academy abuse...

[compscotty]

I attended an academy back in the 90's in Southern California. It didn't go that well. I'd rather not go in to the fine details with everything that happened. But basically what happened is that my classmates didn't respect me. The instructors saw that and then they gave me bad evaluations which then eventually resulted in me resigning a few months later. The instructors only gave me bad evals because i wasn't respected by everyone else.

Does this abusive behavior still happen in academies? I think evals should be based on my performance and peer evals shouldn't exist in academies.

[MacLean]

Why or how were you "not respected?"

[ChesCopPodz]

Im not trying to knock you in any way, but I've seen examples in both academies I've been through where someone was not well received by classmates because he or she was a know it all. Being a know it all doesn't sit well with instructors either.

Is it possible you came across as one to both instructors and classmates?

[luckyme]

I hate to use the cliche, but being an officer is a "team oriented" job. You will have to depend on other officers, and other officers will depend on you. If you cannot work with others, you won't make it on the street, end of story. The instructors know this and want to handle it before someone's life depends on it.

As they say, be quick to listen, slow to speak.

[Car 4]

I hate to use the cliche, but being an officer is a "team oriented" job. You will have to depend on other officers, and other officers will depend on you. If you cannot work with others, you won't make it on the street, end of story. The instructors know this and want to handle it before someone's life depends on it.

As they say, be quick to listen, slow to speak.

Or, as they say in the military...."Never miss an opportunity to shut up".

Car 4

[berserk]

With no personal disrespect intended, if your classmates didn't respect you then there's probably a reason. Someone who doesn't work & play nicely with his classmates may not be cut out for this job. If your instructors gave you bad evals, then I'm not sure you're really in a position to assert that there wasn't any performance issue.

Academies are the way they are for a reason, and if you didn't make it through then maybe you just don't get it.

[pgg]

I have to agree with all the above.

[Motorwaycop]

People in this job know how to push buttons.
Part of the early stages is,rightly or wrongly, people pushing those buttons to see what happens and how you deal with it. Being able to stand the peer test is pretty relevant to being able to work as a street cop.

[Xiphos]

There's a reason your classmates didn't respect you and it's probably the same reason the instructors washed you out.

None of that means you're a bad person, or unintelligent. Some people just don't "get it" with this job, that's all.

[incustody1015]

I agree with the above. There must have been a reason for the disrespect. It does still happen and you have to have thick skin. NO DISRESPECT to you, I wasnt there and dont know the circumstances.

The question you have to ask is: Are the evals a true and acurate represenation of what was really going on?

[Cidp24]

+1 with everybody above. Meshing as a team was very important in the academy I went to and so it is with life in law enforcement. No disrespect at all but some people just aren't made for that.

[Jks9199]

There's not much to go on here. What I'm reading in the OP is a variant of the classic "the teacher hates me" line...

I don't know what happened or why in the OP's first academy experience. But it seems that there were problems in the relationships with both the classmates and the instructors. That rather strongly suggests that there was a definite problem... It may have been maturity, it may have been attitude, or just general "stuff." Don't know, wasn't there and don't know anyone who was.

But, as others said, academies are run the way they are for a reason... and people generally fail or resign before they can fail for reasons, too.

[HudsonHawk]

I attended an academy back in the 90's in Southern California. It didn't go that well. I'd rather not go in to the fine details with everything that happened. But basically what happened is that my classmates didn't respect me. The instructors saw that and then they gave me bad evaluations which then eventually resulted in me resigning a few months later. The instructors only gave me bad evals because i wasn't respected by everyone else.

Does this abusive behavior still happen in academies? I think evals should be based on my performance and peer evals shouldn't exist in academies.

You stated that you'd rather not go into the details, but without them your post is vague enough that the members here will have difficulty accurately answering your questions.

You did not say why you think you were disrespected or abused. Peer evaluations are common in educational environments and private sector jobs. It is not the instructor's job to let students decide if they pass or not. A police academy is a para-military environment. Don't you think it more likely that the instructors and students independently came to the same conclusion about your performance? Rather than an instructor arbitrarily evaluating you based on what a student thinks?

