I think this is BOTH a selection and training problem, but only from our point of view. This outcome is a feature, not a bug, of the new view of policing being forced on us by outside political interests. The INTENDED outcome. No politician or LE administrators will be held accountable for increases in crime or victimization of their population. However, there is HELL to pay if a member of a protected class is on the receiving end of police use of force. Dead cops or citizens is a small and acceptable price to pay for them. Harsh I know, but that is the truth.
There have always been people in law enforcement who were not really suited for the job.
Unfortunately, some of those people endure and get promoted because they have administrative skills or because somebody perceived they have administrative skills. Or because they are a member of a protected group.
Those people eventually rise in the ranks. They don’t make good leaders and they often don’t make good decisions on who to hire, retain, or promote.
This was happening nearly forty years ago when I started and it’s happening now.
(I retired in 2011 and then went back to work at my old agency as an LTE in both patrol and dispatch. A couple of weeks ago they did the previously unthinkable -- they demoted a Sergeant of patrol and a Corporal of communications and fired two probationary patrol officers who had bad attitudes and just weren't going to make it. Such things had NEVER before happened -- it was the department tradition to retain the poor performers and try to "fix" them and then burden the rest of us with whiners of poor performance for the next twenty five years. I'm not sure who made these decisions, the Chief or the Executive Captain, but they were the right decisions to make)
Wendell,
You almost described an event that happened in France not too long ago, and which received quite a bit of international viewing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jl9Ag2o6KBw
Jules
Runcible Works
I think this might be the one he is referring to;
Man Who Reportedly Took Bank Manager Hostage Was Carrying Pipe Bombs