AN ANGRY COP IS A DANGEROUS COP

Control of temper by law enforcement officers is extremely critical in preventing use of excessive force

There are three types of anger facing law enforcement officers: Lingering and Spontaneous or a combination of both.

Two former Fullerton, California police officers are now facing trial in the beating death two years ago of Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness. A third ex-cop will be tried later. Thomas was tasered four times, beaten with the butt of the Taser gun, kneed, and repeatedly struck by fists and batons. Some reports say the beating lasted as much as 10 minutes. The lawyers for the accused officers claim that Thomas was resisting arrest and appeared to be high on drugs, thus necessitating the amount of force used. No drugs were found to be in his system. One of the cops can be heard on an audio recording telling Thomas: “See my fists? They’re getting ready to fuck you up.”

Regardless of the circumstances that led to the beating of Thomas, this is clearly a case where some of the officers involved had lost control of their tempers. Had they not been angry at the time, Thomas would be alive today and three former cops would not be facing possible prison terms. Was the anger of the cops lingering before the contact with Thomas, spontaneous or a combination of both?

There is nothing a supervisor can do about a cop losing his temper at the scene of a confrontation if he is not present. But there is something a supervisor can and should do about lingering anger. That requires the supervisor to be on the lookout for signs of emotional distress in his subordinates when they show up for work.

First and foremost, a supervisor must look for and recognize emotional distress in his subordinates. There are any number of reasons a law enforcement officer may show up for work with lingering anger. It could be something as benign as his wife or girlfriend refusing to have sex with him when he wanted it. He could have had a fight with his wife or one of his teenaged kids. He could have gotten himself in debt and been threatened with repossession of his car or foreclosure on his house. Or the supervisor could have just chewed his ass out for some reason or another.

An angry police officer should not be allowed to go into the field, because he is likely to take his anger out on some citizen the first chance he gets. A correctional officer in emotional distress should not be allowed direct contact with inmates having a history of assaulting staff, whether by physical attacks or by slinging piss or shit at staff. It’s hard enough to control your temper when you get pissed on or shit on while you are not already angry, but if you are emotionally distressed, you will blow up for sure. An angry cop is a dangerous cop.

As for anger management training, that may work for domestic fights, road rage, or other cases where someone who feels offended by whomever or whatever reacts by resorting to aggressive behavior. I seriously doubt that when cops are verbally provoked or physically resisted/assaulted in a confrontational situation, or where correctional officers are physically attacked or pissed on and shit on by inmates, prior anger management training will enable those officers to suppress their anger.

Law enforcement supervisors and managers will be more effective in controlling the anger of subordinates by making it crystal clear that excessive force will absolutely not be tolerated under any circumstances and those who resort to it will be terminated and likely prosecuted.

The argument that, by assigning a cop to a desk job when his supervisor recognizes he is emotionally distressed, the law enforcement agency will be left short of staff may be true, but in the overall picture it does not hold water. When citizens or prison inmates are beaten to a bloody pulp by angry officers, the agency is likely to end up short of personnel, and it won’t be just for a day or two.