Why We Need Consistent Training Standards for Police / Youth Interactions

Welcome back to the Strategies for Youth podcast series. I am David Walker and I'm the Training and Operations Director for Strategies for Youth. In this episode, I'll be sharing an idea for improving law enforcement training through national training standards. Please note that the purpose of this episode is to present strategies for youth opinion on the benefits of establishing a set of standards for law enforcement professionals. My colleagues and I recognize that policing can be very different depending on where you work and that agencies will continue to need to provide training content that is specific to their jurisdiction. We have no argument with this. However, we do believe that the establishment of a core national curriculum would help to ensure that all new officers enter the profession with the consistent and measurable set of skills and that this will only help to improve the quality of policing in our country. As usual, I do want to give our standard disclosure. The information strategies for youth shares and its trainings and in these podcasts is not intended to replace or supersede the training you've received from your agency and academy training. The information provided is not intended to tell you how to do your job. It is intended to help you do your job better and to increase your safety. So let's get started. So like I said, the purpose of this podcast is to share our thoughts on the need for national standards for law enforcement training. If you stop and think about it, you realize that states have never been shy about establishing and mandating clear training standards for high risk and high skill positions. The National Fire Prevention Association is a perfect example. NFPA1001 is a national standard that identifies the minimum job performance requirements for career and volunteer firefighters and its purpose is to ensure that persons who are engaged in firefighting are qualified to do so. What's important about the NFPA standards is that they are consensus standards that are designed to establish standards of care and operations. The established standards reflect the desire of the firefighting profession to self-regulate by establishing minimal operating, performance, and safety standards, and they establish a recognized standard of care. In other professions, specifically where adults are in regular contact with youth such as healthcare, teaching, coaching, and daycare, states are typically involved in setting and enforcing clear and consistent training requirements. Again, what often happens is that a diverse group of stakeholders is convened to provide expertise and guidance in creating the requirements designed to set minimum standards and to protect both the youth and the workers. So establishing and enforcing minimum standards is in itself a standard in the United States, except in law enforcement where the lack of engagement by state agencies to create meaningful and relevant training standards is an anomaly. Okay, so why does this matter? Well, today's youth, particularly those living in urban areas, often encounter law enforcement officers not only on the street, but also in their schools and at their recreational and social events. Given the magnitude and potential long-term impact of these encounters, wouldn't it seem reasonable to expect state agencies to take a more active role in creating, issuing, and enforcing, developmentally appropriate, trauma informed, and equitable standards governing police youth interactions? These statewide or national standards would serve four basic purposes. They would protect law enforcement officers and their agencies by setting clear expectations and metrics for performance. They would increase consistency of law enforcement interactions with youth within and across jurisdiction. Accountability would be easier to measure and law enforcement legitimacy would increase both within an agency and across the country. Unfortunately this is not the case. A state-by-state survey conducted by strategies for youth found that states have virtually no role in setting developmentally appropriate and trauma informed training standards to prepare police recruits for their future interactions with youth. Instead, academy curricula focus on legal definitions, such as what is the definition of a status offense, and administrative processes for dealing with juveniles. In the rare case when standards do exist, they are almost always developed solely by local law enforcement agencies. Independent knowledge about the development of adolescent's brains and the impacts of trauma are not incorporated into the limited guidance that does exist. And there are few mechanisms to involve knowledgeable individuals to share their expertise or to provide guidance on matters to law enforcement about best practices for effective interactions with teens. Okay, so why is this important and how does this apply to law enforcement? Well, in my role with strategies for youth, I have the opportunity to meet and talk with mental health experts across the country. Across all of these professionals, it is clearly understood that adolescents perceive, process, and respond differently to stimulus and events than adults do. Studies done by Dr. Yurgle and Todd show that youth tend to misread facial expressions, typically seeing anger and frustration in faces that adults would categorize as showing surprise or fear. In another study, Dr. Steinberg found that between the ages of 14 and 25, maturity lags behind intellectual ability. As a result, youth tend to be more susceptible to peers, have a higher risk-reward sensitivity and a lower ability to self-regulate. Additionally, the US Supreme Court also recognizes that youths are different than adults. Just as Sotomayor reminds us in Haley versus Ohio that what leaves a man cold and unimpressed can over-aw and overwhelm a boy. This lack of statewide training standards governing police, youth interactions can lead to several harmful consequences. There may be unnecessary confusion on the part of both youth and law enforcement about the consequences and the seriousness of offenses. It represents a missed opportunity to improve law enforcement officer responses to youth and to promote consistency of management within individual agencies. It can prevent states from providing urgently needed training, guidance, and oversight to local law enforcement departments that may help to reduce their risk of litigation and federal oversight. It has a potential of preventing local law enforcement agencies from benefiting from a collective expertise and perspective that can help them to improve the outcomes for vulnerable youth, particularly youth of color. And finally, this lack of standards and the need to meet them may result in agency training budgets being cut by misguided and misinformed legislation. So now what? Well as a nationally recognized expert in police youth interactions, strategies for youth recommends these steps. All states should develop clear professional training standards to guide police interactions with youth. These standards should reflect current knowledge about adolescent development, best practices for peacefully de-escalating conflicts without incident or arrest, and should equip law enforcement officers and agencies to interact with youth who have experienced trauma. State training standards should be enforceable and binding. These standards should become the criteria by which law enforcement agencies are held accountable and officers are evaluated and promoted. Along with this, these training standards should be protected, preventing them from being defunded in the future by efforts to reduce budgets or to meet misguided demands. State training standards should be incorporated into the curriculum taught to police cadets and also provided to officers in professional development programs. States should seek the input of a diverse set of stakeholders, including psychologists, educators, youth advocates, and adolescent development experts when they are developing their training standards. These state training standards should complement existing federal obligations to reduce racial and ethnic disparities where they exist and state should take the responsibility for data collection by law enforcement agencies and for monitoring of compliance with the standards and practices presented in the training. This accountability will provide uniform treatment of youth and officers and will ultimately increase the safety of both while enhancing the legitimacy of law enforcement. With so much public focus on police reform and amid deep uncertainty regarding federal oversight, strategies for youth believes that law enforcement academy leadership has a unique opportunity to meet this issue head on. By convening a diverse and knowledgeable pool of stakeholders to develop clear and consistent training standards, the government law enforcement, youth interactions, and mandating the completion of this training for new officers? States may significantly reduce the numbers of unnecessary arrests and violent encounters, and become leaders in the efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities within the juvenile justice system, while also increasing officer safety and protection from litigation. My colleagues and my experience working with law enforcement agencies indicates that most would welcome state standards if they are carefully developed and accompanied by high quality training and financial support for their implementation. These standards will serve law enforcement agencies and officers' interests while at the same time protecting them by reducing unnecessary arrests, avoiding escalation of minor incidents, and keeping officers, youth, and community safer. In the notes accompanying this episode, I have included information on the research and studies that help to inform this podcast. I have also included a link to the article this podcast is based on that appears on the Lexipoll Police One Academy website. Again thank you for taking the time to listen to this episode and to listen to strategies for youth thoughts about developing standards for police training, especially around police training for interactions with youth.