Anybody who has met me during the last 18 years knows that I am fanatical about the topic of officer safety. I constantly stress that theme in all of the classes I teach in PBIC and BLET. As a Corporal, I have always told my officers to do whatever is necessary to protect themselves—I’ll do the admin. without complaining. Our #1 priority on this job is and must always be this: to do everything in our power to ensure that we go home at the end our shift in the same condition that we were in at the beginning.
This mission can not be compromised for the sake of comfort, convenience, or public relations. It is far too vital. So it concerns me deeply when I see just such compromises being institutionalized, even unintentionally, by well-meaning members in our own ranks. In the area of officer safety, we are often our own worst enemy.
The process is insidious and takes many forms. For example: the Chief of Police, out of concern for protecting our citizens, mandates a reduction in response times to certain types of calls. As a result, Communications feels pressured to dispatch calls quickly even if an assist car is not yet available. Patrol officers, similarly trying to carry out the mandate, all too willingly respond to hazardous calls alone. Field supervisors, given the authority to override the dispatch plan, all too often fail to take corrective action. Or, an overworked patrol officer hears his buddy trying to get to Code 10 several hours late, and in a gesture of good will cancels his assist on a two-officer call.
The dispatch plan itself encourages exactly the type of risky behavior we should be trying to eliminate. A typical scenario might go something like this:
It is a typical evening in the fictitious Operations Bureau 4. Your squad is fully staffed with a Sergeant, Corporal, and four officers. You have a total of five call-answering cars available. All of you are currently on calls and Communications is holding two domestics, a burglar alarm, and a suspicious person call. We all know what happens when officers start to clear. Car 1 clears and is immediately dispatched to the first domestic without an assist car. Car 2 clears and is dispatched 10-100 also to the second domestic. Car 3 is sent to the 10-60 when he clears. Car 4 is dispatched to assist Car 1 when he clears, but because calls are pending and nobody has eaten yet Car 1 says he will advise on assist. Car 4 now gets sent to the suspicious person call. We now have four cars going in four different directions to potentially hazardous calls when it all could have been avoided.
Who is to blame you ask? WE are to blame. We ourselves, patrol officers and field supervisors, not some mysterious and malignant administration. And we can take the first steps to fix the problem. Communicators, at least the few I have asked, feel that their raises are largely dependent on how fast they can clear their screens. If this is true, then it must be changed. If it isn’t, Communications supervisors need to make sure the communicators are aware of that fact. Until that changes, most communicators are going to continue to try to clear the screen ASAP, and who can blame them? The second change that must be made is to the dispatch plan. Currently, an officer going 10-100 is not considered a pending call, so the almighty computer tries to make communicators. dispatch the next pending call instead of sending help where it is most needed.
As essential and obvious as these changes are, they are out of the control of field troops and supervisors. So how can we help ourselves today, right now, on the very next call dispatched? A few simple suggestions:
1. DON’T CANCEL YOUR OWN ASSIST! Every officer I’ve ever talked to thinks we need more help on the street, but quite often we don’t even use help when it’s available! Can you say, “Here’s your sign.” Four recent officer-involved shootings in this county were a domestic, a 10-37, and two noise complaints. Keep your assist with you at least until you arrive and have a chance to evaluate the situation.
2. FIELD SUPERVISORS MUST MANAGE THE CALL LOAD. That doesn’t mean helping clear the screen. Pay attention, and when you hear two units going 10-100, do what the Department pays you to do and MAKE A DECISION! Have Communications hold one of the calls and send two units together to one call. That’s why you have the stripes and frankly, if you aren’t willing to take care of the troops, you don’t deserve to keep them. (Note: I’ve sometimes had alert communicators give me a heads-up when this happens so I can do what they can’t…thanks.)
3. THE TROOPS HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER! Remember waaay back in Rookie school when the instructors said if you’re 10-100, in most cases, you should stage and wait for assist to become available? DO IT! When you are one half of one of these double 10-100 situations, give the Sergeant a chance to fix it. If he doesn’t, take care of business (in a professional manner of course). Something like, “4312, hold this call and I’ll assist 4112.”
What will be the result? A study from ECU a couple years back indicates that one likely result will be a HUGE reduction in the number of officers assaulted. This means fewer injuries, less missed work, and a as a result, more cops on the street. This alone is adequate reason to take these few very modest steps. In addition, there will likely be an increase in response times, which is bad. However, this will result in increased citizen dissatisfaction, which will lead to pressure on the City Council to increase manpower. As a result, it will make it that much easier for the Chief to get additional funding, which will result in more cops on the street, which is VERY good.
The simple truth is that by always trying to do more with less, we are telling the people who control the purse strings that WE DON’T NEED ANYMORE COPS because we’re handling things just fine with what we’ve got. In reality, we are sacrificing the safety of our brothers and sisters for…for…for WHAT? To clear the screen? To eat inside instead of in the car? To fulfill an objective? Are any of these things worth dying for? I DON’T THINK SO!!
Do you think the Chief wants us to get hurt just to cut down response times? Do you think communicators want us to get hurt to help their evaluations? Do you think anybody wants to take on the liability of telling you that you can’t have an assist when one is available or will be shortly? I DON’T THINK SO!!
So look past the next Code 10, the next call, and the next evaluation. Look to the long term, because taking care of each other is going to help all of us as well as those who will come after us one day. It will also help the administration and last, but not least, the citizens, who I believe we all swore we would protect.