Two New Jersey lawmakers are hoping to cut police shootingsby boosting how much self-defense training cops get, which they say will give officers physical techniques to use instead of relying on their guns.
But some police experts are skeptical cops will have the time or desire to satisfy the regimen the lawmakers’ bill lays out, amid a welter of other reforms proposed since the death of George Floyd and other African Americans. Whether local departmentscan afford the time or expense of what amounts toa week of in-service training is another question.
“It’s not a bad idea at all,” said Richard Rivera, a former West New York officer and expert in police internal affairs. “But the cost is going to be a huge factor.”
The bill, sponsored by Assemblymen Brian Bergen, a Morris County Republican, and Gordon Johnson, a Democrat from Bergen County,more than triples the amount of time devoted to hand-to-hand trainingat the state’s police academies and mandates that every member of local, county and state law enforcement train for an additional 48 hours a year – or six eight-hour shifts.
Bergen, of Denville, said the bill sprung from a conversation with Det. Paul Marinaccio of the Union County Prosecutor’s Office, who told the assemblyman that police go through about a week of self-defense work at the academy but nothing more,despite the overwhelmingly physical nature of their jobs.
The extensive instruction the bill mandates would address that gap, Bergen said. Thelegislationwill also send $250,000 to the state Police Training Commission so it can develop the course.
“We never want an officer to draw their weapon unless they absolutely have to,” Bergen, a West Point graduate and combat veteran, said this week. “If you’re trained and you’re confident in your ability, the odds of you acting prematurely are less. It’s common sense and it’s been overlooked for far too long.”
The proposal is one of many police reform bills winding their way through the state Legislature in response to a spate of high-profile police killings of Black people across the nation, including Floyd's May 25 death in Minneapolis.
A police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes that day, killing him. His death, as well as Eric Garner's in 2014 on Staten Island, came after cops placed the men in chokeholds during an arrest. ButJohnson, a former Englewood cop and the first African American Bergen County sheriff, said the right kind of training could lead to less deadly confrontations.
“Is there a technique you can use to get a person to change their aggressiveness or behavior toward you? That’s what this is about,” Johnson said. “It’d be another tool an officer has to defend themselves when they have to have a physical altercation with another individual.”
The state is already looking at similar changes, according to Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.
The Police Training Commission, which sets training standards throughout the state, is considering a proposal to double the number of hours spent on self-defense at the academies so recruits get 80 total hours of instruction. It would also require all officers to take an annual in-service defensive tactics course, Aseltine wrote in an email.
It is still unclear when the commission might approve or decline that measure, however.
The New Jersey Policemen’s Benevolent Association did not return a call for comment on either proposal.
Discipline:Grewal says NJ police internal affairs records should be more accessible to public
Photos:Becoming a police officer by following in her brother’s footsteps
For subscribers:NJ doesn't track no-knock warrants, even as state legislators look to ban them
No matter who orders the training, someone must make sure cops absorb, understand and can apply what is being taught, said Kelly McCann, a security consultant and owner of the Virginia-based Kembativz Brand. That means establishinga standard officers must meet, or risk losing their jobs, hesaid.
“The only way to do this is to establish performance metrics, because right now they don’t,” McCann said. “If you don’t have a stick – if you don’t have something that says, ‘You will be fired if you don’t meet these requirements,’ cops will not do it. Otherwise people blow it off and do the minimal amount required.”
The training mandate would also further burden officers who already attend in-service training for skills like driving or shooting, said Dalton Price, a retired Paterson police lieutenant and the current president of the Bronze Shields of Passaic County, an African American law enforcement group.
“You want to pull a guy off the road for another 48 hours a year? A lot of departments can’t afford to miss those people – that’s a lot of time,” Price said. “Not that it’s wrong, but you have to be mindful.”
He added that departments could be open to lawsuits if an officer seriously injures a suspect with a technique learned during training.
Bergen said he understands those concerns. That’s why he lowered the annual requirement for each officer to 48 hours, down from the 104he wanted at first. And it’s why he thinks the training commission should get creative in how it schedules those hours by, say, certifying private martial arts schools so cops can attend classes when it works for them.
Bergen also said he “agrees 100 percent ” with McCann’swarningthat the program will be ineffective without firm standards – though the assemblyman is willing to leave that to the commission for now.
The bill will was sent this week to theGeneral Assembly's Law and Public Safety Committee for review. Bergen is hoping it moves quickly and is signed by the end of the summer.
“If we do nothing, we’ll get nothing,” Bergen said. “We have to do something.”
Steve Janoski covers law enforcement for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important newsabout those who safeguard your local community,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email:janoski@northjersey.comTwitter:@stevejanoski
