Dear Senior Law Enforcement Administrator,
Even if you could see through an officer’s eyes and hear through their ears via wireless Internet hookup, you would still know too little and react too slowly to remotely pull the trigger in a lethal force confrontation. Why would you think you can remotely make any tactical decisions at a distant critical incident scene?
Sincerely,
Sworn Law Enforcement Officer
The technology needed for remote-control deadly force decisions already exists. The act of drawing your weapon could, through a wireless connection, energize video and audio transmission circuits which would instantly feed into the ‘BlackBerry’ on the belt of your immediate supervisor. Said supervisor could then remotely enable your weapon’s firing system, allowing you actually direct deadly force at the felon who is shooting at you. Except, in any agency likely to use such technology, I suspect at least one additional level of supervisory authority would be needed to co-authorize the use of deadly force. Let’s even include a prosecuting attorney and district judge in the authorization loop. After all, wireless technology moves at the speed of light, doesn’t it? If you think there aren’t some police administrators who would love to create just such a system, think again.
When an agency sends an officer out onto the street with a loaded weapon, they must, by default, also grant them the authority to use that weapon. If the administrators aren’t willing to grant you the authority to use deadly force on your own volition, they shouldn’t give you a firearm in the first place. This may explain why some college administrators insist on sending unarmed police officers out to protect our children on their college campus. We see a similar mindset with some federal enforcement agencies who won’t allow their officers to carry off-duty. A long time ago (maybe this has since changed) a friend in a federal enforcement agency wasn’t allowed to routinely carry a sidearm. The gun was supposed to be locked in his desk unless he had some indication he might need it that day. That’s the truth!
The groundwork for remote-control deadly force decisions has already been laid, well before the advent of the cell phone. One landmark example comes from an active shooter incident at a McDonald’s in 1984 where an on-scene SWAT commander gave his sniper authorization to take out the shooter, but a higher-ranking commander (who was driving 90mph through traffic 10 miles away) countermanded the “shoot” order by radio.
Here’s a question that should be on your agency’s next promotional exam:
“Who should have been authorized to make the deadly force decision at the abovementioned active shooter incident?
A. the on-scene SWAT commander
B. the higher-ranking commander 10 miles awayHow about option “C” – the SWAT sniper who had the active shooter in his crosshairs?
Wireless communications technology is the best thing that ever happened to micro-managers. In a leadership class we have been teaching for almost 10 years, my instructors stress that critical decision making should be pushed down to the lowest possible level – a radical concept gives a lot of high-ranking administrators a serious case of the “Heebie Jeebies.” I bet almost every SWAT commander in the nation can tell at least one horror story about a senior commander keeping them on a cell phone when they really needed to be involved with their team’s activities. One friend related an incident when the senior commander nixed a “GO” order, telling the SWAT guy to hold off trying to make a capture attempt on a suspect.
The reply was something to the effect of: “We’ve already got him in custody. Do you want me to let him go?”
I believe that the micro-management of critical decisions on the street has reached epidemic proportions. I theorize this is the result of 1.) ready access to instant, wireless communications, and 2.) a general lack of meaningful leadership training in the law enforcement profession. We train the hell out of our senior folks in “management,” but military-style leadership training programs for law enforcement are few and far between. Lacking an understanding of the need to “empower” street leaders, our top brass try to “manage” critical incidents long-distance. Incident management, (like the NIMS/ICS protocols) kicks in sometime after the first few minutes of a critical incident. By then we have enough time and resources to assemble a “Decision Making Team.”
The first minutes however (and even more importantly the first few seconds when an officer faces a deadly force critical incident) must be free from direct supervision. NO ONE other than the officer facing the deadly threat can make the split second decision whether or not to fire. NO ONE should even attempt to inject their command authority into that officer’s decision making process. In other words, keep your wireless antenna off my pistol! An officer facing a deadly threat must know their agency and their supervisor trusts them to make the correct decision. That way, our officer only has to concentrate on two things, a good sight picture and a clean trigger break.
