Where does buck stop for police?
I read with interest your article on the Freeborn Hall meeting on Nov. 22. What jumped out at me was the defensive, vacuous remark by Vice Chancellor John Meyer that ”the police have a lot of discretion in the field.”
Whose job is it to train the campus policemen? Apparently, according to the chancellor’s remarks, it’s not hers. The logical answer for anyone who has been involved in managing large organizations, is that Meyer would delegate the actual training to the police chief. One or both of them did a terrible job.
I hope William Bratton’s review will include not only who was responsible for what went wrong, but also what specifically should the university do to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again at UCD.
My sense, as a retired senior business executive with more than 25 years’ experience, is that Meyer has to be replaced with someone who has had actual experience in successfully training security forces. The “buck” for police actions stops at his office.
Given what is going on in this country and around the world with respect to nonviolent demonstrations, this kind of sit-in on UCD’s campus is highly likely to happen again, and the university needs to be better prepared than it is today.
Steve Hamilton
Davis
Short URL: http://www.davisenterprise.com/?p=109458
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on Nov 30 2011.
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Police training budgets are frequently the first thing cut and the last thing expanded. Officers are expected to enforce the law, employ force, engage in high-stress activity all without mistake or error. The problem is, cops are just human. In other words, not any better or worse than the rest of us.
Training is the only thing that can improve officers’ performance in these situations. Yet, how much training do you think UCD officers are getting?
Ultimately, citizens have to get involved and pressure government to provide officers with better training. Yes, the Vice Chancellor may not be providing the best training for the officers, but it is up to us to pressure him (and others) to ensure cops are well trained.