Tulsa World: Too tough?

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Too tough?
Police standards raised

By World's Editorial Writers
Published: 8/25/2009 2:21 AM
Last Modified: 8/25/2009 4:12 AM

The purpose of new standards mandated by the state for rural police departments, sheriff's offices and state police agencies is to raise the level of professionalism.

While that's a worthy goal, it's already hard for some areas to recruit and keep officers.

With new physical fitness and literacy tests, some people "are going to fail," said Steve Emmons, assistant operations director for the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training's basic academy.

State police and local forces in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Norman, Edmond, Broken Arrow and Lawton train their own recruits, so they won't be affected by the new tests that start with the academy's January 2010 class.

But for other areas, the CLEET academy may be the only training some recruits receive. The academy, Emmons promises, will try to keep the testing from making the problem worse.

Emmons said the fitness test will likely be in the form of an obstacle course, while the reading test will be a written exam. The law requires recruits to score at least 70 percent and be screened.

The change "could affect agencies that are already having a hard time," said Woods County Sheriff Rudy Briggs. "But I think the end result will be better law enforcement."

But what happens in rural communities when recruits make it through initial screening but cannot pass fitness and literacy tests? In small towns there will not be multiple applicants.

At this point, rural Oklahomans will have to wait and see how this situation plays out.

If the new standards really do wipe out recruits then the Legislature unfortunately may have to modify a law that had nothing but honorable intentions. By World's Editorial Writers

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	Report Comment billy8, Sand Springs (8/25/2009 2:41:34 AM) Ol Barney will just have to go back to school the learn how to be a cop. We don't need more ignorant rednecks enforcing their idea of the law.
	Report Comment Four Sixteen Rigby, Tulsa (8/25/2009 5:35:05 AM) I guess in the mind of the Tulsa World editorial staff it is just asking too much for a law enforcement officer in Oklahoma to be able to read, write, and chase down a criminal? Or am I misreading your opinion?
	Report Comment Thunder196, Tulsa (8/25/2009 5:40:56 AM) If they don't have and use common sense it doesn't mean a thing. Morals, ethics and values is something a person has before they ever attend that first college class. There will always be those few rotten apples no matter what.
	Report Comment droopy, wagoner (8/25/2009 6:09:34 AM) Well said Thunder. Billy, what do you have against rednecks?
	Report Comment Rocketman, Tulsa (8/25/2009 10:39:38 AM) Our entire law enforcement system needs to be overhauled. Why does Tulsa County have 10 or more different police departments plus the Tulsa County Sheriff's Department? Why not go to a system where each county has one police force? It seems to me a lot of duties are duplicated and law enforcement could be streamlined.
	Report Comment SS_Hippy, Tulsa (8/25/2009 4:42:43 PM) If you can't make better than 70 per cent on a test and pass a screening, you don't need a badge or especially a gun.
	Report Comment ProudOKLiberal, BA (8/25/2009 5:12:44 PM) Thank you SS_Hippy, I was thinking the same thing. Last I checked intelligent police officers were a good thing.
	Report Comment Loophole, (8/26/2009 10:23:06 AM) Rocketman, that's the same logic that keeps over 500 school district superintendents, their staff, all with benefits, sometimes in districts with no schools!

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