It's About Time

Happy and I return to triumph after a much deserved and technically challenging (which button is record again?) break. In this episode we talk safety vs. security and the possible differences between agencies and disciplines after last week's tragic shooting in Tucson.

For the first time ever, we answer a listener question from our call in line! Coincidentally, we are renaming our call in line to the first ever Public Safety Drunk Dial Line. All shall be explained, friends. And it wouldn't be The Crossover without HM and I rambling on about nonsensical shenanigans.

EPISODE 8

SouthLAnd, baby!

It is well documented that I love me some cop drama shows. I'm a Third Watch, NYPD Blue, Cop Rock aficionado. Okay, not so much that last one. SouthLAnd, smartly picked up and saved by TNT, is back for another season.

I won't belabor the coolness of this show. Lots of you watch it, otherwise, TNT wouldn't have picked it up. What you may not know, however, is the training behind the show. As a cop, I nitpick every. aspect. of. these. shows. Drives the Wife crazy, but she knew what she was getting into. SouthLAnd is not a perfect cop show. There is no such thing. Cop shows take the ten minutes of excitement us real cops feel in a week's time and embellish because it's bloody good TV.

That notwithstanding, the cast has to look like they moderately know how to handle themselves. The tactics have to pass a certain muster. Check out the following behind the scenes video and watch a couple minutes of the cast training on the range with live ammo.

As I cautioned above, I nitpick. One of the things that stood out was the reload. No one leaves their weapon hanging out in open space. Too much real estate to fumble the out of battery reload or tac reload. You drop a mag, you're screwed. Get that gun up and in, dig that elbow into your belly button. Stay tight, get bullets in the gun, and get back in the fight.

See, fun right?

Check out SouthLAnd tonight (and every Tuesday) at 2200 hrs on TNT! For more cool behind the scenes and show info, check this out.

Decision Time - MC's Take

Wow. Let me start by saying you all certainly took me seriously. Decision Time was my 2nd most popular post (based on sheer comments) of all time and in over two years. I appreciate the time and thought the lot of you spent in reacting to my post.

It seems the majority are okay with how the incident turned out. There were, as there are wont to be, the extremes on either side. But by and large, most of you seemed to feel the violation was extreme enough to warrant the citation after the more pressing matter was dealt with.

Now...here's my opinion...

From a Monday morning quarterback standpoint, everybody was wrong in this matter.

Huh?!? You read that right. Everyone. It's important to remember that this is looking from the outside in. That's an important distinction here and one that, quite frankly, society and the media at large take for granted on a daily freaking basis. As a quick example, let's talk about "excessive force". If you've never wrestled with someone and felt like you were fighting for your life, your opinion lands you squarely in the Monday morning QB role. We, as officers, are required by you, society, to make split second decisions that we all have to live with for the rest of our lives. Try and keep that in mind when you're hanging out at the water cooler drinking your third cup of joe near your cube farm before you strap on the judgy pants.

I have no idea what Mom and Dad's birth plan was for junior. I think it's fair to assume it didn't involve breaking land speed records, though. The bottom line is this: Dad was putting his life, his wife's life, and his unborn son's life at risk. Period. I don't care what time of day it was. I don't care what the road conditions were. I don't care what the condition of his tires were. 102 mph (unless your a professionally trained driver) is patently unsafe.

Allow me to get my hat with the whirly-gig on top....there it is...okay. 102 MPH is 152.592 fps (feet per second). Do me a favor. Reread that sentence. It probably took you somewhere between 1 and 3 seconds to read that. In that time, Dad's car traveled between 152 and 457 feet. Human perception and reaction time (combined) is 1.5 seconds. That means that it takes Dad 1.5 seconds to see something ahead and react to it. In that 1.5 seconds, Dad will travel 229 feet. That's 229 feet before he's even done anything folks!

Now, let's add to that. The 1.5 second perception/reaction time is for someone who is paying attention to what they're doing. I think it's fairly safe to assume that when your wife's water breaks in the passenger seat of your car and she's (more than likely) freaked out a bit (what with you hauling ass and all), your attention is not going to be 100% on the roadway in front of you. And just for fun, I'll throw in that it was nighttime...that equals more limited visibility.

