The Movie: Training Day V. Real Policing

The job of a police officer is extremely prestigious and commands a great deal of respect. It can also be very controlling and demanding. They work long and vigorous hours to sustain law and order, provide services to the public to guarantee their safety, and protection of their property. The satisfaction obtained from knowing that they can protect and defend public lives and property is a big deal. But even with this great deal of responsibility, some police officers still tend to break laws and commit acts of corruption. The movie Training Day is a great example of police corruption. Training Day is a police drama that stars Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, a rookie cop at the Los Angeles Police Department, who is eager to join the supreme narcotics unit, led by Denzel Washington, who plays Detective Alonzo Harris, a thirteen year veteran and Detective Sergeant. Harris has decided to give Hoyt a chance to join his team with a one day tour of the streets. As the day wears on, it is starting to become increasingly clear to the Hoyt that his experienced mentor has not only shown hypocrisy and corruption, but has blurred the line between right and wrong to a serious degree. Hoyt becomes conflicted with his conscience and starts to suspect that he is not really being educated on how the narcotics department is supposed to run but rather being set up as the fall guy in a deadly scheme. This movie does not exemplify what the police force represents. A good police officer should be able to perform daily police functions without misconduct, have the ability to make decisions and communicate clearly, and also have proper supervision to prevent misconduct.

Police officers have basic requirements that must be met in order to be employed by any police department. These requirements consist of age, citizenship, background check, education, good character, physical health, residency, and a valid driver’s license. Police officers also have to go through a selection and training process. In the selection and training process, new police officers learn the basic skills needed to perform the daily functions of the police. Daily functions such as writing tickets, handling suspects and victims, search and seizure, and use of force are taught to the new recruits. A combination of the basic requirements and the selection and training process helps shape the early experiences of a new police officer.

However, Detective Alonzo Harris did not enact the daily functions that were taught to him properly. In one scene of the movie, Detective Harris took the rookie cop, Jake Hoyt, to a house and presented a fake search warrant. Detective Harris proceeded to search the house and ended up stealing money from the woman’s house he was in. After leaving, neighbors soon found out what happen and opened fire on Hoyt and Harris. Detective Harris then begun to shoot back, which caused unnecessary commotion in the neighborhood.

In another scene Officer Hoyt spotted two men trying to rape a fourteen year old girl. Hoyt proceeded to get the situation under control by using necessary force. Detective Harris watched as the two men beat up on Officer Hoyt and did not intervene until Hoyt had the situation under control. Instead of taking statements and going through the proper procedures to arrest the two men, who were clearly committing a crime, Detective Harris struck the men with his gun, and took their drugs and money. He later forced Officer Hoyt to smoke the drugs he confiscated from the two men.

In addition to the proper learning’s of the daily functions, an officer having the ability to make decisions is very essential. Decision making, which police officers refer to as discretion, is the power to make choices on issues within legal guidelines. For example, an officer pulls you over for a routine traffic stop; it is the officer’s choice whether or not he or she gives you a ticket or just a warning.

Detective Harris used his discretion to take advantage of Officer Hoyt and the citizens of Los Angeles. In one scene of the movie, he pulls over a couple of college students that he watched buy drugs from a drug dealer. Harris and Hoyt jumped out of the car with their guns pointed at the suspects. Detective Harris then went to use unnecessary force and disrespectful language towards the students. He confiscated the drugs and told the college students to never come back into that neighborhood again or he was going to let the men from the neighborhood rape their girlfriends.

Referring back to a scene I already discussed with the two men trying to rape the fourteen year old girl, Detective Harris used his discretion in this scene by not arresting the two men. Instead he verbally and physically abused them. He then went on to tell Hoyt that the narcotics unit does not deal with situations like that; they only go after the big stuff.

Communication is very essential to the makings of a good police officer. Police officers spend most of their day conversing with other people such as their supervisor, residents and other people from the criminal justice system. Effective communication skills can benefit the police officer by helping to create a professional image when encountering violent situations and also help them advance in their career. Some guidelines to effective communication would be avoiding language that could trigger fear, anxiety, or inferiority, learning to use words as a problem solving tool, and also being able to put yourself in the other person’s place.

In the movie, Detective Harris did not communicate clearly to Officer Hoyt or the citizens of Los Angeles. Instead he used