Street roots
13
Feb. 18, 2011
Separating Hollywood’s myths from reality on the street
T
I
recently watched a TV remake of a
famous police show that takes place in
A Haw aii. In one scene the heroes used a
helicopter to block the fleeing kidnappers’
car. The kidnappers jumped out with guns,
and the police leaped from the helicopter
skids and quickly and accurately gunner!
them down. After releasing the bound
woman in the
•trunk of the car
they abruptly
took off to find
the rest of the
kidnapper’s gang.
We all know
Robert Pickett
that Hollywood
isn’t real. But
with the
overwhelming
number of cop shows on TV these days,
sometimes I wonder if the general public
becomes desensitized or misled by the ease
in which officers seem to accomplish their
jobs. I wish the Mythbuster guys would
devote an entire show to the Hollywood
depiction of police. Some of the segments I
would suggest:
Myth: Officers can identify a suspect in
seconds by simply punching a partial credit
card number and eye color into an
incredible telephone number/credit card/
license plate/passport/street address/
biometric database.
Bust: There is no magical-everything
database that will cross reference all the
various pieces and spit out a name and
photo. For databases that do exist, partial
numbers are often Useless as they return
too many matches. Furthermore, many of
these databases, such as for credit cards
and telephone numbers, are held by private
companies, defended by lawyers, and
require a lengthy, carefully-worded subpoena
process to access. This can take-weeks.
Whenever I see a quick database
identification from scant information on TV,
I realize it is the director saving time.
STREET
BUIES'
Robert Pickett has been
a Portland Police Officer
fo r eight years. He has
spent m ost o f that time
working in inner
Southeast Portland, first
as a patrol officer, and
more recently as a
Neighborhood Response
Team officer working on
neighborhood livability
issues.
Myth: Each agency has a fully-staffed,
glasswalled, computerized crime lab ready
to analyze and return DNA results while you
w ait
Bust: The State of Oregon has one lab
that processes DNA samples from all law
enforcement agencies in Oregon.
Depending on the priority of the case in
question, it might take over a year for
results of DNA submitted to the lab to come
back. Again, that would make for a long TV
episode!
Myth: Everybody leaves fingerprints.
Bust: Criminals worry about fingerprints
because on TV they are all caught via
fingerprints. So most wear gloves.
Regardless, one has to be almost intentional
in their bare-handed, careful up-and-down
grip of something very smooth in order to
leave a print that is clear and large enough
to be lifted and compared to others.
Myth: Knives aren’t dangerous.
Bust: Take a few quick jabs at your
Thanksgiving turkey next November and see
how deep that knife can go with little effort.
Myth: Cops Can shoot to wound if
necessary.
Police are specifically trained not to shoot
to wound fqr a reason: so that they are
never shooting unless it is of critical
importance that a suspect stop what they
are doing immediately, such as threatening
with a weapon, pushing someone off a
bridge, or any other behavior that could
easily result in the maiming or death of
someone else. The reasoning for this lies in
two practical realities of guns, bullets and
anatomy, neither of which are usually
realistically portrayed in TV. First, even the
best-trained shooter cannot reliably hit an
extremity, or some other “woundable” body
part (such as that place in the shoulder,
right below the collarbone, where everyone
on TV seems to take a bullet with very little
medical consequence) attached to someone
who is probably moving, particularly in a
swiftly-developing, high-stress situation." In
fact, officers across the country are trained
to shoot at “center mass,” which usually
means the chest, as it is the largest and
easiest target to h it Second, even if an
extremity could be hit, there is no
guarantee that an artery or other critical
part will be magically avoided. Bottom line
is that any time an officer shoots a gun at
someone, there is a chance that person will
be killed.- Therefore officers should never
shoot unless that outcome' can be justified.
Myth: It should only take one or two
bullets to stop a dangerous suspect
Bust: It stinks to rain on CUnt
Eastwood’s .44 magnum action, but
handgun bullets do not cause bodies to fly
back through glass windows. (This is a
matter of physics—bullets are small and
bodies are big.) Most handgun shots are
not immediately disabling, and in fact, the
vast majority of people shot by a handgun
survive (a rate that has increased
dramatically with modern emergency
medicine). Accordingly, officers are taught
that if they need to immediately stop a
suspect from doing their dangerous
behavior, they may need to shoot multiple
bullets in quick succession. Along these
lines, officers are also taught that if they
themselves are shot, even multiple; times,
they are probably not out, and should keep
fighting.
Myth: Police shootings arecommon, and
not a big deal. (Heck, there were at least
two in that one-hour episode!)
Bust: Most officers will end 25-year
careers without ever shooting their gun on
duty. If officers are involved in a shooting,
everyone and their cousins show up, from
line officers to commanders and chiefs. A
crime scene is taped off for hours, the
officers involved are sequestered and
ordered not to talk with each other. They
are homicide suspects and are investigated
by homicide detectives. Every possible
Witness is interviewed, and the investigation
delves into every minute detail and second
of the encounter, generating pages and
pages of reports. A grand jury eventually
listens to officer and witness testimony and
decides if their decision was criminal, and a
use-of-force board reviews the investigation
to decide if it was
within police bureau
policy.
Hundreds of hours
of professional effort
I worry, sometimes, how my
is invested in
psyche and my family would
analyzing and judging
a decision usually
be affected were I to use
made in a few seconds deadly force on duty. I also
under intense stress.
know that If I were ever In a
It is obviously a
position where 1 should have
decision that can end
someone’s life. It is
shot bnt didn't, I would
also a decision that
never forgive myself for any
can define, or end a
harm that came to people
career. It can result
who expected me to protect
in vilification by the
media, legal
them.
proceedings lasting
years and emotional
trauma lasting
decades. It is, to put
it lightly, a big, big deal.
I worry, sometimes, how my psyche and
my family would be affected were I to use
deadly force on duty. I also know that if I
were ever in a position where I should have
shot but didn’t, I would never forgive myself
for any harm that came to people who
expected me to protect them. And I, and my
family, would certainly regret harm that
came to me.
If only reality were as easy as writing an
episode of a police drama, officers would
never have to make decisions about the use
of force in quick, complicated and scary
situations. Then after it was over, instead of
spending years dealing with the aftermath,
we could just fly away on a helicopter, or
better yet, simply cut to the next scene.
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