Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Charlatan
Why not? Their job isn't to process a scene as quickly as possible. It is to serve and protect.
|
AHA! And here steps in one fundamental misconception the public have of police work. Many police organizations' only measure of police efficiency is clearance rates - number of cases closed/resolved divided by total number of reports. Job efficiency is paramount. Clear as many cases as you can, as fast as you can, and you'll get promoted.
Quote:
|
I did think about the possibility that she might hurt herself. I figure, if she hurt herself, it would be better than hurting someone else.
|
The police are obligated to stop both of these from occurring. Nobody can consent to bodily harm on themselves, and the police are obligated to stop you if you are doing it. This is why just locking her in a room is a totally unacceptable response option. De-escalating the situation when someone has a knife and a hammer, whether they're able bodied, in a wheelchair, or have leprosy, is all tantamount to the same thing: disabling the threat of force to the offender and complaintant alike.
Quote:
Again, it all depends on the situation and since no of us were there we are just armchair quarterbacking this one.
As it reads, I still say you back away and bring it down a notch or two. It's what they would have done if they didn't have tazers.
|
The Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle is an intermediate force option between open hand techniques and deadly force.
Asking a police officer to get within 15ft of someone with a knife puts them at risk of death. So automatically open hand techniques are out the window as a likely response option.
This leaves intermediate force options such as pepper spray, the TASER, etc. In many police departments, the use of the TASER has supplanted the use of pepper spray / mace. Likely because it is immediately effectivel as opposed to 5-30 seconds for pepper spray and mace. They both also require you to get within the danger zone in order to use them.
Like you said, we're armchairing this one. However, this is a perfect example of the police being in a media fishbowl. Every action is scrutinized when the people doing the scrutinizing have no idea what went on, and don't have the capacity to present the full and complete story due to a lack of information from the police.
I have faith that in this case the police officers exercised the correct response based on potential and perceived immediate threats to the lives of family members and the woman herself.