Although the 1990's academy in California did not work out for you, did you attend a Nevada academy in 2008 as you anticipated in your introduction post?

hello,
I am an aspiring police/corrections officer here in Las Vegas, NV. I might be paying my own way through the Southern Desert Regional Police academy. So if it doesn't work out i don't lose a job over it. LVMPD is hiring like crazy and can't get enough qualified people.

scott
las vegas, NV

If you did not try again why do you perceive yourself as being abused now, 10+ years after your academy experience. Police work and the academy are not for everybody. Perhaps another line of work would be a better fit for you.

[compscotty]

You stated that you'd rather not go into the details, but without them your post is vague enough that the members here will have difficulty accurately answering your questions.

You did not say why you think you were disrespected or abused. Peer evaluations are common in educational environments and private sector jobs. It is not the instructor's job to let students decide if they pass or not. A police academy is a para-military environment. Don't you think it more likely that the instructors and students independently came to the same conclusion about your performance? Rather than an instructor arbitrarily evaluating you based on what a student thinks?

Although the 1990's academy in California did not work out for you, did you attend a Nevada academy in 2008 as you anticipated in your introduction post?



If you did not try again why do you perceive yourself as being abused now, 10+ years after your academy experience. Police work and the academy are not for everybody. Perhaps another line of work would be a better fit for you.

Thanks for the repllies!

No haven't attended any Nevada academies. I'm going to wait for LVMetro to hire again.

At the academy i wan't a know it all. I was kinda nervous, polite and almost overly compliant. I think it's best for me to attend an academy that doesn't have peer evaluations. I believe the instructors saw bad peer evals then they modeled their own instructor evals based on bad peer evals. I later found out from my background investigator that they were going to drop me. I'm glad i resigned from it before they did.

[Xiphos]

Thanks for the repllies!

No haven't attended any Nevada academies. I'm going to wait for LVMetro to hire again.

At the academy i wan't a know it all. I was kinda nervous, polite and almost overly compliant. I think it's best for me to attend an academy that doesn't have peer evaluations. I believe the instructors saw bad peer evals then they modeled their own instructor evals based on bad peer evals. I later found out from my background investigator that they were going to drop me. I'm glad i resigned from it before they did.

Best of luck to you then. Hopefully with some age and wisdom under your belt now you'll succeed in your future attempt.

[Jks9199]

Thanks for the repllies!

No haven't attended any Nevada academies. I'm going to wait for LVMetro to hire again.

At the academy i wan't a know it all. I was kinda nervous, polite and almost overly compliant. I think it's best for me to attend an academy that doesn't have peer evaluations. I believe the instructors saw bad peer evals then they modeled their own instructor evals based on bad peer evals. I later found out from my background investigator that they were going to drop me. I'm glad i resigned from it before they did.

Based on what you're saying... I don't predict massive success for you this time, either. Bluntly, you don't seem to be willing to accept that you just might bear some of the responsibility for this. It was your classmates "giving" you bad peer evals and the instructors apparently not, in your opinion, being willing to form their own opinions...

Law enforcement academies are stressful and demanding. They have to be. They're preparing you for a job where you MUST be the calm in the eye of the storm, and where you must be the one heading into what everyone else if fleeing. On any given day, you may go from fighting for your life to comforting someone who's just lost a family member to tragedy. Sometimes you can do this in the same call...

[MacLean]

Also, if you want input and respect from LEO's, you could try being more forthright.

You ducked a lot of questions there, sir.

[ChesCopPodz]

Most of the people who are "that guy", don't realize that they're "that guy" unless someone comes up to them and lets them know that such-and-such behavior is really annoying and is annoying everyone else.

I don't think that the instructors gave you bad evals because the rest of the students did. I'd be willing to bet that you were doing something you may not have realized, and that it was seen as negative by both the rest of the class and the instructors.

[berserk]

Based on what you're saying... I don't predict massive success for you this time, either. Bluntly, you don't seem to be willing to accept that you just might bear some of the responsibility for this. It was your classmates "giving" you bad peer evals and the instructors apparently not, in your opinion, being willing to form their own opinions...

I was thinking something similar.