Jordan's Blog

“Will, all I know is what I read in the papers.” These words were spoken by Will Rogers (US humorist & Showman, New York Times, Sept. 30, 1923) 86-years ago. They are as true today as then. Much of what we know, or think we know, about the world around us comes to us from the news media. The media forms our opinions on the world, opinions that are as accurate or inaccurate as the media chooses them to be. Much of what the general public knows about policing comes from the news media and TV cop shows, neither of which are very reliable sources. However, at least with the TV cop shows you get to see both sides of the story which rarely, if ever, happens with the media. If a media story if flawed you’ll rarely see a retraction or correction.

A few bloggers have, at various times, posted blogs highly critical of the police. One blogger is notorious for this. The claims he and others make are that police use excessive force, are corrupt and “routinely” abuse their powers. They cite a few articles from various sources or a personal encounter to prove their point. Obviously these bloggers have some issues with the police, if not with authority figures in general, however, I won’t be so presumptuous as to speculate as to their reasons. But these bloggers makes the same mistaken generalizations about police and policing that many make when talking about people of a particular profession, class or race; they stereotype and over generalize. I spent 30-years in law enforcement, so I would like to present another perspective on some key issues.

Does police brutality exist? Yes, unfortunately it does. It exists in our society the same way that child abuse, domestic violence, road rage, and many other forms of aggressive and violent behavior can occur in otherwise average everyday people. The same is true of corruption and abuse of authority. When a police officer conducts himself, or herself, in a way that dishonors the badge and the public’s trust he, or she, also brings discredit upon all who wear the badge in the eyes of the public and undermines the hard work and sacrifice of those who wear the badge honorably. But when you look at the actual number of incidents involving substantiated cases of police brutality, abuse of authority and corruption, you find they are very small, almost infinitesimal, when compared to the total number of police/citizen contacts that occur nationwide.

In the selection process for police officers every attempt is made through pre-employment background checks, interviews and pre-employment testing to detect emotional and psychological traits that would make the police applicant unsuitable for the demands of police work. During police training a further weeding out process occurs. But it is still not an infallible system. No testing mechanism is so comprehensive that it can detect problems that may occur years down the road as a police officer is exposed to the many highly stressful situations that are a part of police work. It was once said that the major problem in recruiting police officers is that they must be recruited from the human race. I remember the words of former Kansas City, Missouri Police Chief Clarence Kelly in a discussion on police discipline. He said he could understand, even be tolerant of a mistake of the mind, but never of the heart. He knew that police officers in stressful situations can make mistakes of the mind. But to knowingly and willfully engage in wrongful acts was unforgivable.

During training every attempt is made to provide police officers with real-life situations to prepare them for life on the streets. The techniques taught to physically restrain a subject are designed to bring about compliance and control with a minimum use of force or injury to the subject. Unfortunately, the subject hasn’t had the same training and doesn’t always go along with the program. Many of the injuries that occur to a person when resisting arrest are the result of the actions of the person being arrested, not the intent of the police officer making the arrest. Just as frequently it is the police officer that gets injured while trying to avoid causing injury to the noncompliant subject. However, the public rarely hears about the many injuries that occur to police officers.

A large segment of our society goes through their entire life without having a physical confrontation with anyone. Those that have engaged in high-energy contact sports know that when a person’s adrenaline gets to pumping, they can become very strong and impervious to pain; this is especially true with the addition of alcohol and/or drugs to the system. Just to illustrate this point, you can take any 200 lbs., plus male and pit him against a 110 lbs., combative, emotionally charged and noncompliant female, and without the use of a Tazer, pepper spray, or rendering the female unconscious and/or causing any physical injury to her or himself, challenge him to handcuff her in just 5 minutes or less. It won’t happen without someone getting injured.

The use of pepper spray and the Taser have been adopted to bring about compliance with minimal injury, but they are only marginally effective and pose their own set of hazards. No police officer in his or her right state of mind wants to become involved in a physical altercation with a subject. There is far too great of a risk of personal injury; there is an enormous amount of paperwork involved in explaining the officer’s actions, and then there’s the knowledge that he or she is going to be second guessed and may be subject to possible disciplinary action, not to mention possible lawsuits.

