Counterpoint: How police training is a Minnesota Model

I challenge some of James Densley comments in "Minnesota's cops are educated but unprepared" (July 10) regarding the professionalism of Minnesota police officers in general and PPOE (Professional Peace Officer Education) graduates in particular.

Minnesota's educationally based Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) system was formed in the latter 1970s to address issues most professionals felt could be remedied through more formal education rather than the typical eight-week basic-training academy. The Legislature set up the licensing system, where those wishing to become police officers would pay for their own education. They could attend either a two-year or a four-year college or university and become eligible to be a licensed police officer, just as in most other professions.

With the Minnesota Model, students benefit from significantly more hours in a college or university setting in many of the softer skills necessary in law enforcement today, such as Policing a Diverse Society, Women in Criminal Justice and others that build critical-thinking and communication skills. They attend a POST-certified, 10-week skills-training course of study to make them "license eligible." After they are hired by an agency and licensed, most Minnesota cities' police departments also have a comprehensive in-house training curriculum to train recruits to their agency's specific policies.

From 2008 to 2012, many departments weren't hiring because of budget constraints, and graduates went out of state to find jobs. Because of the quality of the candidates they received from Minnesota, out-of-state agencies began significant recruitment efforts in Minnesota that continue today.

As an example, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office in California, the Madison (Wis.) Police Department, and the Rapid City (S.D.) Police Department are just a few of the agencies that recruit candidates from career fairs at Minnesota colleges and universities.

One may ask: If Minnesota PPOE graduates are so unprepared, why would out-of-state organizations recruit heavily in Minnesota?

The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training recently mandated new student-learning objectives in communication, cultural and ethnic sensitivity, building community, mental issues and de-escalation as critical priorities for the future of policing. The PPOE educational system in Minnesota is gearing up for this significant shift.

As to the issue of retired police officers teaching PPOE, our potential officers are being taught by the best. Who teaches in other professions, such as medicine, law, engineering? Doctors teach doctors, dentists teach dentists, and lawyers teach lawyers. This also ignores the many other subjects that are taught law enforcement students by professors who are not law enforcement professionals but experts in their own fields.

True, there is a lack of racial and ethnic diversity in Minnesota law enforcement, as in most other states. Not every member of a minority group wishes to become a police officer, especially because of the treatment many in their communities historically have experienced from police. A great opportunity to mentor ethnically diverse students into law enforcement careers lies at the high school and university levels, where school resource officers from the police department, and interested teachers and professors can work individually with promising minority students. Citizen police academies and Explorer police units for teens also are important bridges to diverse communities. As we all know in the profession, it takes a special effort by police agencies to recruit minority candidates.

Regarding the claim that no other states have followed in Minnesota's path, most other states are certification states where police officers receive a lower form of governmental training and regulation than licensure. If a state has a well-entrenched paramilitary basic-training model, and many do, it is politically very difficult to change to a licensure model. Minnesota is still considered a leader in this area.

Since the formation of the POST board and the PPOE program, the standards of police professionalism have continued to rise in Minnesota. We can, and certainly do, strive to continually improve, but Minnesota peace officer candidates compare to the best in the nation and deserve our support.