Before the Badge: Lubbock Police recruits getting firsthand feel of use of force

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A third of the way through the Lubbock Police Academy, recruits are getting a firsthand feel of what life could be like on the job. Before they are given the authority of an officer, they have to learn how their decisions can impact others.

When it comes to using less lethal force options, like their taser, they have to experience the effect of the weapon for themselves. Marc Wall, Deputy Chief of the Training Division, says there’s an aspect of learning that includes being exposed to the weapon they may be using one day on others.

“There are going to be times in the field things happen that they can’t control,” he said. “And they have to understand that when they make the decision to utilize one of those weapons, they have to know, one, how to use it, and then the effects of that, so they can ultimately get that person under control.”

The taser course started out in the classroom, with recruits learning the different scenarios when using a taser may be effective, how to deploy them and how to remove the probes. But after hearing and seeing what they can do, it came time for the recruits to feel it for themselves.

Recruit Jonathon Alvarez says the five seconds of being shocked felt more like five minutes, but he understands why it was necessary

“It’s good for us to know what we may have to put that person through if we ever have to deploy our taser in any situation,” he said. “And it just helps for if you have to go to court on those, and you can articulate why you used it and say, hey, you know, I used the taser, I’ve been tased myself. So, I know how it feels leave.”

Even Police Chief Seth Herman has been tased with an LPD taser. Deputy Chief Wall says everything recruits do at the academy has a specific training purpose, there’s no hazing, and being tased isn’t to earn a right of passage.

“It sucks, we don’t wanna use it against you, because we know it sucks. But you know at the end of the day, if we’ve got to gain compliance, we’ve got to gain compliance,” recruit Leonardo Agundiz said.

The recruits have mentioned their “trauma bond, ”which they say has only grown stronger after they all experienced what it’s like to be tased.

After that, it came time to test their knowledge on their own, with recruits participating in scenarios with their tasers. Through live training, they are learning how to protect property, and more importantly life, in all sorts of situations.

“We’re dealing with people on their worst days and to take every situation as if it was maybe my personal family member or a loved one, and so how would I deal with them on their worst days? And I feel like they’re preparing us well,” recruit Josh Amador said.

Amador says he’s had some of his own bad days at the academy, including the day he was tased, but he isn’t giving up.

“Even from the very beginning, they told us, you’re going to have those days where you’re going to question, you’re going to doubt, you might have a bad day. And that’s really something that I’ve really been trying to reiterate and tell myself, again, is that, don’t base this whole experience off of a bad day,” Amador said.

He and all of his fellow recruits all came back the next day, because when you’re looking for something more out of life, they say it’s worth the challenge.

“There’s a lot of things we do that are very challenging, but I think maybe when you talk to some of the recruits after experiencing this, they recognize that if they just push through, they’re able to accomplish pretty much anything they put their minds to,” Wall said.