Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Houston Police Department’s Mixed Message

I posted my original impressions regarding an unfortunate event which ended in a police shooting back in April of this year, something right out of a Mission Impossible script. The fatal incident was naturally followed by considerable press along with the grieving widow’s wrongful death law suit; all this has been on the back burner since then.

I read in this morning’s Houston Chronicle, an article by Dale Lezon , where the two officers involved have been disciplined for, “…not trying to talk to the man before they approached his car after a high-speed chase…”. Almost in the same breath, “However, the investigation concluded that the officers were justified in shooting Roland Carnaby last April 29.”

I want that to sink in for a few moments; do any red flags pop up in your mind? What kind of message does this send to the public and to those who work for the Houston Police Department?

On the one hand it says, “You guys did what you had to do, under the circumstances, any reasonable person would agree that you were justified in the use of deadly force.” Then on the other hand the Department is saying, “There has to be some way of sawing off the limb you guys are standing on, a means of separating the City and Department from litigation so we had to find some nitpicking thing to show you were not following policy.”

Way back, sounds like a line from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, that little dog talking to Sherman, “Come Sherman, step into the Way Back Machine”, where was I; way back when I was working night shift I’d have the opportunity to train rookie police officers. I had a list of things each young police officer should understand; one was to recognize the fact that the spineless organization for which they wanted to work for would leave them hanging in the breeze if and when something ugly happened which might end up with a possible lawsuit. In other words, “You’re on your own, kid.”

Prior to my retirement I was riding as a one man unit and got an alarm call on a tire warehouse. I was so close that upon arrival the bad guys were just leaving, the stolen truck they were in was loaded with boxes of chrome rims they’d just stolen. I let the dispatcher know about the beginning of the chase and to have a unit stand by at the warehouse just in case anyone else was left inside and to secure the area.

We had been reminded of changes in the “chase policy”, changes which placed ALL liability on the police officer for loss of property or loss of life during participation in a chase. If it appeared that the circumstances were getting out of control and loss of property and/or life was eminent, the officer was to notify the dispatcher that the chase was being broken off rather than subject the suspects and the rest of the population to such danger.

My burglary suspects, the ones driving the stolen truck, were increasing speed as they ran stop signs and red lights; all the while two of the suspects were throwing boxes of stolen chrome rims out the back of the truck bed hoping to land a direct hit on my police unit following close behind. Even at such a late hour the possibility of having a really bad wreck while driving through red light after red light existed. The chase speeds had increased considerably and the likelihood of a really bad wreck had also increased.

Instead of staying focused on catching the bad guys, something I’d trained for my entire career; instead I saw a jury panel being seated with the intent of taking away every penny I’d saved because I was too foolish and believed the citizenry wanted law and order. I picked up the mike and advised the dispatcher that I was breaking off the chase. I turned off my emergency equipment and dropped back a bit.

The most interesting thing happened; the bad guys must have forgotten to look forward, wondering what the heck that cop behind them was doing as I faded from view. They had their wreck, colliding with a tree and totaling out the stolen truck. They did manage to disappear into the night and left the stolen chrome rims which all got returned to the original burglary scene.

I was no longer on the hook, officially, for the wreck which happened moments after I’d followed a rule written by chicken shit gutless department heads afraid of having to face reality, too concerned with avoiding litigation instead of doing the job the public expects of a police department; am I allowed to say chicken shit, I’ll repent later. The public and the Department suffer when spineless cowards initiate chicken shit policies, policies which serve only to destroy faith in a system intended to protect and serve the public.

Police officers are more like self employed vendors if you think about it. They all have to wear the same uniform; but let’s face facts, these men and women are out on the limb all alone if and when things go badly. Standard Operating Procedures were written, not so much to help the officer get the job done; no, they were written to protect the City and the Department from litigation. I felt like my badge or name tag should have had, “T. F. Stern & Company” printed on it somewhere instead of “City of Houston Police Department”. I made it to retirement and now they pay me not to show up; and some of you don’t believe in miracles!

The officers who recently received disciplinary insults, what else could you call a one day suspension or a written reprimand after all the “other stuff” involved in a high speed chase and shooting the suspect to death on the side of a freeway? These officers should have known the City would never stand behind them a hundred percent. They forgot that important lesson I used to teach, “You’re on your own, kid.”

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