DAYTON — Dayton police are working to reform training procedures after a year of social justice protests included many people demanding officers receive more bias training.
Lt. Matt Dickey, commander of the Dayton police academy, said many of the Dayton reform committees approved recommendations like bias training and they are already being addressed.
“We do already cover implicit bias and how that can affect your judgement,” he said. “The state requires 16 hours of community oriented class work, we’re trying to expand that, based on community group’s recommendations, to a full week.”
A high school senior, Jordan Hampton told News Center 7 in March that while police work is difficult, she believes people expect a high standard and definitely, equal treatment to all.
“Because there’s a lot that goes into that with everything going around, especially in society,” Hampton said.
Dayton police say they believe they meet that higher standard but always look for improvement.
Veteran officers were re-certifying their service weapons and updating themselves on changes to law during a recent visit to the academy.
A common area of question within the community includes firearm training and what officer’s intentions are.
“We do not shoot to kill, we shoot to stop, stop the aggressive action,” Dickey said.
He continued to explain that social media suggestions that officers should try to hit small body parts or shoot weapons out of people’s hands is simply not realistic.
“You can’t shoot someone’s hands or the weapon out of someone’s hands because the simple reason is it’s physically impossible for the average human,” he said.
Dickey said they teach officers to aim for the center mass, or chest area because they don’t want to miss the target they’re aiming for and create other dangers to the community.
“It’s quite possible they could hit a bystander, someone not even involved in the situation.”
Cox Media Group
