The head of a police training program headed to Central Florida says he does not teach officers to break the law. He calls a report critical of his program “false and misleading.” Former police officer Dennis Benigno started Street Cop Training in 2012, promising to teach the latest techniques to law enforcement. In December, the state of New Jersey came down hard on his business.“They belittled internal affairs, they dehumanized civilians, they made jokes about their genitalia and harassed members of the audience,” Kevin Walsh stated on Dec. 6, 2023. He’s the acting comptroller in New Jersey. He investigated the 2021 Street Cop Training conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and his report details what his agency found. It found that Benigno’s team was teaching “unconstitutional policing tactics,” like conducting traffic stops without cause. He also found instructors using “over 100 discriminatory and harassing comments” about minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community, and concluded the program was a “waste of public funds by paying for risky police training.”“Taxpayers paid for a training that normalized discriminatory and harassing behavior by public servants,” Walsh said. The report also said, “Some instructors glorified violence and an excessively militaristic or ‘warrior’ approach to policing.”Benigno declined an on-camera interview, but told WESH 2 Investigates, in part:”I never was told that any law enforcement officer committed any unconstitutional or improper conduct based upon training received by me or Street Cop Training. Street Cop remains the go-to training service for law enforcement agencies nationwide, which rely on Street Cop to provide constitutionally sound instruction.”Benigno is bringing that instruction to the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee this weekend for a five-day conference that begins Sunday.One of the speakers at the conference is Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. He says he was a paid consultant at the conference last year in Nashville and said he never witnessed any unethical behavior while there.“This is all a bunch of crap,” Ivey said, referring to the Comptroller’s report. Ivey says criticisms of the program have no basis in fact. He’s bringing 15 of his deputies, free of charge for taxpayers, since Ivey is speaking.“I think the training is great! Obviously, each instructor is responsible for their own actions. The training is excellent for what our team needs to face out here,” Ivey said.“If training is encouraging violence, it’s putting everyone in jeopardy,” said Brian Jarvis, an instructor at another private public safety training firm, the Public Agency Training Council or PATC. He’s also a former Marion County sheriff’s detective. He says he was floored when he read the Street Cop report.“I was kind of shocked because they were obviously doing things that I would not even consider instructing law enforcement officers to do,” Jarvis said. Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood is not sending deputies.”We’re aware of recent reports on Street Cop Training and decided that the seminar wasn’t right for us at this time,” Chitwood said. A total of 1,000 officers are expected at this week’s five-day conference.Orlando police say they’re not attending, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office says it’s sending two deputies to assess the program. The full statement From Dennis Benigno can be read below:”I put out a video in which I addressed the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller’s December 6, 2023 report concerning a convention that Street Cop Training held in October of 2021. I wanted to take this opportunity to add to those statements concerning the importance of Street Cop Training to the nationwide police community and to offer context regarding recent media stories concerning Street Cop Training.The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (“OSC”) is a separate agency within New Jersey’s executive branch, whose mission is to detect waste and abuse in the expenditure of government funds. Prior to their report regarding Street Cop Training, the OSC had never issued anything or set themselves out as experts regarding police training. One month after the October 2021 conference, the OSC created an internal sub-agency called the “Police Accountability Project,” which, as far as anyone knows, in its two year existence has done nothing except to investigate and issue one report about my agency. I cannot speculate as to whether the reasons why the Police Accountability Project has singled out my agency is because Republican media personality Tomi Lahren was a guest at the October 2021 conference, because our agency is an unapologetic supporter of police officers across the United States, or for some other reason.What I can tell you is that from the day that I entered the field of law enforcement instruction in 2012 until the day after the OSC issued its December 6, 2023 report more than ten years later, I never was told that any law enforcement officer committed any unconstitutional or improper conduct based upon training received by me or Street Cop Training. The exact opposite is true. Countless police officers, sheriffs, chiefs of police and agencies have commended Street Cop Training for providing training that equipped officers with constitutionally acceptable tactics that have resulted in the apprehension and convictions of thousands of criminals and have saved the lives of untold officers – several of whom have provided me with their personal thanks for helping equip them to save their lives.The context of the Fourth Amendment training at the October conference and the implications that the training was unconstitutional is completely baseless. Officers in attendance have already completed police academy and understand the context in which the training is provided. For one example, the OSC report and ensuing media coverage suggests that training was given that encourages improper police stops of innocent drivers. Trained law enforcement officers know that it is routinely taught that officers must stop motorists who commit minor traffic infractions and observe their behavior so they have a reference to compare the demeanor of those motorists with the demeanor of criminals who may be engaged in narcotics transport, human trafficking or other serious crimes. The OSC and media have failed to properly report the context of this type of instruction and have instead painted Street Cop in a false light by removing all context from the training.Street Cop remains the go-to training service for law enforcement agencies nationwide, which rely on Street Cop to provide constitutionally sound instruction. Not a single Street Cop instructor on October 4-8, 2021, before or since, has taught its law enforcement officer students that officers should do anything except follow the United States Constitution, along with applicable state law, in every single interaction with the public. Until the OSC’s lopsided report, we have received nothing but plaudits for providing world-class training tailored to the needs of law enforcement officers nationwide.Neither I nor my company will be deterred by the false and misleading narrative put out by the OSC and the media that Street Cop teachers “toxic” or unconstitutional law enforcement methods. Instead, we will move forward and continue to assist the men and women in blue who protect this country and put their lives on the line day in and day out with the instruction they need to stop crime, protect victims and come home safe every day to their families.”
The head of a police training program headed to Central Florida says he does not teach officers to break the law. He calls a report critical of his program “false and misleading.”
