Part 1 of a Police1 Special Report
By Chuck Remsberg, Senior Police1 Contributor
Like most cops, Bob Willis considered his home a safe haven until one Christmas Eve when a gang of criminals tried to crash through his front door. He ended up barefoot in the snow in his back yard involved in a gun fight.
That startling ordeal, which terrorized not only his family but a house filled with holiday guests, remains unsolved. But Willis, then a patrol officer in New Berlin, Wisconsin, has no doubt it was a strike of revenge and an ominous warning to stop interfering with a roving band of armed robbers and “opportunity predators” that his department had been pursuing-or cops would pay. Learn more about Willis’ expericence in the below sidebar:
Sidebar: A Midnight Knock . . . and Then Madness
The lessons from that violent assault and from surprise attacks on officers elsewhere are worth noting, especially in light of a spate of retaliatory threats that Police1.com has reported recently from across the country. Among other warnings:
ATF has announced a “credible threat” that the Aryan Brotherhood has ordered hits on five LEOs in California and “possibly the Western states” for every AB member convicted of crimes in Los Angeles.
Officers in two Maryland counties have been cautioned that MS-13, a vicious Salvadoran street gang, is plotting to ambush and kill them.
Another “credible” threat informs that officers in two California jurisdictions have been placed on the hit lists of two street gangs, one a Crips affiliate, because of members shot dead in police confrontations.
Des Moines (IA) police recently raided a storage unit used by an accused bomb maker and discovered a complete list of names, home addresses, phone numbers and work assignments for the department’s officers. A discovery authorities described as “unnerving.”
- In December, intelligence revealed that the Zetas, a notoriously violent Mexican gang, has promised a bounty of $30,000-$50,000 apiece for the assassinations of U.S. border agents, as well as state and local law enforcers who are hampering the gang’s drug-trafficking operations in this country.
Revenge threats are nothing new in law enforcement. Most are meaningless actions of offenders emotionally blowing off steam because of the disruption you have caused in their lives or trying to leverage some influence for themselves through fear and intimidation.
But a deadly minority of threats prove all too real: the New York officer whose face was blown away in a shotgun ambush by a motorist incensed over a traffic ticket…the Canadian officer stabbed multiple times on courthouse steps by the vengeful brother of an offender he’d killed…the Hawaiian detective fatally shot through the window of his home in retaliation for a gang drug bust…the East Coast officer warned to “back off” of a local drug gang by members who burst into his home and put a shotgun to his mother’s head, to mention just a few legacies of vengeance on record.
“Any threat should be taken seriously,” says Wes McBride, president of the California Gang Investigators Assn. and a former sergeant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. “Once you start dismissing your adversaries, underestimating them, you can get yourself in trouble real quick.”
So what can you do to protect yourself, particularly off-duty, when potential retaliators may consider you and your family to be most vulnerable? And how can you balance a warranted heightened concern for protection with a “normal” lifestyle?
Police1 recently consulted prominent law enforcement trainers familiar with revenge attacks. Some have survived personal life-threatening retaliation threats. Here are their professional observations and recommendations:
THREAT ASSESSMENT & AVOIDANCE:
Despite whatever angry machismo they may hurl at you, most offenders accept being arrested and even sent to prison as part of the cops-and-criminals cotillion. To “make” those who may have genuine revenge potential, stay aware of just whom you are dealing with.
“Most perps you contact don’t have the energy, the mental stability, the future-focused orientation or the planning skills to hunt you down,” says Dr. Bill Lewinski, a psychologist specializing in law enforcement issues and executive director of the Force Science Research Center at Minnesota State University-Mankato. “But if you’re threatened by someone who has gone after and gotten other people who’ve crossed them, that’s a red flag for extra caution. The best predictor of future behavior is always past behavior.”
Lewinski himself reportedly has been the subject of a murder contract issued after he testified on behalf of an officer who killed a drug gang member in Kansas.
“Offenders who are likely to attack, even criminal gangs, for the most part tend to act impulsively in reaction to what is going on immediately in their life,” he explains. “The closer you are in time to a crisis that they might retaliate for, the greater your jeopardy.” Even a coldly calculated contract hit is unlikely to occur past a 3-9 month time frame, he believes.