Let's talk about the cell phone bit. As one of you pointed out, there is no cell phone law in NH. Thus, not a violation. Pretend it was CA, though. There is an exemption in the law for using a cell phone in an emergency. Now before HM gets his panties in a wad about me using "emergency" in the previous sentence, I have to assume this would satisfy the spirit of the exemption in the law. (Sorry, brother).

What should Dad have done? Much like a lot of you pointed out...he should have called 911 for an ambulance. Medics are trained for things eerily similar to what Dad was experiencing. One non-emotionally invested medic drives the big red bus and the other tends to Mom-to-be. There's a reason EMS exists, people. For all the bitching (justifiable as it may be) that medics to about the abuses of their system, I'm pretty sure this one fits quite nicely.

What about the trooper?

The only thing I can do here is put myself in his shoes...just like I asked you to do. Would I stop a car traveling at almost twice the legal freeway speed limit. Try and stop me. Would I get bent when the car fails to yield? Possibly. Would I have called it a pursuit? Possibly. Once Dad yielded, would I have ripped him a new one until I figured out the situation? Maybe, maybe not. Here's something a lot of you don't think about...adrenaline. Adrenaline courses through your average cop's body like oil through a finely tuned high performance engine. We thrive on it. My point is that to expect a calm "Good evening, sir. Do you know why I stopped you?" may not be the delivery after this escapade.

For argument's sake, though, let's say I get Dad stopped and I figure out birth is imminent. What do I do? I call for code 3 fire/ambulance for a delivery in progress and I revert to my limited training in delivering said child. Believe me, it is not something I want to do. I don't want to get shot at either, but I strap on the vest every day and go to work. This is part of what we sign on for. All we can do is pray for the bus to get there with a quickness.

Why wouldn't I escort them, you say? Uh...liability?!? Once I start escorting these people, I have now "bought" Mr. and Mrs. Pregnant. They are mine. I own them. If anything happens to them en route, who's to blame? ME!

Hey...it's a sad state of affairs that guys like me have to keep that in our minds, but it's our preciously litigious society that has brought that kind of thinking on. You want to blame someone? Look in the mirror.

What was Dad legally risking? An infraction for driving in excess of 100MPH (which he was cited for), a misdemeanor for reckless driving (which any cop worth his salt could articulate at that speed), and another misdemeanor for failing to comply with a peace officer's orders (not stopping for the pretty lights and siren).

Note that I said risking. He was obviously not arrested and his son was born healthy, happy, and oblivious to all the drama (which all was essentially his fault, really...welcome to parenthood, Dad). It seems obligatory to me that Dad was risking a whole lot more...all of their lives and the lives of the officer(s) that had to deal with this.

Dad needs to suck it up, pay the fine, and be happy he didn't kill anyone.

Listen, Society. You are not highly trained medical professionals. You haven't trained for hundreds of hours in high speed driving. You haven't trained about tunnel vision (see? you don't even know what that means!) and it's tendency to harm you. You are not being a hero by getting Mommy to the hospital as quick as you can. So, knock it off!

Oh...and don't get me started about Dad's "press conference" where he says he wasn't being reckless. That just made me want to drive really fast to New Hampshire and punch him.

It's okay, though...I'm a trained professional.

Decision Time

First, watch this video. It's cool...I'll wait.

Back? Excellent. Much like The Difference post, I'm curious to know what your opinions are. Lord knows I've got mine...and you may very well guess what they are. On the other hand, I may surprise you.

Here are my questions to you:

1. What would you have done if you were the Dad? Your wife is about to give birth...like right now. What do you do?

2. What would you have done if you were the Trooper?

I've read some of the responses on lawofficer.com, policeone.com, and even mainstream media sites regarding this issue. Let me be the first to say there are some, as my partner puts it, "booger eating morons" out there. But you, my dedicated Reader, are not. If you've spent any amount of time reading my various musings, I'm putting you well above the lot I've read responding to this incident!

