![]() Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. She hopes the Nashville Police Department is finally ready for someone like her.Ĭopyright © 2021 NPR. MAX: Rivera starts tearing up as she imagines getting the phone call to let her know the department wants to hire her. RIVERA: I've been trying to be a cop for the past three years. MAX: Rivera has tested at other departments before without success. But I think that's what kind of stops people from hiring me. So it's - I've got obstacles, definitely. RIVERA: Mind you, I don't have a military background. Rivera is petite with big, brown glasses and a braided ponytail that falls down her narrow back. Today, she's one of just four women taking the agility test along with several dozen men. MAX: Back at the training academy, Lorena Rivera is catching her breath after a 500-yard run. LORENA RIVERA: I want girls to know it does not matter what you look like. LOKEY: Our goal is to look like the people that we go out and protect and serve. It's also struggling to build trust with minority communities following a series of shootings by police. These changes come as the department is facing allegations of sexual misconduct within its ranks. Currently, just about 11% of Nashville officers are women. MAX: MNPD has also signed onto a national initiative that aims to fill 30% of police recruit classes with women by 2030. I can't teach you how to communicate or how to have empathy when dealing with the public. But I can't specifically give you critical thinking skills, problem-solving skills. LOKEY: I can teach you to drive a police car. Lokey hopes calmer instruction will translate into calmer interactions with the public. Now, most training will feel like a college classroom instead of a military boot camp. Plus, the academy is lowering the stress level. So MNPD has created a pre-academy to help all kinds of recruits get in shape. Multiple studies have found those officers use force less often than their white male colleagues. MAX: Lokey says it's important to hold onto those women and people of color. ![]() KAY LOKEY: What we were doing in the past wasn't really giving us the results that we wanted. ![]() She calls the recent graduation rates disheartening. But more than 30 years later, in Nashville, Deputy Chief Kay Lokey is following Mahoney's advice. He ended his paper with a plea to rethink the authoritarian atmosphere and sent it to every academy director in the state. Back then, Mahoney predicted law enforcement agencies would struggle to recruit and retain officers unless they change their training. In the 1980s, he researched how police are trained. MAX: Tom Mahoney is a retired criminal justice professor who spent more than two decades in policing in California. TOM MAHONEY: I would hope that every police academy director looks at his or her academy and asks the question, am I providing the best educational environment I can? Researchers say departments may need to make some drastic changes to welcome officers with different backgrounds and perspectives. A recent report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that male and white recruits across the country graduate from police academies at higher rates than women and people of color. MAX: Those choices are important at a department where most recruits are white and male. And we have an administration that's like, yeah, let's look and see what's the right choice. KNIGHT: It was definitely time for us to look at what we're doing. MAX: Now the test is meant to show that variety and to make sure everyone has a fair chance at getting into the academy. KNIGHT: The public in general, when they think of police, they think of traffic stops, somebody knocking on your door or going to arrest people. But Knight says there's more to policing than that. He remembers firing a rusty revolver and jumping over a wall so high people cried when they missed. MAX: This is not what the agility test was like when Knight joined the department in 2005. They're all too busy laughing at Sergeant Clifton Knight's corny jokes. SAMANTHA MAX, BYLINE: On a sunny day earlier this year, a few dozen applicants hoping to join the Metro Nashville Police Department are waiting in line to sprint through an obstacle course. Got to have those quick feet through those corners. Samantha Max of member station WPLN prepared this story.ĬLIFTON KNIGHT: There you go. ![]() And now Nashville, the training academy is making changes to attract a more diverse police force. People want officers who actually relate to the communities they serve. For years, police departments across the country have struggled to recruit more women and people of color.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |