Tombstone Courage, or in other words, why wait for back-up? This is one of those errors that does not seem like officers would commit so easily, yet it happens every day. As I look back on my career, I remember on officer who didn't wait for back-up mainly because of his significant physical strength at the time. On two occasions, that strength failed him and he was in a lot more of a fight than he thought he was going to have. This was needless. Just wait for help. What is the worst that happens if a second officer is there and they don't have to help? They just stand there? Are we that busy that we can't be safe? If we are, then the department has a staffing problem.
One of the things I always think of Tony Blauer's writings on Presumed Compliance. You can find a detailed version here: http://calibrepress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/presumed-compliance.pdf
The short version is just because you are the police and have on a that shiny badge doesn't mean that suspects and offenders will instantly do what you say. By law your authority mandates compliance in most cases, it does NOT guarantee it. The bad guys will attack you for no other reason than you are in their way. Some will attack you for no other reason than who you are and what you stand for. Feigning compliance to get you to relax and then attacking you is nothing new.
As Blauer says in his essay, this fosters so many issues. Overconfidence and complacency are the chief among them. He calls complacency a disaster magnet! I have heard too many officers say, "this is Mayberry, nothing bad will happen here." This is INSANE! Denial and apathy are also disaster magnets. When I point out some tragic event involving police officers, I like to look up the population of the area where it happened. About half of the time, the population of that area is comparable to or less than the population of my city (11,000). If you include the zip code population, that number doubles and may inch up to over 25,000. All of the sudden that's a decent amount of people. This is far from Mayberry. If it is, then Mayberry has a lot more heroin than I remember from the TV episodes. But I digress...
Below is a video of what is supposed to happen. The officers get a call of a person in some sort of distress and behaving erratically. The first officer on scene waits for back-up officers BEFORE engaging the guy.
http://calibrepress.com/2015/10/video-man-allegedly-on-pcp-resists-arrest/
What would have happened had the first officer just engaged the guy by himself? I know what you're thinking. This was Washington DC. They have a bunch of cops and back-up is right around the corner. Well, they have a decent call volume I bet and that officer around the corner may be on an equally important call and may not be able to break away.
Lets go to Haverhill, NH. Population about 4,700 people. They are called about a man with a stab wound. They arrive and see this, then see him armed with a knife. Did he stab himself? Was he in a knife fight with another person? Unknown and not relevant. The first problem is to get the guy to drop his knife.
http://calibrepress.com/2015/11/bodycam-n-h-shooting-of-knife-wielding-man/
Well he didn't drop the knife. That isn't the point of the video. The point is the officer waiting for back-up. The cameras helped out too. Not that is was needed, but often times having a second camera can get a different point of view on an incident.
Be smart, wait for back-up!
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