When ‘More Police Training’ Goes Wrong

Street Cop is a private police training company that bills itself as being in the business of “properly educating police officers on what they CAN do.” According to a recent report by the New Jersey Comptroller, that list of can-do actions includes making sure camera-wielding citizens are “pepper sprayed, fucking tased, windows broken out, motherfucker,” in the words of the company’s founder, Dennis Benigno. This advice was delivered during a 2021 presentation to working cops that cost the State of New Jersey $75,000.

At the same talk, Benigno explained that there are too few pretexts currently being used for a traffic stop. New Jersey police were encouraged to stop and aggressively question drivers who are too nicely dressed while on a long trip; driving a minivan without a child seat; have allowed food wrappers to collect on the floor of the vehicle; have a lawyer’s business card visible; or who attempt to place calls to friends or family during a traffic stop. 

Last week, after the contents of the Street Cop talk became public, New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin apologized, saying the conference taught inaccurate and offensive lessons. “I’ve made it very clear to all 38,000 sworn (New Jersey) officers and their leadership that no one should be attending Street Cop Training in the State of New Jersey,” he said, adding that the officers who’d attended the 2021 conference would undergo retraining.

The New Jersey controversy comes amid increased public scrutiny of police practices following the 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of police. In response to demands for more training, departments have turned to private training companies. As demonstrated by the Street Cop fiasco, however, the groups are not subject to regulations. 

“These private programs often evade the usual public scrutiny from local officials and independent watchdogs,” CUNY sociologist and policing expert Alex Vitale tells Truthdig. “In addition, some of this training is being provided to individual officers at a regional level at their own personal cost, indicating an appetite for more violence-centered and potentially discriminatory training by rank and file officers.”

This assessment aligns with the details of the Comptroller’s report on the Street Cop presentation, which found that the conference “included over 100 discriminatory and harassing remarks by speakers and instructors, with repeated references to speakers’ genitalia, lewd gestures, and demeaning quips about women and minorities.” 

One featured speaker, a sergeant, likened a Black man to a monkey. The presenters joked about anal cavity searches, an action banned in many departments and that fits the FBI definition of rape. The report observes that Street Cop promoted among police an “us-against-them” warrior mentality toward the civilians they are charged with protecting.

A CBS investigation, meanwhile, found that Benigno had been disciplined three times in five years while working as an officer in New Jersey, once for using a racial slur about a Black person.

The company appears to be going strong, despite the bad press. On March 18, an unknown number of officers in Albany, New York, paid $299 to hear Benigno lecture further on “Pro-Active Police Tactics.” The ad for the class was edited like an action-movie trailer, with dramatic music and video of explosions. It’s stamped at the end with the Street Cop logo of an eagle draped in the “thin blue line” flag and the Latin phrase Situs Vincere (“win, conquer, defeat.”) Electric guitar wails as the eagle drops and an amped up Benigno paces around an auditorium stage explaining all of the red flags they should be looking for during a traffic stop.

“He’s smoking! What did I tell you about smoking?”

“He’s rubbing his hands. Right? Nervous, he’s a wreck.”

“He’s left his windshield wipers on, even though it’s not raining anymore! These things just keep dragging back and forth across the windshield. WHY is this happening!?”

City and state police departments should be asking the same thing about the successful rise of groups like Street Cop.