Cops are gamblers. They bet that their departments, colleagues, prosecutors, and public will act reasonably to support them if they are doing the right thing and end up in a controversial use-of-force situation. The reality may be that your only advocate is you — and you may not be very good at it.
Officers may play the odds and assume they will never have to kill anyone and therefore face the legendary trials of the officer involved shooting aftermath. From a statistical point of view this is a safe gamble. But what are the odds that you might have to hurt someone? For cops doing public-contact law enforcement that probability hovers at 100 percent. Do you carry a firearm? Taser? Baton? OC? Handcuffs?
If your answer to any of those is “yes” you are one call away from a career-threatening event.
Being Your Own Advocate
Here’s a quick inventory of what you should do now to protect yourself later:
1.) Know your department policy on force. Do you have a policy that requires or implies a strict compliance with a force continuum? Do you have and “exhaust all means” policy on deadly force? If you see a problem try to get the policy aligned toward current best practices.
2.) Know your department policy on post-incident investigations. Is there a clear post-incident policy for the professional standards (internal affairs) review? Will an outside agency do the investigation? Will the investigation consider department policy as well as criminal investigation concurrently? If the policy is non-existent, unclear, or skewed toward punitive approaches it should be reviewed for change.
3.) Know your department policy on force reporting. Subject compliance and force or lack of force should be included in every arrest report that you do. This will establish that you use force rarely and have had no, few, or justified use of force incidents in your career. Make a habit of reporting offender behavior so that your reports are focused on their non-compliance rather than your “choice” to use force.
4.) Have an attorney. If you are in an association where legal benefits are included in membership take a look at what those services are. Sometimes it is only a free consultation or the offer of one free service such as writing a letter. Attorneys tend to specialize and very few have competence in defending police officers. At least have an option ready so you’re not flailing through the yellow pages at the last minute. Another resource is having an expert review your case for recommendations.
A free review may be obtained at www.policeofficersvoice.com, home of the National Center For Police Advocacy (full disclosure, this author is the Executive Director of the NCFPA).
5.) Don’t expect unwavering support from peers, your department brass, or the prosecutor. The most politically-expedient thing for politically-sensitive office holders is to abandon, blame, and persecute the officer who is at the center of a public controversy. Few chiefs will feel the moral mandate or believe they have the legal license to make public comments defending you. The reality of fights and shootings are that they seldom look choreographed and heroic. You may have screamed like a girl, run around in an apparent state of panic, or acted against your training. Your peers may be critical in order to psychologically distance themselves from that reality.
They’ll be in their own survival mode.
6.) Be a victim. If you were assaulted you are a crime victim. Don’t let that message escape your prosecutor or your boss. Get a supervisor or fellow officer to make a separate report on the crime against you. We don’t make other violent crime victims do their own investigation, you shouldn’t do yours either. Make sure that all of the victim rights legislation in your jurisdiction is applied to your case.
Don’t let the prosecutor, your peers, or the public continue to believe that you have to accept being without expecting justice. Ironically, although we are given immense powers and discretion, when it comes to exercising our rights we are a servant class with a very small voice when demanding justice for ourselves.
7.) Educate your potential jury pool. Thanks to some contemporary heroes who are finally making scientific inquiry into the realities of dealing with hostile, aggressive, resistive, and murderous offenders. A terrible anti-police bias has crept into the culture in recent years, and all the good public relations in the world can’t cure it. We need to know the facts about the physics and biology of force encounters to defeat the mindset of myth pervasive in the public psyche.
Editorials, articles, and public presentations can begin this public education process. Contact advocate@policeofficersvoice.com for suggestions.
In the end, you may be the only voice for yourself. Start being that voice now.
