I’ll miss most of the people and the shared sense of mission, duty, honor, and commitment.
I won’t miss the endless and increasing paperwork, process, or social engineering. Society’s impact on police training and policy has been disastrous, and it’s getting worse.
Media and politicians don’t understand the streets — or the concepts of conflict and survival. They think we can “nice” every person into law abiding behavior, and they think that physically strong, capable people are “militaristic” and mean. The truth is, most of the most capable warriors I know are friendly, soft-hearted, generous, kind people — because they have the disposition, poise, presence, and confidence to be these things. Sometimes conflict is unavoidable, but it’s the frightened, unfit, and unprepared cops you have to worry about turning a small conflict into a fatal one.
Our recruits get a little softer, a little fatter, a little less driven, a little less disciplined, and a little more entitled every year. The change over the last 10 years has been dramatic. The change over 30 years is stark. These days new recruits whine about the rigors of training and file personnel complaints when training days are long or the DI’s tell them to “suck it the f@#k up!” They report incredibly minor injuries. It’s shocking… It would never have occurred to anybody from my era to whine about the misery of boot camp or LEO training. First, it would not have eased the pain, and second, it would have meant admitting you weren’t tough enough, and nobody wanted to do that. With the exception of most former military, our newest generation of trainees has plenty of complainers, and when they complain the HR folks and lawyers start an inquiry. Since most of them understand little about what we do or need, what usually follows is easier training, and less stress inoculation.
The politicians, media, and social engineers think easing training is “progress”. They consider it part of the “demilitarization” of police. The great irony is that this BS doesn’t build the cops anybody wants. We end up with cops who are less strong, less capable, less durable, less useful, and less confident. “Verbal Judo” is fantastic, and we emphasize the art of de-escalation, but it works best in the hands of strong, confident cops, and it doesn’t solve every problem. In the end, weaker cops are MUCH more likely to resort to deadly force — because their weak presence invites more conflict, and when conflict comes they’re less able to manage it without resorting to a firearm. At the same time, we’re empowering criminals, and they are training in MMA. What could possibly go wrong?
Sorry for the hijack… An old man with building anxiety. Whiners or not, I care about the next generation of people willing to do this job. Society is doing many things to make the world more dangerous for them, while forcing us to ensure recruits are less prepared to manage it.
