Gary McLhinney, Politics of Policing
Communication Training Key to Reducing Black Deaths at Police Hands
Defunding Police Wrong Way to Go, Law Enforcement Veteran Says
December 6, 2020 – The former president of the Fraternal Order of Police in Baltimore -- one of America’s most violent cities -- called for more and better police training to reduce the number of deaths of unarmed African Americans.
Gary McLhinney, who also served as a Maryland police chief, told the Retail Politics Podcast with Gerry Shields broadcasting Sunday, that academy racial sensitivity instruction is inadequate and needs to be enhanced.
Officers receive two to 8 hours of racial sensitivity training over a four-month academy, he said.
“A lot of racial sensitivity training I see is really kind of off the shelf stuff, it’s not meaningful,” McLhinney said.
“Any training needs to be reinforced, it needs to be continual,” McLhinney added. “We do that with training of firearms, intense introductory firearms training is always part of a police academy and then it’s followed up, sometimes every six months, sometimes every year, that’s how you become proficient in something.”
Current calls to reduce police budgets will backfire, he said. McLhinney commented on the 2015 death of Baltimore African American Freddie Gray, who broke his neck while traveling in a police wagon after being shackled, yet not secured with seat belt. Six officers were charged in the death and exonerated.
As a result, police stopped arresting people and murders in poor Black neighborhoods spiked.
“The call to defund the police is, in my mind, the exact opposite of what those people who want police reform should be calling for,” he said. “They should be calling for more funding for police. They should be calling for better training, better equipment, and increased pay to higher quality police officers.”
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