http://www.cbsnews.com/news/estill-s...lasses-camera/
Not seeking to MMQB Officer Smith, just trying to understand how to learn from this going forward.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/estill-s...lasses-camera/
Not seeking to MMQB Officer Smith, just trying to understand how to learn from this going forward.
I don't understand why the officer went to his taser. I admit that I wasn't issued a taser until the end of my career but that seemed like a clear possible threat by a non compliant suspect. I would have challenged him with my pistol at the low ready or my hand on the gun in the holster. Admittedly I don't know any of the details leading up to the encounter but it is easier to deescalate than to play catchup. The glasses sure paid off
A very good friend of mine at my current agency knew this officer at his old agency in SC.
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I am not attempting to MMQB the officer, nor do I have any knowledge of the policies for his agency. I just want to attempt to answer based on my experience.Originally Posted by Poconnor
I have observed that many officers seem to be over-dependent on the Taser. The reasons may vary based on policy, but here is what I have found:
It becomes less of a tool for a certain application or situation and more of a people management device. It can be (mis) viewed in this role as a replacement for a firearm, as often the people being "managed" know they are not acting in a manner that justifies lethal force (firearm) but they also know the standard is much lower for the Taser, so they comply. This then works to give some officers a "magic wand" sort of view of the Taser. This leads to an over dependence on the device.
Related to the above, officers lose skills in correctly managing people, either by presence, command, proper tool selection, or most importantly, tactics. Unfortunately, many times successful outcomes validate poor tactics.
Institutional factors. Some places require documentation of the display of a lethal force option. This leads officers to down select the tools they choose to employ to avoid being hassled or labeled by management, who increasingly seem more averse to lethal options the higher they rise and the more accountable they are to politics.
Many officers also realize you are much less likely to end up the next BLM/CNN rallying cry if you tase someone as opposed to shooting them, particularly if the individual is not armed and or is a member of certain age or demographic groups. Unfortunately this leads to a purposeful acceptance of greater risk physically to avoid the potential fallout of an unpopular decision.
Now, I am not saying any of these factors apply in this case, I am just trying to show some of my reasoning LE, particularly younger officers (who have always had the Taser) seem overly dependent on them. Hopefully this video can be used as a training tool to learn from a situation which is fairly common in LE.
Polite Professional
PD Sgt really nailed it. I agree 100%. Excellent points.
My only addition to the officer presenting the TASER may have been from the initial citizen contact where the woman stated the perp attempted to grab a beer from someone. The officer may have believed the perp was hiding a stolen item,alcohol and/or drunk.
Posted about this in the UOF video thread.
The officer approached the situation incorrectly as this male matched flash for a suspected armed robbery, that's with a pistol or other weapon.
You don't approach these people with tasers.
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Think about your commands. When the suspect complied with the order to get his hand out of his pocket, the officer was going to get shot. If he'd had his pistol out instead of or in addition to his taser he could have returned fire, but he was still going to get shot in the process.
Last edited by Hambo; 08-15-2017 at 09:50 AM.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
That strikes me as a cop that doesn't really that really bad things can happen to him, he's probably aware that bad things can happen, but it'll be someone else.
That's not the kind of call you go to without cover. I get that it's almost always a bullshit call, but when it's not the call comments are pretty clear that it involves someone with a serious problem. It can wait, there wasn't a gunfight until the police showed up.
The big thing I see there is a suspect that spent a lot of time sizing up the officer, and decided that he could kill the officer and get away. The suspect saw what we later heard on the radio, someone that couldn't get mean and kill a motherfucker.
Whether you think you can or you can't, you're probably right.
Officer spent too much time behind the curve for my liking.
Kept telling the same orders to a suspect who obviously knew what was up, but kept on rolling. That taser, even if deployed, likely wouldn't have done much due to the suspect's jacket.
Not sure of the officer's background/training, but I would guess many the average officer these days would've wound up with a similar/worse outcome. Training emphasizing de-escalating and other bull that makes officers unwilling to ramp it up when it would be necessary to surviving.
“Conspiracy theories are just spoiler alerts these days.”
The shooter was well aware that current anti police publicity would determine how the officer would respond. The shooter may have known the officer and predicted that he would not use deadly force. The shooter was employing a passive aggression type strategy of walking away from the officer with his back to him and at the same not responding. He learned this response in public school and if he had ever been locked up, he continued to practice this response in jail. The fact that the shooter would even consider using deadly force against a police officer shows that he has low intelligence. Sadly few of his running buddies would agree. The officer's being shot is a terrible event. The tragedy for America is that too few Americans acknowledge the real problem here, and many who do lack moral courage even to discuss the issues.
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