By Cole Strzelecki, Staff Writer
At the beginning of this year, on January 1, 2021, the “Police Reform Act” was put into place by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The act was named “An Act relative to justice, equity and accountability in law enforcement in the Commonwealth.”
The act created a Commission that looks at various parts of the law enforcement system. After some review, the Commission created a Police Officer Standards of Training committee (POST Commission) to guide the training of police officers. This system mandates that every police officer will be trained under the same instruction and to an equal standard, no matter if they work for a city, town, or campus police department.
All police officers need to maintain their required training each year to keep their status as certified police officers. Every officer’s training records will be reviewed to ensure they can keep their three-year certification.
Failure to complete one’s training during the three years will result in de-certification under the Police Reform Act. Police officers will also have an extensive search done on their records for review by the POST Commission to determine eligibility for being a certified police officer.
New police officers must also now complete an initial twenty-week-long police course, held by the Municipal Police Training Committee (MPTC) rather than the Massachusetts State Police, and all experienced police officers must complete annual in-service training as ordered by the POST Commission. “The Police Reform Act added many important training classes to the curriculum for both new and veteran police officers,” stated Adam S. Woodrow, Western New England University’s Director of Public Safety.
Some of the names of the courses that will be taught in this training include Bias-Free Policing, Cultural Competency, Implicit Bias, De-escalation and Disengagement Tactics, and Mental Wellness and Suicide Prevention. Woodrow feels that all of these courses are very important to the new style of training as well as to building a sense of community trust.
Due to the events over the past couple of years, many people have lost trust in law enforcement, some even being scared of them. Woodrow wants “to make sure that the students of Western New England University feel safe on the campus, but to do this, the campus police need to rebuild the community’s trust in them.” Woodrow encourages the campus police to get out of their vehicles and greet at least fifteen students a day, but his efforts don’t end there.
“We make sure to be very careful and sure of our decisions when hiring new officers,” Woodrow continued. The process starts with a general interview; if the interviewee does well, they will be considered.
After that stage, a full background check is run to make sure there is no incriminating information being withheld from them. Once becoming an official officer, they must go through an internal ten-week training process to learn the ins and outs of being a part of Western New England University’s public safety team.
All in all, our University’s police officers are trying to alleviate any concerns students may have about their training. They are going to extensive lengths to make sure no incidents occur on their side because, in the end, these officers are here to protect Western New England University and be a symbol of safety rather than fear. Woodrow finished by saying that “with issues such as this, you can never solve all of it, but instead just try to make it better. So that’s what we’re going to do.”
