St. Louis law enforcement meeting addresses police officer training after events in Ferguson
On Thursday, September 24, the The Missouri Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Commission held a public meeting at the St. Louis Community College in Florissant Valley. The meeting was designed to gather suggestions for changes to law enforcement officer training requirements.
Earlier in the year, Governor Jay Nixon decided it was necessary to update and enhance law enforcement training standards in Missouri. To gain both public and police opinion, the open meetings were scheduled all over the state.
Police officers, psychiatrists and the public both attended and voiced their opinions to the Commission. The attendees varied from young and eager to learn to older and opinionated.
Samuel Saffa, an online college student from Liberty University, wishes to eventually work with the police departments in Missouri. He attended the event to make sure the question of security and safety among officers remains a very important topic.
Saffa remarks, “I think this is a fantastic opportunity to be really involved and see what is going on at the ground level.”
Another attendee, Chelsea Merta who is a staff attorney at the Arch City Defenders, had a different take on the meetings.
Merta exclaims, “Walking out of it, I kind of have mixed feelings right now because there was such a limited civilian response, and I went into the meeting thinking it would be focused on civilian insight as to what we feel policing practices should be.”
Merta not only works with police officers daily, but also has a father that is one. She says that being able to witness first hand what it is like to be a cop and the struggles it entails emphasises the point that there needs to be a step up when it comes to the training that the law enforcement officials should go through.
She credits bad preparation to the events that happened in Ferguson a year ago.
“They showed up in military grade equipment and that was in response to protests which escalated the situation and gave us that iconic moment in American history.”
While there was mixed feelings on how the meeting went, the POST committee is hopeful that these open forums will continue and great things will be accomplished.
