KISSIMMEE, Fla. – “Street Cop Training” is coming to Kissimmee. The conference starts Sunday at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee.
It’ll span five days, with multiple presentations including a leadership seminar by Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivy.
The controversial training has been prohibited in nine states including New Jersey, where the company founder, Dennis Benigno, was once a street cop.
The New Jersey comptroller said the following quote is what Benigno said at a 2021 Atlantic City conference:
“Shut the (expletive) up, right? About to get pepper-sprayed, (expletive) Tased, windows broken out, (expletive).”
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Benigno was talking about people who record police interactions.
Last year, the state comptroller said the company taught unconstitutional policing tactics describing the conference as “lewd, disparaging and glorifying violence.”
News 6 reporter Treasure Roberts emailed Benigno about the training and a viral TikTok video that showed pictures of a slide allegedly presented at his conference that read, “African American complaints hold less weight as they are known to be criminals.”
He replied with this statement:
I can 100% assure you that for over 12 years this company has provided some of the best training offered to law enforcement nationally. There will be no shortage of that in the future. The slides that you speak of were fabricated. That is not from our organization.
I’m aware that it’s being promoted on the internet that we did that but I assure you that this organization, while being painted as some awful group, has done miraculous things for the law enforcement profession.
We have saved countless lives through our work. Even though the truth seems to have no place in modern-day reporting.
The far majority of our enforcement community knows what we have been able to do in an effort to make the world a better place and provide the tools needed to ensure safer, more effective, and highly constitutional police officers. To try and promote that our organization is anything but well-intended and of the highest quality is incorrect.
We’ve been judged for humor and some coarse language that was taken completely out of context that I have already addressed. That event from 2021 has been the sole focus of every media outlet that has covered this story.
Nobody seems to want to have any discussion of anything we’ve done right which is by far what we are most known for in our community. Rest assured that several measures have been implemented and everyone attending can look forward to training and an experience that the citizens of the state for which they serve will be proud.
We have done great things for the men and women who show up everyday. We owe them our very best to ensure that they get to go home to their families safely every day.
Dennis Benigno
Central Florida law enforcement agencies are moving with caution, though.
Orlando police and Volusia County deputies won’t be attending the conference.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said they’re aware of the past concerns about the program.
They plan to send two members of their training section to assess whether it is professional.
News 6 Law Enforcement Analyst Orlando Rolon said, “Training is the most important component of any law enforcement agency and for officers to receive the proper training is more critical today than it ever was before.”
He believes what the speakers said during the previous conference was inappropriate adding officers shouldn’t be exposed to a situation like that.
For officers who plan to attend the training, this is what Rolon had a message.
" I can only hope that those officers will basically stand to the test of what they have signed up for which is to serve and protect and to do so with honor,” he said.
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