In the past few weeks a New York State Trooper, a City of Houston police officer, and a Florida deputy sheriff, were shot to death in the line of duty. These officers, and most officers killed in the line of duty, were not rookies. In fact, very few rookie officers ever get shot. It is the veteran officer who faces the greatest danger.
The New York State Trooper was ambushed by a jail escapee while he and his partner were staking out the residence of the escapee's former girlfriend. His partner was critically wounded. I have been on a lot of stake outs and they can sure get boring. After an hour or so, you can get really sleepy. To keep from falling asleep, you resort to bullshitting with your partner. Your attention span and alertness level decreases as the lenght of the stake out increases. Did these factors allow the killer to sneak up undetected on the officers?
The Houston police officer, on patrol by himself, was shot after a routine traffic stop. The killer was on his way home, accompanied by his young daughters. When he could not produce any identification, the officer arrested him instead of issuing a citation. A record check requested by the officer failed to show that, following an arrest on a charge of indecency with a child, the killer had been previously deported as an illegal immigrant.
The officer handcuffed the prisoner with his hands behind him, the standard handcuffing procedure. He patted the prisoner down for a weapon before placing him in the back of the patrol car. He had the little girls taken home before getting in the patrol car from which he called for a wrecker to tow the prisoner's car away. This was a "by the book" arrest procedure.
Unfortunately, the pat down did not reveal that the prisoner had a pistol tucked inside his waistband. Somehow, the prisoner was able to get hold of his gun, with which he shot the officer several times in the head. When other officers arrived, the prisoner was still handcuffed with his hands behind him. What started out as a routine traffic stop ended up as the tragic killing of a good veteran officer. Was the officer complacent because this was just one of many uneventful prior traffic stops? Was the faulty pat down the result of carelessness brought on by a "clean" record check. Did the officer feel that the prisoner posed no danger because he was accompanied by the little girls?
The Florida sheriff's deputy and a police dog were killed, and another deputy was wounded in a burst of gunfire following a traffic stop. Were the officers complacent because this was just another traffic stop? Did they get careless because there was more than one officer and they had a police dog with them?
None of the questions in these three cases are meant to criticize the slain officers. It is just a fact that in a matter of time police work becomes routine, leading its practitioners to become complacent and careless. It happens to the best of officers. A good example occurred a number of years ago when two experienced Houston narcotics officers prepared to arrest a drug dealer. One of the officers had already arrested the dealer a number of times without incident. They were friendly with each other and on a first name basis. The officers parked their car across the street from a bar where they believed the dealer to be. They entered the bar and informed him he was under arrest. They asked him to accompany them out of the bar. They did not handcuff or search him. He went along willingly, but when they were in the street, he pulled out a gun and killed the officer with whom he had been on a first name basis.
Rookie officers are less likely to be complacent or careless. They are still in a police academy training retention mode. They may not admit it, but they are a lot more fearful than their veteran colleagues. Fear is what makes them more careful and alert to life threatening situations as they go about their duties. That is why few rookie officers get killed. It is the veteran cops who are in the greatest danger and, more often not, they get killed by complacency and carelessness.
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