responding to something within themselves..........a calling, if you will.
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to a degree, I agree . Let's say you're exactly correct . So we have these individuals that are answering a 'calling' ..... then the first time something go's wrong .... society is ready to persecute them.

yes I know, there are those that are unforgivable ? But most are just cases where it all went bad. jmo
 
Agree with Murrmurr, their Certification is their so called Occupational license. It can be so called "Revoked", if you will, just like any business/ occupational license. Revoked by termination.
 
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