Fresno instructors discuss safety during officer training

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The recent attacks on police officers highlight the importance of officer training.

At the Fresno City College Police Academy the same words of wisdom are passed on every year to new cadets, but on Friday there was also an impromptu lesson brought up in this lecture room.

"The driver is going to reaching back here for the wallet what are you going to do?" an instructor asked the class. "You have to be prepared for that."

Friday's class focused on how to safely conduct traffic stops. Ironically, that is what a Missouri police officer was doing the morning when he was shot in the neck.

Reports indicate he turned his back on a driver he had pulled over.

"We would be very disappointed in our training if an officer failed to keep his eye on the suspect because things like this are going to happen, and they do happen," police academy director Lt. Richard Lindstrom said.

But as much as officers can prepare for, there are acts of violence Lindstrom, a 47-year veteran in law enforcement, said you can't prevent.

Like the incident in Dallas, that took the lives of 5 officers.

"There is no training that you can do that will prevent an ambush situation," Lindstrom said. "When you have snipers that are set up in an ambush situation, it's very, very vulnerable."

Lindstrom says he believes people are acting more aggressively towards police and the only thing officers can do is to be more alert and increase their ties with the community.

"The better ground game you have in getting information, the better off you are," he said. "That is the only way I see you prevent a situation like this."

And it's the only way to rebuild a culture of trust.