Enemy of the State: Street Cop Training
A misleading government report, containing many falsehoods, maligns a group offering crucial advanced training.
Skirting the truth
On December 6, 2023, the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (OCS) produced a report of a law enforcement conference that occurred more than two years past. In such, they made scandalous accusations of private police training organizations by focusing on Street Cop Training and their Atlantic City conference in October of 2021. It is shocking where upon reviewing a six day conference for over two years, suing a private company to extract their trade secrets, that there is no mention of even a moment of beneficial instruction.
One of their points that the OCS is most proud of demonstrates how disconnected they are from the realities of policing. Appointed Acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh tells the New York Times:
“There is virtually no oversight or regulation,” Mr. Walsh said. “As a result, companies like Street Cop can rent a room, charge officers or the departments to attend and teach whatever they want.”
He also takes issue with the fact that these classes are neither state approved or compliant with the current curriculum. That is the product that Street Cop Training provides and the need that they meet! The New Jersey Police Training Commission has had the opportunity since 1961.
Completely divorced from the reality of policing
A prime allegation is that local governments wasted public funds on ‘risky’ training. The report outlines that during a multi-year period, local governments paid millions in settlements for police activity and conduct. However, even the report fails to attribute any of those cases to conduct taught by the instructors at the conference.
A blatant deception in the report is that the training advocates unconstitutional policing and creates a list of inaccurate standards for reasonable suspicion and probable cause. In fact, the audience was a group of experienced law enforcement officers of all ranks. Police officers attending the conference have several years of experience on the road and have benefited through other advanced courses. Unlike OCS, all of the conference attendees have faithfully used reasonable suspicion and probable cause on a daily basis during their careers.
It was noted, in a very negative fashion that, not a single attendee reported any offensive content to their department or agency following the conference.
The report scrutinizes every word uttered by every presenter and manipulates it to meet a subjective standard. Language is described as harassing among other terms. However, in the report, they mention the topic being discussed and often the problematic phrase may be relevant and appropriate.
The Unfair Cost
Crime, criminals, and criminality are vulgar. Sometimes, it is necessary to describe something vulgar using coarse language. Some of the instructors didn’t do themselves any favors, using profanity and other colorful descriptive terms that weren’t germane to the subject. Street Cop Training founder Dennis Benigno is likely providing guidance to his stable of instructors to tune up their lesson plans, but I’m confident that he’s not banning all strong language.
I consulted with a policing practices expert who also speaks at several conferences, Sgt. John Kelly (ret.), to see if my understanding was on base. His response was insightful:
"Another attack on the law enforcement profession based on political motives, feelings not facts, and a complete lack of context. Colorful, seemingly inappropriate language presented in a room full of officers is not interpreted in the ways the investigation would have the reader believe. Every profession has a language and culture, unique to the job they perform.”
Sgt. Kelly also pointed out the cost of this investigation, over two years and lawsuits, probably cost both sides more than double the cost of the conference. This investigation, very weak on any predicate demonstrates how a civil rights attorney, in an appointed office, can damage an entrepreneur financially in court and bring their confidential trade secrets into the public domain. In the end, we see how Walsh would have benefitted by attending police academy and spending a couple of years in patrol before he went to law school.
Upcoming Training
Street Cop Training was mentioned, in a negative way, during a Zoom call while I was slowly realizing the officer I was speaking with had different policing philosophies than me. Based on that encounter, I looked them up on LinkedIn and began to follow them in my feed. What they were offering for free in their posts was a lot of sound advice on Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues. In retrospect, this would have been around the time of the 2021 conference. So far, I haven’t been to one of their conferences but I’m seriously considering registering for their 2024 conference in Orlando. I hope Street Cop Training gets a sellout crowd!
Please keep all LEOs in your prayers, especially the instructors and trainers.
References:
https://www.nj.gov/comptroller/library/reports/PoliceTraining/police_training_report.pdf
https://www.lawenforcementlifecoach.com
https://www.streetcoptraining.com
Excellent article. I’m in the process of reading the NJ Accounting Office report. So far it looks like they have an axe to grind with law enforcement, and a lot of their “findings” are subjective. I wonder if they will do the NJ Bar or the NJ Judges and Prosecutors conferences next. I’m sure that’s the gold standard of professionalism…
Politicians hate giving money to policing or services. Those things just aren't as sexy as SJW criteria or a fancy new performing arts center.
It's good to know what kind of ROI governments are getting for our tax dollars, I don't have a problem with that. But when one throws that much more money to prove they're not getting their money's worth, I gotta question the wisdom.