Critics have blamed the training program for fostering an aggressive police culture dating back decades.
Retired Minneapolis deputy director Greg Hestness wondered how many of Lane and Kueng’s coaches could have rubbed the rookie officers, and said he was surprised at how quickly Floyd was arrested for a $ 20 fake bill to Lane shouting to Floyd for “show me yours [expletive] mans! ”
“Where does this come from on the 4th?” he asked.
“A really cynical, but deserving question, would it be that Chauvin would have knelt for so long if he hadn’t trained the officers at the time?” dit Michael Friedman, a former executive director of the Center for Legal Rights, who said it appeared Chauvin was “trying to demonstrate how to control a person.”
Gerald Moore, a retired 30-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department, said that because novice officers must undergo periodic assessments before they can go out alone, unhealthy power dynamics can be created with their training officers. .
For some, the biggest problem is the tendency of some officers not to question and intervene when a colleague – particularly a senior officer – uses excessive force.
After the death of Floyd, head of the Minneapolis police Medaria Arradondo announced a stricter policy on the “duty to intervene” which says officers witnessing another officer “use any prohibited force or inappropriate or unreasonable force” should attempt to “intervene safely by verbal and physical means” .
For years, groups such as Communities United Against Police Brutality have been pushing for the department to adopt a peer intervention training program developed by the New Orleans Police Department that is based on the premise that there is a tendency for officers not to intervene. when they see a partner. incur misconduct.
The program, called Ethical Policing Is Courageous, or EPIC, is based on the premise that intervention should be taught through training and role play and should be continually reinforced through increased training to the point that it infuses departmental culture.
St. Paul police are involved in the training, but Minneapolis is not. The debate over police training has been brewing in Minneapolis in recent years following a series of murders of prestigious civilians.