In our neck of the woods we are starting to get colder weather.  The hummingbirds are down to three – maybe four, hard to count as they whisk around - that will be staying with us through the winter, last year I purchased a feeder that has a small light in the base, the builder claims it will keep the fluid warm into the single digits – it will make it easier for the birds and for us, we won’t have to keep bringing it in every night and then having to get up early in the morning to put it back out for those little guys.

So far, I have raked up 25 wheel barrow loads of leaves off our Elm tree, and at least that many are still on the tree.  We are using these to cover up her roses so they will be bedded down for the winter.

She is using the ones brought to her by the landscaper for the garden, we have a lot of those and hopefully a lot more coming.

Now if snow will just hold off a bit.

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Copyright November 7, 2017 Art Labrousse

Chapter Six

Training

As I mentioned earlier, the training of Police Officers in the early 1970’s was still in the process of evolving.

It is expensive to train officers.  After a grueling testing and back ground investigation it takes years before an officer is seasoned and can handle almost anything that comes their way.

They don’t ‘really’ earn their salary for the first couple of years, anyway.  That doesn’t mean they can’t do a good job, it is just that they need more supervision and exposure to things that will require someone who has been doing it for a while.

I remember hearing a chief from a rather large department say it takes at least five years before an officer is truly earning his pay.  Not sure I agree with that, but there is merit to what he said.

While still working Graveyard and before I went to the Academy the Sarge gave me some Published papers on Police work called Training Keys.  They were published once a month, I am not sure for how long.  He had had them for several years and passed them along to me.  While they were dated they did contain good information and did help me in the field.

One of them almost got me into trouble with him though.  One of the things he told me NOT to do when we had that coffee that first day, was to bother the rail roaders, I was to leave them alone; they were just walking to work.

At that time many of them stayed at motels in The Dalles between shifts and they would walk to the switching yards. 

One night I saw three men walking down the street at about 0300. 

One of the things the Training Key, I had just read the day before, had pointed out was to make sure you identify people that were out and about at strange hours.

So, I stopped them and asked what they were doing; walking to the switching yards, we are railroad men, was the answer.  I quickly let them go.

As I walked back to my car the Sarge drove by, didn’t say anything, his look was enough.

Oregon has the Department of Public Safety, Standards and Training.  Originally it was just for Police Officers.

When it was first formed, about 1961, each Police and Sheriff’s department had its own training program.  Larger departments had their own academy, while the rest of the state’s departments developed their own way of training, but there were no standards in that training.

So, depending on the department either the officers were relatively well trained, or not.  It doesn’t mean that the departments that had less training didn’t care about their citizens, or the officers were not well intentioned, it was just the way it was AND most departments carried out the mission of public safety quite well.

The State did have a daylong training camp held at Camp Whithycombe in Clackamas County; that started in 1938.  There was a shooting range on the premises and they also taught some classes on criminal investigations and police conduct.

Eventually they started conducting regional training around the state, where officers didn’t have to travel and stay overnight.  The classes were close enough that they could attend the classes and go back home afterwards.

In 1961, as a result of cooperation between several departments they formed the Board on Police Standards and Training.  While it didn’t have real teeth and had no enforcement authority they were successful in developing a training manual for new officers and a training academy that started out as a one week and now, through the years is a 16 week academy.

The first academy used the facilities at Camp Whithycombe.  I attended in 1971.  We were housed in Quonset huts, if I remember right 8 to a hut.

The showers and restroom was down a path between a row of huts.

Meals were in a dining hall, the food was pretty good and the cook was a former Army cook.  Wednesday mornings, though, was my favorite breakfast, omelets and hash browns, he did a good job.

We would march to a classroom inside one of the administrative buildings.  My training at the academy last 5 weeks; we would come home on Friday afternoon and come back to the camp on Sunday night.  Monday morning we took tests to see how much we retained.

That was my duty time and when I got home I was off-duty.  Some of our classmates, though, came from such small departments they had to take a shift and work on the weekend.

What we covered was pretty basic; there was only so much time.  We touched on hand to hand tactics and restraining suspects; firearms training, including when to shoot; criminal and traffic laws; and other things that would help us back at our jobs.

On the day we covered interviewing of witnesses and/or suspects.  They brought in some actors who played the part of a robber, a couple of others and a prostitute.

The idea was that we would be meeting all kinds of people and we needed to learn how to relate to them and to get information from them.  They played their parts well, particularly the prostitute.  She caused quite a stir.

We also had training in court room procedures.  The instructor was a Deputy District Attorney (DA) from Clackamas County.  He had been doing the training for a while, and was good at it.

The key to court room testifying was to listen to the question and then answer accordingly, our testimony should be short and to the point, if a question might undermine the prosecutor’s case answer it honestly and let the prosecutor correct the information.

Listen to the question.  LISTEN TO THE QUESTION!

One poor officer was called up to the stage and was the Guinea pig.

The DA asked him if he had made any arrests; the officer said he had and then told him what it was, so the example started.

The idea was to show us how attorneys can cause us to be confused and can cause us to lose our train of thought – even causing us to get give wrong information or get us upset, thus undermining our credibility.

As I said, the DA was very good at this – the first question?

Officer, may I ask you your name?  The officer gave his name.

The DA then says, that is not what I asked, can’t you answer a simple question?

He then asked the same question – with the same answer.

Now, the DA became angry and started haranguing the officer asking if he was deliberately creating a problem, etc.

