READER RANT LAW ENFORCEMENT TRAINING

(By the way, the average age at the Republican Club is about 65, their new Chairman candidates got up and talked but they aren’t talking about how to get YOUNG people interested. Oh, well, who am I?

I watched Parnell speak at the Republican lunch this week.  I’ve also been reading the recent news coverage of him.  All of his talk about training is misleading, at best.

Parnell talks about how his department trains above the state minimum standards and how much training they do.  In one interview he said “We’re training all the time and far exceed minimums by the state”

Unfortunately, that’s only partially true.  SOME of his deputies are training all the time.  Those deputies on the FAST team or the SWAT team train a lot.  Parnell even brags about how the Army Delta Force comes down just to train his FAST guys.  Which good for them I guess.

The part that Parnell leaves out, or just doesn’t understand at all, is that it’s not the FAST guys or the SWAT team keeping the citizens of the county safe.  That job falls on his patrol deputies.  The same patrol deputies that receive little to no additional training after their initial field training.  They go once a year to qualify with their firearms and that’s about it.

Now don’t get me wrong.  There’s a role for the FAST team and SWAT.  If there’s a barricaded suspect or a high risk warrant, absolutely send in SWAT.  Or if a bondsman calls in tip that a “scumbag” missed court on their possession of marijuana charge,  send in the delta force/Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu/Bravo/Jesus Christ/Chuck Norris FAST team. 

However, that’s not who is handling the day to day calls.  If you pick up the phone and call 911, you don’t get a SWAT or FAST member, you get a patrol deputy.  Here’s where Parnell’s “12% turnover” comes into play.  Your patrol deputy will have maybe a year or two experience on the street due to the turnover.  But why bother training them when you can spend your training budget sending the 5 FAST guys to any training they want.  Don’t take my word for it, go ask Sgt. Bill Griffin how much of his training budget is taken up by just the FAST guys.

So God forbid there’s an active shooter in the county.  It’s gonna be those same lowly patrol deputies showing up on scene to handle it.  The same ones Parnell will praise in public, yet not bother to train in private.  Unless you have an absolute shit show like Uvalde, the incident will be long over by the time FAST and SWAT arrive.

I will give Parnell the benefit of the doubt on this one.  I’d just say it’s his lack of experience or understanding in police work that creates this problem.  Parnell never was a cop.  He never went to a domestic disturbance,  fought a person on the side of the road in the middle or the night, or one of the thousand other things that anyone with any real law enforcement experience does.

At most Parnell rolled up with a whole team of officers to apprehend a fugitive.  Which, kudos to him I guess.  He has never shown up first on scene to a domestic, heard screams, and kicked in the door by himself to rescue the victim.  All knowing that backup is 20 minutes away.

That falls back on those patrol deputies.  You know, the ones with little experience and less training.  And don’t misunderstand what I wrote as an attack on those deputies.  My heart goes out to them.  Along with the jailers, they are the least appreciated and supported people in the department.  They continually do more with less.

So next time Parnell goes on and on about his black belt Karate/Delta Force trained super deputies, just realize that they aren’t the ones actually keeping you safe.

And vote for Jeff, who actually knows what police work is and will train those on the ACTUAL front lines.