Yahoo Movies The Idaho Way: Before we lower the bar for Boise police officers, let’s talk about it
By Scott McIntosh, opinion editor
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The Boise Police Department’s decision to scrap a college requirement before someone can apply to be a Boise police officer needs a more thorough review.
Boise is following the suit of other cities, such as Chicago and Philadelphia, that have changed their police officer education qualifications, as Idaho Statesman reporter Ian Max Stevenson reported. In Boise’s case, the requirement was 60 college credit hours, the equivalent of an associate’s degree.
The Boise Police Department is responding, in part, to a shortage of officers. Boise Police is authorized to have 328 sworn officers, and has only 298. And the department is seeing fewer candidates — just like all employers fighting for applicants in a nationwide labor shortage.
But a recent peer-reviewed study of 235 large U.S. cities between 2000 and 2016 found that police forces requiring at least a two-year college degree for employment are less likely to employ officers who engage in actions that cause the deaths of unarmed citizens and of Black citizens.
Is lowering hiring standards a better option than raising pay, benefits and working conditions?
At the very least, Boise taxpayers deserve a more thorough discussion of this major change in policy, writes our editorial board.
Why can’t Meridian set the speed limit on Eagle Road?
After Idaho Statesman reporter Rachel Spacek wrote a moving story about the tragic death of a young woman who was killed in a car crash on Eagle Road, our editorial board wrote an editorial calling for possible changes on Eagle Road as well as similar roads, such as Meridian Road, which is also a state highway. When I shared the editorial on Twitter, no fewer than three Meridian City Council members responded or retweeted it, saying changes needed to be made or the speed limit needed to be reduced.
Well, I thought, you guys are the City Council members, make it happen. Turns out it’s not that simple, because of a state law passed in 2012 that essentially took away the ability of local jurisdictions — such as the city of Meridian — to set the speed limit themselves.
Here’s the background on that state law, and here’s what’s next for that stretch of Eagle Road.
Defend Meridian Library
It is sickening, what’s happened to words like “freedom” and “liberty” in Idaho, writes opinion writer Bryan Clark. Understood truly, these words denote one of the most essential human needs. They mean, basically, that you get to determine what you do, what you read, what you believe. You don’t have to take someone else’s orders. But in Idaho, the far right has perverted these words to mean their opposite.
Read Bryan’s full column here on the call to ban books.
Value of an Idaho medical license
Dr. Ryan Cole has an Idaho medical license hanging on his wall. And he’s traded on it to make money by selling modern snake oil all around the country and the world, as Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Capital Sun documented in the latest of an impeccably reported series of stories focused on Cole.
Cole has used his Idaho Board of Medicine license and his political appointment to the Central Health District Board to emerge from behind his microscope and become a bit of a celebrity — the Alex Jones of pathologists.
Read Bryan Clark’s full column here on how Cole diminishes the value of an Idaho medical license.
Abortion lawsuit
Idaho is the first state to be sued by the federal government for a trigger law banning abortion after the fetal heartbeat. That is 5-6 weeks after the last menstrual period. The law bans abortions, even for the health of the mother. This case will be the Scopes Monkey Trial for the 21st century, and Idaho taxpayers will foot the bill. It is the seed case in a gigantic battle over human rights that will define this period in our history.
When we balance the passion for the unborn against the established rights of a free American woman to make decisions about her body, voters will push the pendulum back, Greg Hampikian writes in this guest opinion piece.
I’m listening
Send me your story ideas, news tips, questions, comments, or anything else on your mind. You can reach me via email at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com.
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What you’re saying
This week, we received letters to the editor on bad loyalties, contacting politicians, using media, an off-base editorial, an abortion initiative and cheering Dobbs. You can read these and more letters by clicking here.
You can submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion by clicking here.
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