Thank you so much for your response and questions. Please pardon the too-lengthy essay…

As it is in any work or relationship in life, there are times we do what we set out to do, and times we do not. I felt like the vast majority of the time as a teacher and as a police officer, I did and do my best and succeeded. There are times I’ve messed up and there always will be. What happens when you mess up in law enforcement (or when contacted by law enforcement) can have instant, major ramifications, as we have seen.

I can think of one or two times where I could have easily let emotion get the best of me on patrol, but one of the great things about working with quality officers is that there are people there to check you. You may not believe me in light of your experiences, but I can think of quite a few times where I’ve seen officers step in to calm a situation, and times where I was the officer who stepped in. When you have a good relationship with your fellow officers, you learn to recognize a situation that could escalate.

However, it doesn’t always work this way. One reason could be that you’re taught from the very beginning to trust the person to whom you entrust your life if things get dangerous. I never observed brutality in the way most people think of it, and I and many officers I worked with would step in if they had. As happened in the experience you described, there were instances where people felt they were being treated unfairly or would say we had used excessive force when having a weapon drawn on them. But, this is when good communication is necessary after the fact.

In instances where brutality happens and no one steps in, I honestly don’t have a good reason to give you based on experience.

When you hear of it possible brutality and you weren’t there, you have this voice inside your head that almost instantly says “I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened.” That’s one of the difficult parts of seeing officer involved shootings and gun violence in general. Media and general public like to rush to judgement, but my default is “I wasn’t there, let’s see what the evidence says.” There are times where that doesn’t happen (Walter Scott, for example). But if you don’t trust the system to properly analyze and act on that evidence, there’s a huge problem.

I would venture to say most officers want to serve their community and properly enforce the laws entrusted to them (and that’s one thing many forget…they’re law enforcement), but you’re right, going home is always in their minds. Events like those in Dallas, the very few protestors who try to incite police violence, and those who get on social media and post threats of violence against police officers (and I’ve seen several local examples today), it makes “going home” an even greater priority. I can only assume this is similar to the feeling a young black man gets when he sees someone who looks like him get killed for either undisclosed or suspicious reasons. I’ve felt that…putting the gear on after someone locally was killed in the line of duty. The difference is, I put on my gear knowing what could happen to because, at the time, that was the career I chose and to which I felt called. Very different that putting on your clothes to go walk to the store or drive to work, not asking for the possible burden of having a weapon pointed at you.

I believe more community-based policing and getting to know people on a personal level could help in many areas. As you said, detachment from your duty can be a problem for some, but I believe getting out into the community more often helps to combat that. When I regularly worked an area and got to know people, I felt more at ease. I more frequently recognized when things were not right or when someone was out of place. The most successful officers I knew were ones who worked the same area regularly and got to know as many people (normal citizens and career criminals) as possible. When they build rapport and relationships, they change the way people see police officers. And it always sucked to work in their place when they were off and you didn’t know everyone. People knew, and they treated you differently.

I also feel like proper hiring is key. We should focus on hiring those who have that personality to communicate with and learn from their community. Sometimes hiring focus is in different areas. Those in charge (department heads, mayors, governors, and on up) need to do what is necessary to hire the right people. Without getting too much into local politics, this can sometimes be a problem for various reasons.

Unfortunately, there are times I see all of this getting more difficult unless we also look at ourselves and how we raise our children and support our community. I hope you do not misunderstand what I am about to say…this applies to absolutely everyone, regardless of race/ethnicity/socioeconomic status. The seeming lack of respect for others in general frightens me. So many people (students, adults, etc.) both in person and on social media act with a lack of respect and empathy for others property, emotions, or life. Even though it’s still a very small amount of people, that attitude seems to be amplified through various media. I’m not hopeful that leaders can do much of anything to change the status quo without regular, everyday citizens taking a hard look at ourselves and improving where we can.

Sorry for the length of the response. Trying to see things clearly and fairly sometimes makes me wordy. If you get time, I’d also like your thoughts on my previous post on the Black Lives Matter movement and how to foster dialogue.