A medic from the sheriff’s tactical team from Oklahoma and Canada stood in Atlantic City before nearly a thousand officers from across the country and explained his distaste for the treatment of gang members.
“I don’t like dealing with turds, do I? Like (expletive) the ambulance can take care of them, right? I have a problem with dealing with young gang members, the pieces (expletive) of society, right,” said former Oklahoma County Reserve Deputy Sean Barnette, according to video clips from the 2021 conference posted on YouTube. “I had a great mentor who said to me, ‘well Sean, guess what, that’s a living tissue lab, man.’ Anytime you find yourself in one of those (expletive) bags, do your absolute best.
New Jersey-based company Street Cop Training hosted the six-day conference. Some Oklahoma police officers were present. A Street Cop trainer joked about pepper spray and tasering people. Another instructor told police officers to stop and question drivers even if they did not suspect they had committed a crime, a tactic deemed unconstitutional by authorities in New Jersey. A spokesperson for the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said Barnette’s comments do not reflect the agency’s views and that he no longer works there. Barnette did not respond to requests for comment.
Nine states have banned officers from attending Street Cop training and seminars. But the Oklahoma state agency, which oversees police training, still allows officers to use Street Cop sessions to count toward continuing education requirements.
The Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training does not review course material before including it in a catalog of training for officers in the state. Three police departments in Oklahoma said they would stop using Street Cop training after The Frontier contacted them. The agencies said they are relying on the Council on Law Enforcement Training for guidance on what materials can count toward officer training credits.
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Warr Acres Police Chief Michael Anderson said the lack of vetting of course materials concerns him.
“I think anytime you get a course of instruction, especially when it comes to engaging people’s issues about freedoms and laws, that instruction and coursework needs to be looked at thoroughly,” he said.
But the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training does not have the staff to review all the material before it is cataloged, said Preston Draper, general counsel for the agency.
“Assigning a catalog number is simply providing a tracking number to anyone who completes the appropriate application,” Draper said. “It does not imply any control of course content by CLEET staff.”
The municipality recognizes a number of courses. But it is the responsibility of the company producing the training to submit a lesson plan to ensure it complies with the law. Street Cop Training sessions are not accredited in Oklahoma, but there is no requirement that the training be accredited to count toward continuing education credits.
Street Cop tactics under fire
Dennis Benigno, a retired police officer who founded Street Cop, says the trainers’ comments have been misinterpreted.
“In this industry of adult cops, we make jokes. To believe that what you saw was not deliberately taken out of context to make us look bad would be foolish,” he said in an emailed statement to The Frontier.
Before founding Street Cop, Benigno faced accusations of racism and illegal tactics as a police officer. Three black women who alleged they were racially profiled after being arrested at a mall sued Benigno in federal court in 2015 for false imprisonment and excessive use of force. According to news reports, the town of Woodbridge, New Jersey paid $70,000 to settle the lawsuit.
Authorities in New Jersey investigated Street Cop Training’s tactics and released a damning report in December 2023. The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller found that the training promoted unconstitutional traffic stops, insubordination, racist and sexist comments and glorified violence.
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The Street Cop material proved to be so egregious that New Jersey’s attorney general required all law enforcement officers in the state attending the 2021 conference to participate in a retraining session this year with information on Fourth Amendment rights and anti-discrimination laws .
New Jersey, Minnesota, Missouri, Maryland, Illinois, California, Oregon, Nevada and Michigan have taken steps to ban the training.
Street Cop instructors visited Oklahoma and received praise
At least two Street Cop instructors who spoke at the 2021 Atlantic City conference have since traveled to Oklahoma for training sessions, according to Street Cop’s Facebook page.
Zack Miller, one of the speakers at the 2021 conference, traveled to Oklahoma twice in 2023 to teach police in Durant and Oklahoma City, according to Facebook posts. New Jersey officials were also critical of Miller’s teaching tactics, accusing him of encouraging officers to listen to his interpretation of the law vis-à-vis prosecutors and judges. Miller did not respond to The Frontier’s requests for comment.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol employees helped promote the Street Cop training on an agency-produced podcast.
Benigno was featured in 2021 on Train Like A Trooper, a podcast produced by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Benigno spoke with Sarah Stewart, the patrol’s communications director, and Trooper Mystal Perkins.
Perkins touted a Street Cop checklist for suspicious behavior and said she used it to train new officers. The New Jersey Comptroller found in its report that the checklist promoted unconstitutional traffic stops. Perkins declined to comment.
Stewart confirmed that Oklahoma Highway Patrol employees have participated in Street Cop training. Oklahoma Highway Patrol has conducted 10 Street Cop training sessions since 2020.
The Frontier requested payment information from troopers who attended the training. But the department said there weren’t any because it doesn’t reimburse officers for Street Cop training.
Stewart said in an email that the agency currently has no training planned with Street Cop, but had no answer as to whether the agency would stop using Street Cop altogether.
An Oklahoma police officer drops Street Cop
The Warr Acres Police Department had scheduled a Street Cop course in December, promoted by trainer Tom Rizzo. But the agency canceled the training after the report surfaced in New Jersey. New Jersey officials accused Rizzo of mocking police efforts at the Atlantic City conference. According to the New Jersey Comptroller’s report, Rizzo no longer works for Street Cop. He did not respond to The Frontier’s request for comment.
The Shawnee Police Department, Sapulpa Police Department and the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office said they would no longer allow officers to attend Street Cop training sessions after The Frontier contacted the agencies.
Three officers from the Shawnee Police Department attended the Street Cop conference in Atlantic City. Shawnee Police Chief Mason Wilson viewed videos of the training after The Frontier contacted the department. He has decided that Street Cop Training does not align with the agency’s values.
“I find Street Cop’s methods concerning,” Wilson said. “We would never promote or intentionally attend training that violates the Constitution, laws or our policies and procedures.”
The Sapulpa Police Department has paid Street Cop $7,677 for training sessions since 2020. The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office paid Street Cop $3,739 between 2021 and 2023.
Norman police stopped using Street Cop Training in January after evaluating the materials, a spokeswoman for the agency said. Norman has paid Street Cop $9,047 since 2020.
The Oklahoma City Police Department has also spent more than $2,000 on two Street Cop training courses since 2020. The agency declined to comment on the use of the training.
Street Cop filed for bankruptcy in Florida in February, attributing it in part to negative media coverage and the New Jersey Comptroller’s investigation.
The New Jersey report “caused significant disruption” for Street Cop, leading states to ban the training and instructors to quit, an attorney wrote in a bankruptcy filing.
The Frontier is a nonprofit newsroom producing fearless journalism with impact in Oklahoma. Read more at www.readfrontier.org.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma police officers can still use banned training as continuing education
