Training expert says Oklahoma police laws need changes
Source: AP-Excite
By SEAN MURPHY
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma law allows former law enforcement officers to return to the profession as reservists with little training, but the state's top law-enforcement trainer is pushing for changes after a volunteer deputy — a patrolman for only a year in the 1960s — fatally shot an unarmed suspect.
Steve Emmons leads the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, which oversees law enforcement training statewide. He is working with lawmakers to require more training after 73-year-old insurance executive Robert Bates, a volunteer for the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, said he mistook his handgun for a stun gun before fatally shooting Eric Harris this month.
"Currently there is no requirement for continuing education once they become certified, so that's one area that we're going to be taking a look at," Emmons said.
Bates — who has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter — was out of law enforcement for 35 years before returning as a volunteer. But other than passing an annual firearms certification, Oklahoma law didn't require any additional training because he attended a police academy in 1964 and served a year as a patrolman in Tulsa.
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Robert Bates, left, leaves his arraignment with his daughter, Leslie McCreary, right, in Tulsa, Okla., Tuesday, April 21, 2015. Bates, a 73-year-old Tulsa County reserve deputy who fatally shot a suspect who was pinned down by officers, pleaded not guilty to a second-degree manslaughter charge. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
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Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150422/us-killings-by-police-oklahoma-ba72dbfb77.html
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