By now, the poor officer was beside himself.  He answered the question, and the harder the DA went at him the angrier he became.  Which, of course was exactly what the DA was getting at on how things can be easily confused and the officer made to look unprofessional.

There was an acceptable answer.

Officer, may I ask you your name?  Yes.

In The Dalles I never had that kind of an attorney try to work me over, they would use techniques, but they also gave us respect.

But when I testified in Albany, New York, that tactic was tried and I almost laughed as I recognized what he was doing – we will tell that story another time.

We graduated, in the room used for classes, on the last Friday and went back home.

And, back to work.

I was assigned, once again, to Graveyard shift.  During that first few months we had four officers leave and four probationary officers take their place – I was the fifth, hired earlier, and had the most ‘seniority’ even after those few months.

One week, because of vacations and other activities I found myself in charge of the Graveyard shift – both of us, both of us were probationers and we still had a lot to learn.

Fortunately, nothing major happened and we did have Sergeants on call if we needed them.  Still, it was a bit of a stress producer.

I completed my Field Training Manual and completed my probation period after 9 months.

Shortly after I got back the Sarge started asking me questions about the Academy.  He was most interested in the duties of the person who stayed on the grounds with the recruits.

I didn’t know much about the official duties of the position.  It appears he was there to make sure everyone ‘behaved’ but also to answer any questions and keep things running smoothly.

Sarge retired a while later and then went to work as that person on duty.  We had a number of officers go through the Academy while he was working there, they said he really enjoyed the position and told old war stories that were listened to by everyone.

I attended a week long class a couple of years after basic and we did spend a few hours each night talking.

I was happy for him.  He was there for the duration of the time at Camp Whithycombe and for a couple years after the Academy was moved to Western Oregon State College in Monmouth, Oregon.

The Regional Classes also continued for a few more years and several were held in The Dalles.  I attended each one, in many cases we already knew what we were being taught and it was more of a reminder – a good reminder.

For the first few years of its existence BPST didn’t have a lot of teeth.  While they could recommend standards and training, they could not enforce them.

In 1968, however, the legislature gave them the authority to enforce those standards. 

While BPST had that authority they still worked on egg shells.  Many of the Chiefs and Sheriffs were not happy with the requirements.  They were losing the use of their officers for first one week, then two, then three and the Academy kept adding to that time.

They were paying the officer his salary but he was not working in the field.  There weren’t any departments that were over manned, and losing that an officer for that length of time impacted their service to the community.

And even when the officer came back to the agency he had to be trained – and sometimes, due to the nature of the Academy of having to train all officers generically, and there is a difference on what city officers and deputies are expected to do, they still had to train them more specifically.

However, the Academy does a good job and the longer it has been going the more things they are doing to help the new officer serve his community in a more professional manner.

Their communities understand that the department has to send these officers to the Academy and budget for that requirement.

Now, they are called the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, the agency, in addition to police officers, is now in charge of the standards and training for corrections officers, fire fighters, dispatchers, parole and probation as well as dispatchers and private security, thus insuring a standard across the state, no matter the size of the department.

In 2006 the Department, having received permission from the legislature to build its own buildings, open up their new facilities just outside of Salem.  It houses all the training and administrative functions required to develop all of those department that come under the provisions of the law that gives them the authority to require standards and training for each discipline be met.

When the Academy first started those many decades ago, they grandfathered in the police officers that were working at that time.  The chiefs and sheriffs had never gone and looked at BPST as more of a hindrance and interloper, telling them how to run their departments.

Times have changed, of course, and now every officer, no matter the rank has gone through the Academy for different classes – the only one that I would think hasn’t is the new Police Chief of Portland, but California has a very good Academy and she would have had to go through there to make the rank of a Deputy Chief.

Thus, for the most part, the Academy has more credibility and more acceptance than in years past.  I am sure there are still some of the chiefs and sheriffs that have some issues – I can remember I did on some of their classes.

However, training is continually evolving; they are training officers to meet the new demands of their profession.

Still the officer must apply what he has learned to the demands of his own department and community; and that still takes time.

But in the end the community gets a better-rounded and dedicated officer, who will come up to speed quicker on the street, to serve and protect them.

Copyright November 7, 2017 Art Labrousse

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2 Timothy 2:15 KJV “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”

No matter what our profession is, we cannot stand on our laurels and think we have it all down pat.

Yes, there are many things we may do that are basic and can be readily applied, however, the more detailed, and the more exacting work has to be practiced AND we need to continually update our skills; especially in this day and age.

If we don’t study to improve, we find ourselves passed by and passed over.  We cannot perform to the best of our abilities if we don’t continue to learn.

The same is true of our spiritual status and our ability to serve God to the fullest.

If everyone just stopped after salvation, then many of the truths of the Word would be forgotten and the blessings received by His followers wouldn’t happen.

Yes, we ‘hire’ Pastors to keep up on these things; but that doesn’t remove the responsibility we have of telling others about the love Jesus has for them and the sacrifice He made.

It doesn’t relieve us from the responsibility of knowing what the Word says so we can help new Christians grow in Christ.

We are truly fortunate that God doesn’t require a ‘re-certification’ for Christians, but the position of adopted child of God means we have the responsibility to study, learn, grow and apply His Word and Will in our lives.

We may know something about the Word, but there is far more to learn, and sometimes we need to be reminded about the basics so that we don’t forget from where we came.

Later, Art (-: