‘Woke’ Policing Won’t Work for Cops on the Street

Woke Policing Won’t Work for Cops on the Street

The term ‘woke’ refers to someone who is up to date or well-informed about essential topics such as racial discrimination or social injustice. While it seems like woke policing would be beneficial in most states as it protects people who have mental health problems or those under the influence of substances, there is evidence that woke policing isn’t working. In many states and at a federal level, laws and legislations have been created to address radical leftist myths. Let’s look at how woke policing is working for cops on the streets.

Is ‘woke’ policing working for our communities?

National Police Association reports that many cops believe that woke policing isn’t working and is making their jobs harder. The federal consent decree includes new rules which aim to stop police from using unnecessary force. But has this been taken too far? With the new rules, if a person being restrained with reasonable force even says, “ouch,” the Force Investigation Team (FIT) will need to be called. Police witnesses will then need to make a statement about how force was used.

Many police offices see woke policing as being ridiculous, and it even takes cops off the streets. When a person says ow, even if they haven’t been hurt, four or five police officers have to stop doing their job and instead do paperwork. A sergeant is also needed to supervise the ‘use of force’ statements. These officers’ time could be better spent catching criminals and making the streets safer.

National Police Association is Encouraging Intervention

Woke policing encourages officers to intervene if they think a colleague is handling someone too roughly. But are rookies who have just completed the police academy really responsible for disciplining or stopping veteran officers?

Cops are often called to domestic violence (DV) cases where people are intoxicated and out of control. Often these cases lead to the police being verbally abused and threatened. In the past, officers would have attempted to subdue the people involved and could have used reasonable force if necessary. With the new rules, a Mobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT) will have to be called in. A call-out of this type will add additional personnel to the team.

Can Police Calm People with Words Alone?

In one case where police were called to a domestic violence case and then called out the MCOT, the man involved wasn’t successfully calmed down. He decided not to cooperate with the police, and they weren’t allowed to restrain him. This lead to the man stripping off and then licking sap from a tree. The police officers still weren’t allowed to use any ‘hand on’ methods of restraint with this man.

Law HB1310

Laws such as HB1310 are an example of woke policing that isn’t effective in the real world. This law limits officers and means that they can no longer be hands-on with people or use any force to control someone with mental health problems or those who have ingested a substance. This rule has led to officers being unnecessarily punched, kicked, or worse, stabbed and even shot.

Using the new law, all officers could do was herd the man into his home. They then left the scene and could hear yelling from the house. Unfortunately, the man’s roommates and his neighbors weren’t protected, and twenty minutes later, the police were called again. Officers returned but were unable to help or restrain the man due to laws that seem to indicate that the police just wanted to kill him.

During this incident, and others like it, a team of between six and eight police officers was deployed for two hours. A mental health team was also present. Before the new laws were brought in, police officers would have attempted to negotiate with the man. If he refused to cooperate, they would have been able to restrain him and take him to E.R. The incident would have been resolved a lot more quickly. Instead, nothing was resolved during the incident, and the man’s roommate and neighbors were scared and possibly left in a dangerous situation. This is an example of how woke policing isn’t working in real life. The theory may sound good, but lives are being put at risk, and police time is wasted due to woke policing.

The National Police Association

Are you interested in finding out more? Visit the National Police Association website today! www.nationalpolice.org