I’ve heard police officers described as having a “God” complex. Police officers are given the authority to enforce the law. The exercise of that authority sometimes comes across as arrogance. Many people resent authority figures and being told what to do. This dislike for authority isn’t limited to police, but police are often the most visible and tangible. To do their job police officers must project an image of self-confidence not unlike a doctor or other professional who deals with the public. When the police are called it is because there is something happening that is perceived as being terribly wrong requiring immediate intervention. When there is chaos the public wants someone capable of taking charge and restoring order. They don’t want someone showing up that is unsure of himself, or herself, indecisive, or as frightened as they are. Police officers face potential life and death situations everyday of their careers. They don’t always know if the driver of the car they are about to stop for a traffic violation is just a distracted driver or someone driving a stolen car, fleeing a crime, wanted on warrants, or mentally disturbed and armed with a weapon. When dispatched on a disturbance call they don’t know if they’ll find people in a verbal argument, a physical confrontation or armed with weapons.

Police officers get to see humanity at its very worse and must deal with the consequences. There are no words that can accurately describe what police officers experience on a daily bases as they go about performing their duties. Words are inadequate to describe the sights, sounds, smells, and the emotional feelings that run high and low; the frustration and anxiety that is an intricate and inescapable part of police work. About 60,000 police officers are assaulted per year and one is killed every 57 hours in the line of duty. Many receive debilitating injuries that cost them their careers and impact their family’s. Beyond an officer’s physical safety, mental health is also a risk factor in police work. The strains on a police officer can be immense. Police officers have higher-than-average rates of alcoholism, drug use, domestic abuse, depression and suicide. During my 30-year career I personally knew 5 police officers that committed suicide. They see adults and children injured, dead and dying. They are expected to be compassionate while being emotionally detach and unaffected by the sights, sounds, blood and gore they encounter and at the same time to do their job impartially. This takes an emotional toll on officers, as it would anyone. They are often disrespected, criticized, verbally abused, spit on and physically assaulted. While serving and protecting the public they must constantly be on guard to defend themselves from not only physical attack, but also from false allegations of brutality and other acts that can jeopardize their livelihood and demean them as a human being in the eyes of the world. They know that they will likely to be expendable when it is politically expedient to do so. They go to work everyday knowing that that the public they serve is indifferent towards the risks they take and it is only when one of them (the public) is put in danger that their presences is actually appreciated.

Police officers are, and should be, held to a higher standard than others. It might be the high standards demand of them that gives them that “God” complex people talk about, especially since we are requiring of them almost God like qualities. In reality police officers are mere mortals, men and women doing a job that few people want and even fewer could do. In the total scheme of things it’s unrealistic to expect more from them, and then deny them the same basic consideration, understanding and respect we afford others, and expect for ourselves.

Out of the Viet Nam war came PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) an emotional and psychological disorder found in soldiers exposed to combat. Over time PTSD was also found to exist, not just in combat situations, but could come about as the result of any life-threatening situation. Yet, few people associate PTSD with law enforcement. Police officers confront a number of highly charged, emotionally disturbing, and life threatening situations almost daily and for some absurd reason they are expected to be totally immune and impervious to the emotional and psychological impact of these encounters. We know that stress, whatever its source, is accumulative. Without a release mechanism, it can silently build to a flash point resulting in unexpected and often unintended behavior sometimes triggered by a seemingly insignificant event or circumstance. Stress related behavior can take many forms from simple frustration, depression, anxiety, to anger and a total rational disconnect. For example, we find understanding, sympathy and forgiveness for a stressed out parent with an unruly child who turns to verbal and even physical abuse as a way to deal with the child‘s behavior. The parent will often excuse his or her behavior as being the result of having a bad day. Yet, we don’t have the same understanding or compassion for a police officer. Let me put you in a police uniform for a day and give you the opportunity to fully appreciate what a bad day can really be like.

