By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The controversial police training from Force Science Institute has been canceled in Bowling Green.
Bowling Green Mayor Mike Aspacher said Monday morning that the training was being scrubbed because of COVID-19.
“It was my decision,” Aspacher said, noting that the police division understands the need for the cancellation.
The proposed training from Force Science Institute had become a flashpoint in Bowling Green since the murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota. Critics in the community pointed out that the firm offering the training has been under attack across the nation for its questionable classes.
In June, during a Not In Our Town BG virtual meeting, citizens asked the Bowling Green Police Division to cancel the Force Science Institute training. Anthony King, who organized the peaceful protest in Bowling Green and who started the BRAVE organization, noted that OSU police recently canceled a training because of the firm’s poor reputation.
Others noted that Force Science Institute trainings have been criticized for lacking actual science.
During the Not In Our Town meeting, Bowling Green Police Chief Tony Hetrick said the training, planned in September, was on de-escalation. He said BGPD has committed to hosting the training, and will be sending two of its training officers to the program at no charge.
“We want to take a look at it,” and see if it fits with BGPD, Hetrick said.
King said cancellation of the training would be an “amazing show of solidarity” with the African American community.
But during the NIOT meeting, Hetrick said BGPD would go forward with the training.
“We’re committed to do this training, and we’re going to go through with it,” he said.
The criticisms continued, as did weekly discussions between King and Atonn Smeltzer, who also helped organize BRAVE (Black Rights Activism, Visibility, Equity), the mayor and the police chief.
“We basically explained to them how that training could affect the black community,” King said. “It would have just destroyed the relationship between the African American community and Bowling Green city and police.”
“We just knew the training could not happen,” King said. “We knew the time was right.”
Though the official reason for the cancellation was COVID, King said the involvement by BRAVE members helped push the action.
“The police in this area aren’t used to citizens speaking out. They aren’t used to having to change.”
King said the black community will see the cancellation as a positive step.
“I’m proud of the city taking that measure,” he said. “We plan to use this as a springboard to institute more change. I think this is a great start.”
King characterized the Force Science Institute’s trainings as promoting an “ask questions later policy.”
“Instead of de-escalating, it escalates situations,” he said, adding that the firm is criticized as promoting “systematic racism.”
In a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, critics were cited as saying the police training from Force Science Institute is ineffective and fosters fear among officers which leads to unnecessary use of force.
The Times story describes how Floyd’s death has reignited calls for police reform and a deeper look at use-of-force training nationwide. In several police departments, that training comes from Force Science Institute, which has a long history of disputed concepts like “excited delirium” to justify encounters that sometimes turn deadly.
Prior to publication of the LA Times story, the institute said it had a weeklong training session with the Los Angeles Police Department scheduled for November. Following publication of the story, the LAPD told The Times, “The department is not hosting this planned event, nor will it be hosting any future trainings by [Force Science Institute].”
A two-day training for Ohio State University’s police division was canceled in February after a petition garnered nearly 500 signatures from the campus community. “This language is incredibly disturbing and suggests that this class is little more than a training in how to get away with police brutality,” the petition stated.