Former police officer Dennis Benigno started Street Cop Training in 2012, promising to teach the latest techniques to law enforcement. In December, the state of New Jersey came down hard on his business.
“They belittled internal affairs, they dehumanized civilians, they made jokes about their genitalia and harassed members of the audience,” Kevin Walsh stated on Dec. 6, 2023. He’s the acting comptroller in New Jersey.
He investigated the 2021 Street Cop Training conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and his report details what his agency found.
It found that Benigno’s team was teaching “unconstitutional policing tactics,” like conducting traffic stops without cause. He also found instructors using “over 100 discriminatory and harassing comments” about minorities, women and the LGBTQ+ community, and concluded the program was a “waste of public funds by paying for risky police training.”
“Taxpayers paid for a training that normalized discriminatory and harassing behavior by public servants,” Walsh said.
The report also said, “Some instructors glorified violence and an excessively militaristic or ‘warrior’ approach to policing.”
Benigno declined an on-camera interview, but told WESH 2 Investigates, in part:
“I never was told that any law enforcement officer committed any unconstitutional or improper conduct based upon training received by me or Street Cop Training. Street Cop remains the go-to training service for law enforcement agencies nationwide, which rely on Street Cop to provide constitutionally sound instruction.”
Benigno is bringing that instruction to the Gaylord Palms in Kissimmee this weekend for a five-day conference that begins Sunday.
One of the speakers at the conference is Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey. He says he was a paid consultant at the conference last year in Nashville and said he never witnessed any unethical behavior while there.
“This is all a bunch of crap,” Ivey said, referring to the Comptroller’s report.
Ivey says criticisms of the program have no basis in fact. He’s bringing 15 of his deputies, free of charge for taxpayers, since Ivey is speaking.
“I think the training is great! Obviously, each instructor is responsible for their own actions. The training is excellent for what our team needs to face out here,” Ivey said.
“If training is encouraging violence, it’s putting everyone in jeopardy,” said Brian Jarvis, an instructor at another private public safety training firm, the Public Agency Training Council or PATC.
He’s also a former Marion County sheriff’s detective. He says he was floored when he read the Street Cop report.
“I was kind of shocked because they were obviously doing things that I would not even consider instructing law enforcement officers to do,” Jarvis said.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood is not sending deputies.
“We’re aware of recent reports on Street Cop Training and decided that the seminar wasn’t right for us at this time,” Chitwood said.
A total of 1,000 officers are expected at this week’s five-day conference.
Orlando police say they’re not attending, and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office says it’s sending two deputies to assess the program.
The full statement From Dennis Benigno can be read below:
“I put out a video in which I addressed the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller’s December 6, 2023 report concerning a convention that Street Cop Training held in October of 2021. I wanted to take this opportunity to add to those statements concerning the importance of Street Cop Training to the nationwide police community and to offer context regarding recent media stories concerning Street Cop Training.
The New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller (“OSC”) is a separate agency within New Jersey’s executive branch, whose mission is to detect waste and abuse in the expenditure of government funds. Prior to their report regarding Street Cop Training, the OSC had never issued anything or set themselves out as experts regarding police training. One month after the October 2021 conference, the OSC created an internal sub-agency called the “Police Accountability Project,” which, as far as anyone knows, in its two year existence has done nothing except to investigate and issue one report about my agency. I cannot speculate as to whether the reasons why the Police Accountability Project has singled out my agency is because Republican media personality Tomi Lahren was a guest at the October 2021 conference, because our agency is an unapologetic supporter of police officers across the United States, or for some other reason.
What I can tell you is that from the day that I entered the field of law enforcement instruction in 2012 until the day after the OSC issued its December 6, 2023 report more than ten years later, I never was told that any law enforcement officer committed any unconstitutional or improper conduct based upon training received by me or Street Cop Training. The exact opposite is true. Countless police officers, sheriffs, chiefs of police and agencies have commended Street Cop Training for providing training that equipped officers with constitutionally acceptable tactics that have resulted in the apprehension and convictions of thousands of criminals and have saved the lives of untold officers – several of whom have provided me with their personal thanks for helping equip them to save their lives.
The context of the Fourth Amendment training at the October conference and the implications that the training was unconstitutional is completely baseless. Officers in attendance have already completed police academy and understand the context in which the training is provided. For one example, the OSC report and ensuing media coverage suggests that training was given that encourages improper police stops of innocent drivers. Trained law enforcement officers know that it is routinely taught that officers must stop motorists who commit minor traffic infractions and observe their behavior so they have a reference to compare the demeanor of those motorists with the demeanor of criminals who may be engaged in narcotics transport, human trafficking or other serious crimes. The OSC and media have failed to properly report the context of this type of instruction and have instead painted Street Cop in a false light by removing all context from the training.
Street Cop remains the go-to training service for law enforcement agencies nationwide, which rely on Street Cop to provide constitutionally sound instruction. Not a single Street Cop instructor on October 4-8, 2021, before or since, has taught its law enforcement officer students that officers should do anything except follow the United States Constitution, along with applicable state law, in every single interaction with the public. Until the OSC’s lopsided report, we have received nothing but plaudits for providing world-class training tailored to the needs of law enforcement officers nationwide.
Neither I nor my company will be deterred by the false and misleading narrative put out by the OSC and the media that Street Cop teachers “toxic” or unconstitutional law enforcement methods. Instead, we will move forward and continue to assist the men and women in blue who protect this country and put their lives on the line day in and day out with the instruction they need to stop crime, protect victims and come home safe every day to their families.”
