Baltimore Police Getting Re-Schooled On The Law
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- As police battle crime, they're also trying to restore public trust and confidence in the department. That's why they kicked off a new training program to make sure their officers are operating within the law.
Derek Valcourt has details on the training and why it's being done.
This is all part of the reform that the police commissioner vowed to bring to the department. That's why all of the more than 2,800 officers on the force are now being re-schooled on the law.
The now controversial police arrest of Freddie Gray came heaped with criticism that officers shouldn't have chased Gray down after he ran from them.
When police can and can't legally stop people is part of new training that all officers in the department--even senior commanders--are now required to undergo.
"Get a warrant. If you didn't hear me--get a warrant," said Bryon Warnken, www.warnkenlaw.com.
Law professor Bryon Warnken came up with the re-training curriculum broken down into three separate classes.
One class focusing on police stops and how officers interact with the public; another on obtaining and executing search warrants; and the third on preparing for and presenting police testimony in court.
"We do not want officers violating people's constitutional rights. And we want to help the police get it right so that if they have to testify in a case, they don't have fear of evidence being suppressed because they did it right," Warnken said.
The training was being paid for with federal grant dollars. It was conceived at the start of the year--well before Freddie Gray's arrest.
"This is a collaborative effort between the State's Attorneys Office and the police department to make sure that our command staff and officers are up on the current laws and policies moving forward," said Col. Garnell Green, Baltimore Police Department.
Col. Green says the training is all about making sure officers are acting properly.
"And if they do things correctly, it means there will be more effective law enforcement and there will be more perception by the public that the police are good guys and can be trusted," said Warnken.
Each officer will be required to sit through 12 hours of training classes. They begin now and last through the summer.
The total cost of the training will be about $50,000--paid for with federal grant money.
