Who wants to be a cop in 2021? They do

In Colorado, the state legislature’s enactment of Senate Act 217 in 2020 and House Act 1250 in 2021 added additional rules for the use of force, made it easier for prosecutors to bring charges against officials, and opened the door to civilians, individual To sue officials for misconduct.

Body cameras will eventually be required nationwide, as will data collection on who officers are stopping and why.

Aurora Community College associate professors, most of whom are currently police officers in top agencies across the state, often spoke openly in class about the changes and how much harder it is to be an officer now.

“There is an attack on law enforcement nationwide, but in this state there is an attack on law enforcement for whatever reason, these lawmakers … I don’t know what they’re trying to do,” Deputy Chief Stewart told the cadets Summer. “It is sad.”

Over a period of 10 months, the students were trained in driving a car, handling weapons, using violent techniques, in murder investigations and in keeping a cool temper at work. They spent long summer evenings doing burpees and pushups, and spent hot Saturdays outside on unshaded sidewalks practicing back-to-back and U-turns in police vehicles.

This year’s course has been postponed several times due to COVID-19. There was no compulsory vaccination to attend the course and some of the cadets got sick themselves.

“I am not involved in your decisions and I have argued that your job may require vaccination,” Carter said. “Lets see what happens.”

What the cadets learn

At the Community College of Aurora, cadets must show respect to visitors and professors – but the academy is clearly non-militaristic in style. Even supportive. This is a departure from many agency academies that are currently implementing their own reforms in dealing with cadets and expecting them to behave towards outsiders.

“I’ve always seen law enforcement in a way, not where they’ve been, but what they can become,” said Michael Carter, director of the Community College of Aurora and director of the Police College, of the cadets. “You shape how you treat them, you shape their future fate as an officer … in the right way, then suddenly I changed the experience.”

Kevin J. Beaty / DenveriteAurora Police Academy cadets Kristen Heinonen (left) and Maiwand Ahmadzai are learning to drive. July 31, 2021.

In response to demands for change from the police reform movement, the Community College program is among the first in the state to deliver dedicated training on emotional intelligence and diversity, equality and inclusion for aspiring civil servants.

“I’m called the ‘N’ word every day, all day. I’m going to jail, but my inmate in the back just does it, ”said Bruce Williams, a Black Sheridan Police Officer and associate professor at Community College. “I don’t say anything… I have to take it. You’re going to be spending this night at this job. It’s mentally tough. But in the end it’s fun because you help people. “

Kevin Watts, a federal law enforcement officer, spoke about how difficult it can be to keep calm amid the unbroken stress, danger, and upheaval of a long shift. He emphasized to the cadets the importance of having peer support and even tagging a partner when they did not feel emotionally stable enough to respond to a potentially stressful or dangerous phone call.

“This job, it’s kind of a job that exposes every little discrepancy in you during the day. If you are facing family problems, stress, life and it’s getting out of hand and you say, “I’m going to be a husband or a wife and I’ll get to work and get through this shift,” you are going to fail, “Watts told the cadets . “Because you will get into a situation that pushes you to your limits and exposes that.”

To mimic some of that discomfort, the faculty and instructors have tried to guide the cadets through some deliberately hairy moments during their training – including mock scenarios where they have to respond to a domestic violence phone call or a mass shooting.

Most cadets say that the new statewide laws requiring additional accountability that were passed after the protests didn’t scare them too much. However, you worry about making a mistake.

“If you’re a cop, the very, very likely, almost guaranteed, possibility of suing,” said Jay O’Bara, a 29-year-old Longmont student who hopes to lead a force one day. “At some point you will be sued, hopefully unsuccessfully, if you have done everything right.”

Kristen Heinonen: “In my community you don’t go this way”

Kristen Heinonen’s mother wanted her to go into medicine. After graduating from Alameda High School in Lakewood, she studied biomedicine at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

But she wasn’t happy. She left school thinking about joining the military – something all the men in her family have done – before deciding it wasn’t for her either. And then last year, in the midst of all the racial justice protests, she began to think that she would like to become a police officer.

“In my church, you don’t go this way, you go a different way,” she said. “We’re not really fans of the police over there.”

Hart Van Denburg / CPR NewsKristen Heinonen at the Community College of Aurora Police Training Academy on Monday October 11, 2021.

https://www.cpr.org/2021/11/02/who-wants-to-be-a-cop-in-2021-they-do/