Have Our Police Changed So Much?

 I have been very quiet about the police problems south of the border because they have cultural challenges we seem to be experiencing here as well. During the past weeks there have been some very startling events which cause me to be worried about the direction we are moving too.Several recent shootings by police leave me to believe that at least a few officers have great lapses in training if they are unable or unwilling to disarm people without killing them.

I have served on police commissions where during a six year period the police not only did not shoot anyone and never even drew their weapon. During this same period the local police arrested many people and among them there were mentally disturbed offenders who had to be talked out of hurting themselves or others.

You will say that is all right in a small city but only a number of years ago police never carried guns and were successful in using skills to disarm offenders who had knives and various other weapons. We all agree that times have changed but the last incident witnessed by a person in the same close location said that the officer entered the scene and immediately yelled to the man drop your weapon and when the order was not obeyed immediately he killed him at close range.

There could be more to this but a man carrying a hammer against an officer who wore body armor, and had other equipment could have taken the time to talk to this person. Because he had mental issues he probably never knew that a hammer was a weapon. It is distributing that officers could not take an action which would not  demand deadly force and leave a person dead.

Living in Halton County in Ontario, which is the safest county in the country, we are not used to such police actions but it could happen. Training and more training is needed with officers who are deficient in social skills. Even one death has a huge impact on many people and the general public react negatively to the force in general.

We must support our police but they must earn and maintain that trust so we can work together to make every part of Canada safer.