Comply Now; Sue Later

It seems as though every month we see images of a law enforcement interaction with the public where it appears as though unreasonable force was used. Just recently we saw images of two officers punching a 20 year-old woman at the beach, multiple officers using a Taser on a seemingly compliant NBA player and multiple Arizona officers punching a man in a hallway, who also did not appear to be physically resisting. Each of these incidents initiated discussions with my wife.

For background purposes, I have been in law enforcement for twenty years and have been part of arrests and received numerous training on Use of Force and Officer Tactics. The discussions with my wife are always spirited and enlightening. One of the great things about the discussions is that my wife views the incidents through the lens of a citizen and I view and analyze the incidents through the lens of a law enforcement officer. After the last conversation, I told her that I would love to write an article to try and clarify some common misconceptions that are in the general public and add context to the various incidents that have sparked outrage and controversy.

Now, let me state that in my opinion in some of the more well-known incidents that officers did employ unreasonable force. Even though I am in law enforcement, I am not “blind.” Do I believe that implicit bias played a part in some of these cases? Yes. With that being said, I want to try and offer some basic advice to anyone that may find himself in a situation where he is contacted by law enforcement.

For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the recent incident involving the young woman that was arrested on the beach. When the story first aired, I was in the bedroom with my wife and said to her, “Oh boy, here we go again.” My wife was looking at the footage and said, “Why are they punching that girl? They need to be fired!” After the story aired, the telecast switched back to the news anchor who stated that it was appalling that the officers would be punching a woman and that the story would be followed in the upcoming days (more on this later). I told my wife that only a small portion of the overall interaction was aired and that there likely was more to it. I said that I just don’t believe that the officers would start beating on a woman on a public beach in front of all kinds of people without some type of provocation; this is not to say that it couldn’t happen, I just don’t believe this to be the norm. I told my wife that when more video footage of the arrest was shown that there likely was some type of noncompliance that resulted in the officer’s heavy-handed response. And this brings us to the main issue I wanted to stress here, when contacted by law enforcement COMPLY initially and SUE LATER if you feel you need to.

Let me try to explain from the officer point of view. From the training I have received, real-life enforcement actions I have been a part of and knowledge gained from professional interactions, it has been learned that the biggest indicator that the “ish” is about to hit the fan is noncompliance on the part of a subject. Nothing will send the average officer to 10 faster than noncompliance. Let’s try to use some common, everyday scenarios to illustrate this point. You walk into your child’s room and he immediately slams his computer shut. You ask him what he was looking at on the computer and he responds, “Why do you want to know?” Your child is going over to a friend’s house to study, you ask the name of the friend and he responds, “Why do you need to know that?” You ask your child to come downstairs because you need to talk to him, instead he stays in his room, doesn’t move or come downstairs. In each of these three scenarios, the antennae would be raised on the average parent. And why, because the child’s responses to the parent’s questions or instruction do not appear to be reasonable. There is an element of defiance and noncompliance and the parent would likely feel that stern follow up questioning or instruction is warranted. The parent would also likely tell the child what the ramifications of noncompliance would be. The computer will be taken, you are not going anywhere and get down here now, “don’t make me have to come up there!” This is no different for law enforcement. Noncompliance causes the hairs on the neck to be raised and the officer has to start preparing for the worst-case scenario.

Now to follow up on the news anchor I mentioned earlier. The anchor’s response was not what I feel to be uncommon, however, I do believe this frequent type of response is doing a disservice to the general public. I don’t believe that it is intentional at all, but oftentimes when these stories are narrated, it is through the lens of the general public and does not add the requisite officer viewpoint. And when I say viewpoint, I am referring to the officer’s viewpoint at the time of the interaction, not days later when being reviewed on video. The narrative is commonly one of compassion for the victim and sets the tone that the officers used unreasonable force. I believe that I understand why this is. To the average person viewing the footage, he will see two larger officers punching a woman and he cannot fathom a reason why officers would need to do that to control the situation. The general public will focus on things such as size of the officers, the gender and behavior of the person being arrested and the number of officers at the scene to form an opinion. Let’s go behind the veil for a moment and I will let you in on a little secret; arresting and subduing a person is not as easy as it looks! This is another huge misconception that I believe that the general public has. It may be the movies, television or just societal norms that lead to this type of thinking, but I am here to tell you that arresting a non-compliant person is not easy to do regardless of size, gender, etc. Don’t believe me, just for fun, if you have a pair of handcuffs (if you have a pair you are probably already having fun) try to get them on both wrists of your spouse, friend or child while they are trying to resist you. Now I am not saying to hurt anyone, but if you try this I think you will understand what I am trying to get across, it is nowhere as easy as it looks and you will see that at some point you would likely have to use some level of physical force to make it happen.

I will never forget a video that I was shown during one of my law enforcement trainings. The video depicted a subject that appeared to be in his late teens, early 20’s and about 140 lbs. soaking wet. He was approached by an officer, visually much larger than him, who was attempting to handcuff him for arrest, it was soon shown that the subject obviously had some type of formal MMA training because, in a matter of seconds, he was behind the officer and put him in a chokehold and put him to “sleep.” This could have been disastrous for the officer and his family as he lay on the ground unconscious with his firearm there for the taking. Fortunately for the officer, the young man ran away. I have seen training videos where “granny” shoots and kills an officer during the service of a search warrant, the smaller female suspect cuts the officer with a knife, “grandpa” jumps out with a rifle and kills an officer as he approached grandpa’s car. What point am I trying to get across? The general public may never get to see the other side of these interactions and in each case, there was some type of noncompliance that preceded the suspect’s attack. In addition, in each case, the offender would probably not fit the perceived “norm” of who a bad guy would look like. I can’t stress enough that these are the type of experiences officers have in the back of their minds before contacting the public and I hope it may explain some of their responses to what appear to be low-risk interactions. All interactions can go South in a matter of seconds and officers are always cognizant of this.

If you are reading this, I would implore you that if you are ever contacted by law enforcement, be compliant and non-confrontational. If you are being pulled over and an officer asks for your name or identification, that is not the time to impress with your knowledge of your civil rights or the laws of your state or jurisdiction. Just simply comply and if you feel you were unlawfully detained or treated in an unreasonable manner, document the incident the best you can and reach out for an attorney. There is no shortage of attorneys willing to take on a viable case of police misconduct.

There are approximately 30,000 arrests nationwide each day, and the overwhelming majority are completed without incident. I understand that there have been some questionable arrests recently, and will be in the future, but if you are contacted by law enforcement, it should go without any type of incident. Remember, be compliant, it will help both you and the officer and you always have the option of legal recourse if needed.

Stay safe!!