“Just setting up obstacles that make it tougher to get to you and surprise you will defeat most people,” he says. “If they can’t get you when they are most distressed and vengeful, other crises are likely to come along in their turbulent lives to distract them.”
The best way to defeat a threat is to avoid it in the first place. “A little respect for the people you deal with on the street goes a long way,” explains Lou Savelli, a former NYPD gang commander and author of The Pocket Guide to Gangs Across America and Their Symbols. “You can do the job aggressively and efficiently and still be respectful. Bad guys don’t like to lose face,” especially gangbangers who often have little but their pride and wear it on their sleeve.
Adds Bob Willis, now a police trainer at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, a sworn deputy with the Brown County (WI) Sheriff’s Dept. and a part-time lake patrol officer with the town of Merton P.D.: “It’s bad enough that some people will retaliate against you just for doing your job. It’s wise not to increase that possibility by being an asshole.”
HARDENING YOUR HOME:
The purpose of fortifying your home is not only to discourage half-hearted would-be avengers but to delay the most determined long enough for you to reach a weapon or call for help. That could mean outfitting your place with:
Special metal doors with solid wood cores, making them harder to knock down, splinter or bend;
Dead-bolt locks with long, enlarged screws deep-set into the frame of your home, not just into the door jamb;
Sensor-activated yard lights, possibly combined with a tv-camera system to give you clear views of the perimeter;
One-touch panic alarms strategically installed throughout as part of an overall alarm system;
multiple phones, including a night-stand cell phone, predialed to 911 so you can quickly transmit an emergency call even if your phone lines are cut;- Old faithful: a big, bad-ass, barking dog.
Don’t make the mistake of many officers and civilians alike: beefing up the front of your house while ignoring vulnerabilities in the rear. Flimsily framed sliding glass doors can be easily breached.
Many officers, of course, favor easily accessed guns for home defense, especially shotguns. If you have a locking system for child safety be sure you practice with it enough so that you can unlock it fast under high stress.
Don’t dismiss the effectiveness of other weapons against intruders in desperate circumstances. “The same things in a family fight that can be threatening to an officer can be used in your home by you and your family to defend yourselves,” reminds Lt. Wayne Corcoran of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Dept.and long-time survival trainer for the state of Arizona.
Apart from a gun, which may in reality go with the officer to work, Corcoran personally favors fire extinguishers. He recommends stashing several throughout your place, including near doors, and keeping three smaller ones in all the family cars (one each in the glove box, under the seat and in the trunk). “You can grab a fire extinguisher fast with one hand and fire it off from practically any position, " even between your legs, he says. Unlike OC, “it works immediately. The person blasted can’t see, can’t breathe and you can beat him over the head with it if you have to. What more do you want from a weapon?”
It would seem obvious to have an unlisted phone number, but some officers still have their numbers and addresses publicly published or available from directory assistance. This reportedly was the case with the Hawaiian officer mentioned above who was ambushed and killed at his home, as well as some of the officers whose personal information turned up recently in the possession of the bomb suspect in Iowa.
Engage your family in planning your home defense understanding that you will not always be there to single-handedly repel an assault. “You should have and practice a family attack plan the same as you do a fire plan,” Corcoran advises. “It’s not a service to them if you shield your family from the risks they may face.”
Consider talking to neighbors depending on your comfort level. Encourage them to call the police if they see strange cars around or suspicious people on your property. One advantage of living in a “cop enclave,” as many urban officers tend to do, is that “you have other people looking out for you..many savvy eyes and ears monitoring and dealing with what’s going on,” says Bill Lewinski. If an avenger has you under surveillance, “someone is likely to notice.”
There’s a disadvantage to enclave living to be aware of, though. “When you work the streets and then come home to a cop neighborhood, you tend to stay continually in the police culture,” Lewinski says. “For your psychological health, there needs to be a disconnect at some point between your work life and your home life.”
Part of that disconnect, Lewinski points out, “needs to be a place for yourself; A cocoon, where you can isolate yourself from all the adversarial things you face in the world. A place where you can ‘take the uniform off’ and recharge.” With proper fortification, that place can still be your home.
- Part Two: Protecting Yourself and Your Family From Retaliation
