Concerns are being raised about private police training vendors in Michigan following a report by the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller on a 2021 law enforcement conference in Atlantic City where instructors seemingly encouraged questionable policing tactics.
The New Jersey-based company that hosted the conference, Street Cop Training, has ties to Michigan.
The comptroller’s report details a conference presenter using a meme of a monkey after describing a traffic stop involving a 75-year-old Black man.
“They denigrated women and racial and ethnic minorities,” said New Jersey Acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh. “They promoted a warrior mentality and glorified violence. They belittled internal affairs. They dehumanized civilians.”
Walsh said instructors also encouraged unconstitutional policing practices.
“Have a day where you go out and say, ‘I’m just gonna pull over 20 people in a row’ for the sole purpose of asking a series of questions and making up your own questions, something as simple as, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’” said a presenter.
It’s unknown whether any Michigan officers attended the conference, but the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards is investigating Street Cop Training.
The commission has suspended the company’s eligibility to receive state dollars designated for law enforcement training.
Street Cop Training has been registered with MCOLES since 2021.
“We reviewed that report, and we were alarmed by it,” said MCOLES Executive Director Tim Bourgeois. “I’ve been at the commission for six years, and that’s the first time we’ve ever taken that action with a private training vendor.”
But that action doesn’t prevent any of Michigan’s 580-plus law enforcement agencies from using their own funding sources for Street Cop Training.
The Troy Police Department was set to host Street Cop Training in the spring but decided to cancel following their suspension by MCOLES.
“Ultimately, Troy Police Department made the decision based on the information from MCOLES to cancel being a host agency for this training company. Troy Police Department has never hosted one of their classes in the past,” the department said in a statement.
Local 4 reached out to Street Cop Training with no response. But the company responded to the fall-out from the comptroller’s report on YouTube.
The company’s founder and CEO, Dennis Benigno, said quality control measures have since been implemented.
“We do important work, and there is no place for demeaning, harassing, or hateful words or jokes in our training,” Benigno said.
According to MCOLES, there are more than 100 registered private police training companies in the state with over 1,100 registered courses.
However, not all private vendors register with MCOLES.
“It doesn’t mean that the training isn’t good. It just means that it’s not worth their while to do that, and they know agencies will pay for that training with other funding sources that they have,” Bourgeois said.
Armed with 25-plus years of law enforcement experience, Ed Dreslinski owns a police training company that is registered with MCOLES.
“It’s a big responsibility,” said Dreslinski. “I take it very seriously. All of my instructors take that very serious.”
Dreslinski said he believes those who are leading law enforcement agencies don’t want to waste their limited resources on bad training.
“If they’re going to send them to a training, they want to get the value out of it,” Dreslinski said.
That value is supposed to be in reducing police misconduct that can cost lives and taxpayers millions of dollars.
ACLU Racial Justice Project attorney Mark Fancher believes the conduct at the 2021 Atlantic City police conference encourages the type of behavior that leads to bad outcomes.
“All of it sounded very familiar. It’s not as though this is just people talking about something that they fantasize about. This is something that officers actually do, and we’ve seen examples of it. And it’s very concerning that trainers are reaffirming that type of message and that type of conduct,” he said.
Some changes are coming in Michigan.
MCOLES is planning to roll out this year in-service training requirements beyond annual firearm proficiency exams for police officers. And the state has given the commission more resources to monitor the training.
But Bourgeois stresses law enforcement agencies will continue to use their own funding sources to provide additional training.
“So the marketplace ultimately decides, and people won’t pay, or continue to pay for training that’s not good and not effective,” Bourgeois said.
According to the comptroller’s report, none of the officers from New Jersey who attended the Atlantic City conference complained about the training to their agencies.
Street Cop Training said they didn’t receive any complaints either.
“Even if there is no centralized government monitor of these programs, at least the chiefs of police, the heads of police organizations, who send their officers to these trainings, should make it their top priority to make sure that their officers are being properly trained,” Fancher said.