The use of deadly force by police is always a major news story and topic on the blogs. These are tragic incidents for everyone concerned. The reality is, that police are involved in far fewer shootings than the general public is led to believe. For just a moment consider the following: Nationwide there are 17,000 police departments and approximately 800,000 local and state police officers to deal with a population of approximately 305 Million. From those figures it is estimated that there are an average of between 200 to 400 incidents per-year where police officers use deadly force. The actual number of police involved shootings and the use of deadly force is difficult to determine because, even though Congress mandated the collection of such data in 1995, the method by which the data is collected makes it difficult, if not impossible, to track specific information. But when you consider the number of police officers and the size of the population they serve, the number and nature of police contacts made with the public each day while performing their duties, it makes the number of police involved shootings quite small, and the number that result in death is even smaller. A vast majority of police officers go their entire career (20 or 30-years) without firing their weapon except on the firing range.

In the police academy police officers are extensively trained in the use of firearms in the performance of their duties. It is the single most focused upon element of training that police officers receive. In most jurisdictions officers are required to qualify with their service weapon at least twice a year. This also includes shotguns. This training involves firing at targets on the range during both daylight and night time hours. They also constantly receive in service training with respect to their department’s policies and procedure in the use of deadly force as well as changing court (legal) rulings. In addition many police departments require their officers to go through FATS (Firearms Training System/Simulator) training. This is a virtual live fire weapons training course with shoot - don’t shoot scenarios using laser-emitting weapons.

Throughout a police officer’s career it is continually reinforced that deadly force is to be used only as a last resort to save his, or her, life or the life of another person. The decision to use deadly force is often made in a split second under extremely stressful and often chaotic conditions. Officers have to rely on their training in this decision making process.

Sitting aside the moral and emotional aspects of using deadly force, no police officer ever wants to become involved in a shooting simply because of the hell he, or she, must go through. Shooting incidents involving police are extensively investigated whether someone is actually struck by a bullet or not. The officer must write a lengthy report of his, or her, actions describing every detail of the shooting and the circumstances before, during and after. Police department investigators interview him, or her, often several times. The officer is put on administrative leave where he, or she, must wait in limbo for a decision to be made as to whether his, or her, department and/or the prosecutor determines the shooting was justified. During the review the officer doesn’t know if his, or her, career is finished and/or if he, or she, might be prosecuted. Also during this time the news media and public are making assumptions based on little or no actual facts. It’s not uncommon that an officer will start to question his, or her, judgment and will replay the scenario over and over in their mind. They will often suffer nightmares and bouts of depression. In most large police departments officers are required to undergo a psychological evaluation and counseling after a shooting incident and before returning to duty. Even once the officer is cleared of any wrongdoing, he, or she, may still face a lawsuit and have to give a deposition, once again made to feel guilty and that his, or her, judgment was wrong. Every man and woman who wears a badge and gun is aware of this, and it weighs on their mind everyday of their career. So much so, that it has resulted in police officers being killed in the line of duty because they hesitated a second or two too long when faced with a deadly situation.

The question most often asked is why are police officers trained to shoot to kill? Why not just wound the person rather than take another person’s life?

As more and more states go to conceal and carry permits and citizens are purchasing hand guns and required to go through firearms training to get their permit, they come to appreciate how difficult it can be to hit a target with a handgun, even a large target just a few feet away and standing still. Police officers are taught to shoot for the largest target/area—the chest area. Trying to shoot someone in the hand, shoulder, or leg presents too small of a target with far too great of a risk of missing. Once a bullet leaves the barrel of a gun it can’t be called back, made to stop, or turn in some other direction. If you miss your target, that bullet is going to go somewhere and it just might strike an innocent person. Secondly, a wounded person can still pose a substantial threat. People, who are shot, even those shot in a vital organ, don’t always fall down immediately as seen on TV and in the movies. Some can remain on their feet for several seconds and may still have the ability to cause serious injury or death. That’s one of the reasons police officers shoot to kill and will fire several shots into the subject.

Most police shootings occur at very close range, often within 5 to 10 feet or less and from start to finish last, on average, only 3 seconds. Even with extensive firearms training and at close range, police officer involved shootings do not always result in the death of the person being fired upon. This is frequently due to the stress on the officer, the quickness in which he, or she, must fire and to the expertise of medical personnel who tend to the person shot.

It is my personal belief that, regardless of how you feel about firearms, that every man and woman go to a firing range and fire a handgun at least once in their life. It gives a person a much better knowledge and appreciation of handguns. Even if you’re adamantly opposed to guns, by having firing one you’re in a better position to speak from a position of actual knowledge and experience rather than one of mere belief.