To Protect

The senseless shooting incident in Milwaukee this past weekend got me thinking about police officers desire to protect. Police officers are taught in the academy and in ongoing training and discussions with superiors not to put themselves in danger if possible.  An officer should make a scene safe before entering, because if you get hurt you are no use to anyone.

Yes, all the officers I know realize cognitively, that we must protect ourselves in order to help others, but….. there is that extremely strong desire to help, to save and do it quickly. I think about the police lieutenant who responded to the shooting at the temple who was ambushed by the shooter when he started to help shooting victims immediately upon his arrival. That officer is lying in the hospital in critical condition.  Did he make a tactical error? Possibly, I don’t know all the details, but it sounds to me that he was so anxious to help the injured victims that he had not determined the location of the shooter prior to doing so. I am not passing judgment on this officer, just using him as an example.

Most officers I have met throughout my career have a strong desire to help. You don’t get into police work for the money or the great hours and working conditions.

I once worked with an older seasoned officer who was trying to teach me all he could.  He tried to impress upon me not to be in such a hurry to get to a call. To look at people who may be walking around the area, be alert for cars who may be leaving the area and roll down my car windows and listen. Then once you arrive at the scene look all around and evaluate the situation.

I didn’t fully take that advice until I responded to a fight call one night. When I arrived I saw several persons on the ground fighting. I was in such a hurry to get to them I didn’t look around me and see where all the spectators were standing and what they might be holding in their hands. I would have probably been stabbed by one of the spectators unless that seasoned officer hadn’t come as my back up and saw the individual with the knife acting, as he wanted to get involved. From then on I tried very hard to slow down and evaluate before diving in. Often I failed because I was so anxious to help and stabilize and correct the problems to help those in need and to show them and myself I was a good cop., a capable cop.

Here is another example of the same behavior. There was a small bomb placed in a vehicle that wasn’t park very far from a building that was occupied. The officer overheard a call concerning a bomb in that vehicle. He was close by and responded. What he saw when he looked into the vehicle was a pipe bomb with a timer attached. The timer was indicating only seconds. He reached inside the vehicle and picked up the bomb and threw it into a nearby parking lot. The bomb exploded and pieces of dirt and rock struck the building with no injuries. The damages would have been more serious with possible injuries had the officer not acted as he did and the bomb had exploded inside the vehicle.

The officer was considered a hero and received several awards. The officer also received criticism from his superiors. The rationale being, the officer had no way of knowing the size of the bomb. Exploding in the vehicle may not have caused serious damages or injuries, but if the bomb exploded in the officer’s hands, it probably would have caused serious injury or maybe death to that officer. The officer had no way of knowing if the bomb was stable and any movement could cause it to prematurely explode. Again we are talking about in that officer’s hands causing injury to the officer.

You ask, what is my point of this entry? I think we all sometimes need to be reminded how much these men and women in blue really care and want to help. And they often engage in unwise, and unrequired behaviors to save, to be the cops we expect them to be. It makes me wonder, do we as a society and consequently also our officers expect them to be superheroes?

Until tomorrow,
Sally S