We already know what the Dad and the Trooper did. I want to know what you would do.

I realize I'm nicking HM's "You Make the Call" style here, but he's a big boy. He can hang. I'll have a follow up post for you in a couple of days. Think it over...I'll be waiting on the side of the road for you.

The Difference - A Reader's Response

Let me start by saying you all had some interesting and valid points of view. Thank you for not only taking the time to read the post and commenting, but thinking about what your opinions were and the basis for them. There were a number of comments on The Difference, but one stood out to me. As luck would have it, it came in the form of an email, so I was able to co-opt it (with his permission, of course) and reproduce it here.

It reminded me of the kind of conversation either HM and I or my Dad and I would have over beers whilst giving each other a hard time. Without further brou and/or ha-ha, and with appropriate thanks to Pete, I give you his response...

I would expect Mr. Average to entertain thoughts of entering or possibly actually entering the house that is on fire. The house with gun shots gets a "did I really hear that look" with an increase in walking speed as he exits the immediate vicinity. I think it's all about perception of personal risk. We "play" with fire almost every day and don't harbor a deep fear of death from it. Maybe a burn now and then but not a lasting or life threatening injury.

With guns it's different. As time goes by less and less people handle firearms. This lack of knowledge and ownership increases the perception of risk and thus the walk by.

Now on to my family...staring me as the fire dweeb and my brother as the grizzled veteran cop.

Me: Fire? Help? It's a two story ordinary construction single family dwelling with smoke showing from side D. Life safety issues are paramount. Engine and Truck are not on scene. Seek ingress and perform primary survey for victims. Save damsel in distress. Make attempt to put out fire while calling for help. Receive, aw shucks medals and awards. Remain loved by community.

Brother: Fire? Help? Shit! Where's my idiot brother? Probably sleeping in his Lazy Boy chair. Mame, can you come out here so I can talk to you? Keep your hands where I can see them.

Brother: Bang! Help! Unusual weapon discharge? That was the sound of a Sig Sauer 1911-45-SSS with an eight round magazine. Probably hasn't been cleaned in a while.Young female inside a home at 1313 Mockingbird Lane sounding distressed while speaking in a loud voice "help?" All while simultaneously reaching for his concealed weapon, making sure others are safe, getting in his low run stance, moving toward the house, and using his senses to obtain intell on the location of the shooter and the vic. Ends stand off immediately and brings woman out to EMS for care.

Me: Bang! Help! Shit! Where's my idiot brother? I'll bet no one is taking pot shots at the donut shop. Run toward house and hide in bushes. See person with gun leaving. Save damsel in distress. Make attempt to call for help. Receive, aw shucks medals and awards. Remain loved by community.

Epilogue: Brother receives a "paper" in his personnel file indicating that even though he used his concealed weapon in self defense he had not re-certified on it within 365 days and was therefore not authorized to carry it. If it happens again he will get three days. The call happened in a neighborhood watch area and the citizens are asking the mayor to convene a hearing on off duty police officers indiscriminately entering homes without reason. Woman is now suing the city because she did not want to be saved. However Brother's Sargent mentions that the shooter is wanted on ten different warrants in six states and has previously shot a cop. Brother and entire shift go out after work for "stress reduction."

Well at least we both still have jobs. We hope you do too, and any problems with the police side of the story chalk up to me because I tried to think like him!

Thanks again (and a special nod to Pete) for taking time out of your collective days to interact with me (and by extension) each other. This was one of my more favorite posts!

The Difference

See if you can tell me what the difference is...

Your average, everyday person was walking down the street. Up ahead, the person sees smoke coming from a home. As the person gets closer, they can hear a woman screaming, "Help!" For the sake of argument, let's assume the person doesn't have a cell phone. What do you think that average person would do?

A few blocks over, another average, everyday person was walking down the street. As they got closer to a particular house, they heard gunshots and a woman screaming, "Help!" Again, no cell phone. What would that average person do?

Do you think the average person walking by the home on fire would run to help or run away? Do you think the average person that heard the gunshots would run to help or run away?

I'm curious to hear your responses...