TACTICAL RESPONSE CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31
After seeing the crime scene in Dallas and talking with investigators about how it all transpired, Bernardsville Local 365 State Delegate Hank Werner adopted this perspective about dealing with a challenge that escalates into an attack:“ You must always re-engage your target.” The warrior mentality that makes law enforcers so heroic and so responsive would validate Werner’ s take. But in this day and age perhaps there are other approaches to consider.
At the July State PBA Board of Delegates meeting, President Colligan submitted an idea to target educating young people about how to relate to law enforcement. He suggests working the State Director of Criminal Justice, the NJ State Chiefs Association and partnering with the NAACP to produce a 45-minute assembly for schools, perhaps starting with eighth-graders.
Middle Township Chief and Local 59 Member Christopher Leusner recently piloted such an approach by hosting a program for more than 100 kids, seventh grade through high school, and some adults in the minority-centric section of town known as Whitesboro. The program included role-playing scenarios to emphasize how officers are always reacting to somebody.
Additional learning events focused on the benefit of not making any sudden movements, how a pedestrian stop can go bad and when is the proper time to make a complaint against an officer perceived to be abusive. And the long-term impact is educating young people to have a positive outlook toward law enforcement.
“ If society wants to paint a negative picture of police, then the best way we can combat that is with positive interactions with our residents,” Leusner added.“ We can’ t let those that paint the picture win the narrative.”
Turning from a strategic perspective to more tactical ones to achieve that other win of getting home safe, here some thoughts coming from the front lines:
•“ Don’ t eat alone,” Luesner tells his officers.“ Eat with another officer. And change up your routines coming to and from the station. Don’ t be predictable.”
• Middle Township has added a third in-service training day to focus on officer-safety tactics.
• Get specific training on de-escalation of incidents, Paprota added.“ For example, using specific language such as starting the interaction with‘ please’ or using the person’ s name whenever possible.”
• The biggest challenge for departments, and really their municipalities, Paprota reasons, will be to procure the equipment needed to respond to any type of situation amidst the public and media outcry to demilitarize.
• Somerset County SWAT Team officer and Franklin Township Local 154 member Haddon Stein reported one of the points that has routinely been coming up at the training sessions he has been attending lately is that nothing is routine anymore.“ You have arrested 100 people and every single one has been a‘ yes’, sir’ person. You fully expect the 101st to be a yes person and that’ s the one who assaults you. Unless you are prepared for that, you get caught behind the power curve.”
• Getting caught behind the“ power curve,” Haddon further explained, is what happens when an officer lets somebody get inside his or her OODA loop.“ Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. That’ s OODA, and if you get into the other guy’ s loop, you have the advantage. But the other guy can get into your OODA loop if you are not focusing on the task at hand, and that’ s how you wind up behind the power curve.”
• One more from Haddon from his training travels:“ Don’ t hesitate to take the appropriate level of force or a decisive posture out of fear of being videotaped. We always tell our guys to assume you are always being videotaped. Act professionally but do what you need to do to protect yourself. It’ s preparation, not paranoia.”
• Departments should think about sending more officers to calls.“ When will we see a report of‘ difficulty breathing’ actually come from somebody who turns out to be a suspicious person?” Hammond questions.“ It easy to call in anything that could lure an officer into a dangerous situation.”
• An additional thought from Hammond about an administrative approach:“ Working on talking with the media to resolve tension issues by getting out information when so many people want answers so quickly on the administrative level is happening,” she said.
• After seeing a member on duty who wasn’ t wearing a vest and sending him home to put it on, President Colligan offered this observation:“ Hopefully, departments are upgrading body armor. I realize under the 2-percent cap that there are constraints. But I hope a department isn’ t increasing the quality of its copy paper and decreasing its training budget. It’ s a bad time to do that.”
This is only the beginning. More answers are needed and will come forth in the months to come. But Colligan believes there is place to start to look for those answers.
“ I hope all the chiefs are sitting at their desks right now or lying awake worrying about the safety of their officers,” he asserted.“ If not, they should tender their resignations.”
Remembering our brothers lost in the Baton Rouge and Dallas tragedies
Baton Rouge
Dallas
Montrell Jackson Matthew Gerald Brad Garafola Lorne Ahrens Michael Krol Michael J. Smith Brent Thompson Patrick Zamarripa
www. njcopsmagazine. com ■ AUGUST 2016 33