Peace officer training seeks perception shift
Law enforcement leaders in Yavapai County will soon join thousands of officers across the country with new training focused on shifting how police officers are seen — and see themselves — when on the job.
This fall, the Yavapai College Justice Institute received a $29,455 federal grant to fund a year of peace officer training through the national nonprofit Police2Peace.
Former Prescott police chief Jerald
Monahan now serves as the director of the college’s Administration of Justice program and was instrumental in the foundation of the school’s Justice Institute earlier this year, which is designed to foster dialogue between law enforcement professionals and community members.
When he was first introduced to Police2Peace, Monahan said, he felt like he finally found the positive message for reform that he had been looking for.
“In my 42 years of experience, this is the positive police reform message that I think will have some sustainability power,” Monahan said.
“We have a training module for police leaders, for elected officials, for community members, for police unions and associations, where we can have this conversation about the need for police reform, but how it’s got to be a cultural shift and not just a policy,” he said.
Police2Peace was founded in 2016 and works with law enforcement agencies across the country to help form lasting relationships between the agencies and the public they serve, primarily through shifting the perception around the primary function police officers
“In my 42 years of experience, this is the positive police reform message that I think will have some sustainability power.”
Jerald Monahan
Former Prescott police chief
serve.
In a majority of states, including Arizona, the penal code only uses the term Peace Officer when referring to police officers, but Monahan said the focus hasn’t always been centered on peace-keeping.
“In a lot of ways, the emphasis has been on the mindset of law enforcement and yet the majority of time our officers spend is in communication, it’s in solving community problems, it’s in addressing neighborhood disputes — it’s about bringing peace to chaos with a law enforcement function,” Monahan said.
In 2018, Richland County Sheriff ’s Department in South Carolina was one of the first agencies to undergo this training and become “Peace Officer Certified.”
Today, the Richland County deputies can be recognized by the Peace Officer decals on their vehicles or the patches on their uniforms, said Richland
County Sheriff Leon Lott. This helps establish that while they do serve an important law enforcement function, they do so in combination with everyday peacekeeping, he said.
When he was first introduced to the program, it was a no-brainer because “it reinforces what our beliefs are anyway,” Lott said.
In the years since, the response from both his deputies and the community have been overwhelmingly positive, he said.
“It’s no doubt our job is to build relationships, and you don’t build a relationship during a crisis. You have to lay that foundation long before that ever happens,” Lott said. “I think it goes a long way in establishing a good, positive relationship between peace officers, what we do, and the community.”