Police officers are supposed to do the right thing all the time — right?

It may seem an easy question to answer, but then again, throw in the life of a 21-year-old student and the situation gets a little more difficult to stomach.

Last Saturday Michael S. McKinney, 21, was killed by campus police officer, Robert Duplain, 24, during a burglary call at Ball State.

Questions have been raised by McKinney’s family and friends and also the media as to whether a deadly weapon was needed and why an officer who had pre-basic police academy training was allowed to confront a suspect alone.

Maybe the better question is how much training a police officer should have before they are hired.

We at The BG News are in no way saying Duplain handled the situation poorly, as that is not up to us to decide.

But we do believe police officers should be certified first through a police academy before they can rightfully protect us.

Would you want a doctor performing a surgery on you, or a lawyer presenting your case without the full level of training required to do so?

Here at Bowling Green, our officers are not permitted to work here without the certificate proving graduation from a police academy. Not only that, but officers endure 14 weeks of field training, equaling 560 total hours of experience.

They also go through an extensive process of tests including psychological, physical and background testing.

This is a system of training and testing we feel police should go through because they need to do the best job that is possible.

We understand police departments have different hiring procedures and this pertains also to varying state qualifications, but police officers should have academy training at the minimum. Officer Duplain will live forever with the fact that he took a human life. Whether the act will be justified in the case investigation or not we will wait and see.

But what if he had been provided the training Bowling Green police go through? What if he had already graduated from the police academy? Would the situation have been different?

Some might say “Don’t shoulda, coulda, woulda — it won’t get you anywhere.” But we are saying some situations like this COULD be avoided in the future with better training.

Bad things would still occur, but the training would help reduce problems.

We think all police departments should only hire officers who have the necessary training.