& # 8220 ; Officer Safety & # 8221 ; Essay, Research Paper
Public Misunderstanding of & # 8220 ; Officer Safety & # 8221 ;
How many times have you been pulled over by a constabulary officer, and when
the confrontation was complete you said to yourself, & # 8220 ; Boy, was he rude! & # 8221 ; or
& # 8220 ; There was no demand for him to handle me like that. & # 8221 ; Well, unluckily, the
populace is prone to misinterpret an officer being safe for being rude.
Unfortunately, the actions taken during a & # 8220 ; routine & # 8221 ; traffic halt which are
interpreted as being rude are necessary stairss that insure the safety of both
officer and civilian.
Imagine for a minute that you are a police officer on responsibility. You observe
a vehicle going 36 stat mis per hr on a 30 stat mi per hr route. You decide to
halt the vehicle and give the driver a verbal warning in hopes that he will
decelerate down and avoid an accident farther down the route. As you walk up to the
driver & # 8217 ; s side window, you are changeable 10 times in the face and thorax and the driver
foliages you for dead. This state of affairs really occurred in San Diego, CA, 18
months ago. Many like it occur every twenty-four hours, and this is in the head of the
head of every officer.
Another thing that an officer must maintain in head during a traffic halt is
the safety of the civilian driver. Same state of affairs as above, but alternatively, as the
vehicle Michigans, the driver gets out of his auto and is struck by a passing
automobilist. Again, this happens more than you would wish to believe.
The FBI conducts semi-annual research sing the topic of officer
safety and procedural alterations which increase the opportunities of jurisprudence enforcement
officers lasting their high hazard work twenty-four hours. These are the some of the
processs which they have published in respects to traffic Michigans, and which
myself and other trainers have used to develop their nomadic flatfoots in hopes of
cut downing their hazard:
Measure # 1: Park your patrol auto about 1.5 auto lengths behind, and
with the rider & # 8217 ; s side headlight even with the centre of the lawbreakers
vehicle. By making this you allow yourself, as the flatfoot, an ample distance
for reaction. By parking off centre you besides allow a & # 8220 ; hallway & # 8221 ; for yourself to
behavior concern safely.
Measure # 2: Turn your vehicle & # 8217 ; s high beams, limelight, codification visible radiations and
any other visible radiation on your vehicle on and confronting towards the stopped vehicle. This
will do it difficult for the lawbreaker to see where you are and acquire a good shooting in.
It besides allows you to see what is happening inside the vehicle clearly.
Measure # 3: At no clip make you let the driver to go out his vehicle. It is
safer for him and once more puts him at a disadvantage for finishing any violent
Acts of the Apostless against you.
Measure # 4: While walking up to the vehicle, expression at and lightly press down
on the bole. This reduces the opportunity of a concealed individual coming out of the
bole and fire on the officer. ( This does on occasion go on. )
Measure # 5: When making the rear window, put your thumb print in the
lower driver & # 8217 ; s side of the window. If you are unfortunate plenty to be shot or
badly injured in the procedure, this allows positive designation of the
fishy vehicle.
Measure # 6: Position yourself at the rear of the driver & # 8217 ; s side front door.
It will forestall the driver from opening his door excessively fleetly and striking you.
It besides places you with a good line of sight and the driver at a disadvantaged
place doing it harder for him to surprise you.
Measure # 7: When the halt is complete assist the driver in safely
reentering traffic.
It is a sad definition of U.S. society that officers must invariably
fright for their life and take such terrible stairss in state of affairss like these, but
they have no manner of cognizing who the bad cats are these yearss. The violent
felon could be anybody from a raggedy dressed adult male on a street corner to a
disquieted office executive to the common homemaker following door. The line spliting the
good cats from the bad cat has thinned and the black and white have run
together making as big gray country.
It is non discounted that there are the occasional truly rude
officers, but largely the officer has a occupation to make and would wish to finish it
the safest and most efficient manner possible, and with the least sum of
incommodiousness to the driver of the stopped auto.
Please retrieve, following clip you are stopped for a misdemeanor of traffic
ordinances, that the officer is merely making his occupation and if you keep a positive
attitude and collaborate so you will be back on your manner in no clip.
