The Mercury News reports that the Santa Clara County (CA) Sheriff Laurie Smith has nixed hosting a controversial police-training program that elicited outcry from community watchdogs angry over its purported influence on the officer who shot and killed Philando Castile in Minnesota earlier this month.
The agency was scheduled to host a two-day seminar in mid-August with the “Bulletproof” program by Illinois-based Calibre Press, which has been criticized for training officers to channel their feelings of being under constant threat into overly aggressive policing, with sometimes deadly results.
Officer Jeronimo Yanez, the St. Anthony Police Department officer who shot Castile, underwent the training in 2014.
Sheriff’s officials said they were already moving toward canceling the seminar this week when they were contacted by several Bay Area social justice groups, who pointed to a recent New York Times article that connected the Calibre training with Castile’s fatal shooting during a July 6 traffic stop in Falcon Heights, Minnesota.
“Especially in light of the killing of another police officer in San Diego and the assault on law enforcement that is occurring nationwide by dangerous criminals, our department must work to provide the most effective training to ensure every sheriff’s deputy has the best chance of being safe and returning to their families when their shift is completed,” Smith said in a statement. “Any training we sponsor must align with the values of our office to be peacemakers first and warriors second and unfortunately the recently cancelled training class was not vetted fully to ensure that it aligned with our departmental values.”
Calibre officials contend that they train officers in balancing serving as community “guardians” and then becoming “warriors” when they need to stop a violent threat to the same community.
Law Officer Editor In Chief Travis Yates calls the decision another example of “spineless leadership in a profession that desperately needs real leaders to protect the men and women behind the badge” and that the description of the class is yet another example of lies put forward in an effort to tarnish a great profession.
“Decisions are being made by so called ‘watch dog’ groups when the truth is, they aren’t watching anything. Did they observe the class in question? Did they ask questions or did they simply scream to the media in an effort to control what they know nothing about,” Yates states.
“The truth is, Sheriff Smith cancelled an excellent seminar that teaches officers how to be safe and at the same time how to treat the public with dignity and respect. Safety and guardianship are not mutually exclusive. They are taught together and that is what is best for the community. If our leaders continue to let ‘keyboard warriors’ control their agencies, it’s not just the profession that will be in trouble but entire communities.”
