LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Police training will be under the microscope in Kentucky, as the governor’s office announced Monday there will be a review of curriculum and additional training soon.
There is a call across the country to reform policing and law enforcement policies. Gov. Andy Beshear said he hears the public demand for change, and the review of police training will be part of that.
Much of the existing training with the Department of Criminal Justice Training (DOCJT) for new cadets and current officers in Kentucky has been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“While we don’t expect we’ll be able to get 40 hours of in-service training for all our officers this calendar year, we are committed to at least eight hours,” said J. Michael Brown, secretary to the Governor’s Executive Cabinet.
Those eight hours will be a new online training course that will cover some timely issues like implicit bias, use of force, Civil Rights law, ethics, emotional intelligence and community relationships. Brown said these will be deep dive conversations meant to benefit everyone in law enforcement.
“And I don’t want to simplify this,” Brown said, mentioning use of force. “Because sometimes, use of force in the past has been marginalized into a ‘how.’ We train officers how to do it. Well, we’re going to focus more on the when and the why and the what. Like we know about guns, but there are other implements and physical tactics that we need to review.”
The Department of Criminal Justice Training released the following statement:
Beshear clarified Tuesday that the Louisville Metro Police Department, Kentucky State Police and the Lexington Police Department provide their own training outside of the DOCJT.
M. Quentin Williams, the founder and CEO of Dedication to Community, a nonprofit organization that seeks to empower communities through education, has been keeping an eye on the current situation unfolding across the nation and believes Kentucky’s efforts to review police training is a good start.
Dedication to Community focuses on two main areas: upward economic mobility and public safety, especially law enforcement’s role in that.
“It’s absolutely a step in the right direction,” Williams said of the new training. “What needs to happen is there needs to be greater communication internally and externally. And police has to be reviewed ... with regards to implicit bias and cultural awareness. It has to be reviewed.”
Williams said Kentucky’s history has created a sense of distrust for authority for some people, particularly African Americans. And he believes a critical step for the commonwealth will be to help society and authority to reconcile.
“The distrust is going to emanate through all of authority,” Williams said. “It won’t just be law enforcement. It’ll be politics. It’ll be government. It’ll be the system. So it’s very important that law enforcement create an environment of trust with the community."
It's not clear when the state hopes to begin the overall review or when the eight-hour online training course will begin.
For there to be lasting change in Kentucky, Williams said the review must trigger action.
“Action is what the world is calling for,” he said. “So there has to be a strategic plan for the action that will be taken, and it’s a long-term commitment. This isn’t a band-aid. This cannot be short term. It has to be with the commitment of a long game.”
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