billy.pilgrim wrote:Vrede too wrote:"It would be an interesting and valuable study - Are combat vets more trigger happy than other cops? I'll bet that both the police and military would resist it ever happening."
"Of course they would and of course it will never happen, but their acting with impunity is spreading and can only get worse. -- Just be sure the body cam fails before you kick in the guy's teeth."
rstrong wrote: "But those in urban combat AS a hostile force - like occupying a city in Iraq or Afghanistan against non-uniformed combatants and insurgents.... that's a different story. The vital training they need for that job, training to treat EVERYONE else as hostiles, is not what you want in police." (Best comment award.)
Vrede too wrote:"I know there's some level of psych screening - probably varies by dept. - but I wonder if anyone has ever studied what backgrounds and education make for good and bad cops."
O Really wrote:"Cop shops love them some vets. But they don't know if they're better or worse cops overall. They do know they are comfortable in a quasi-military organization, understand orders and commands, and usually have some applicable training."
Someone calls in about a man with a gun. Someone else calls in and says the man has dementia. It's dark. The cop sees the man coming at him with his hand reaching into his pocket. Again, the man was reported to have a gun ... The man keeps coming at the cop ignoring his commands ... even someone with dementia can fire a weapon ...
What would any of you, under those circumstances have done differently? Wait to see if he actually had a gun?
Let's assume the cop had prior military training and had before been in "non-uniformed combatants and insurgent" situations and someone was coming at him while reaching under their garments ... do you think it would have been prudent for him to wait and see what he had under that garment? Perhaps in either of these situations, should he have called out to the perp and asked him what he had in his pocket; or under his garment?
It's easy for us, including me, to sit back and pass judgment and spew out condemnation and our "what if's" and "he should have" on shooting situations. None of us know for sure what we would have done had that cop been one of us.
As for "psych screening" and background checks, I can't sit here and say what each jurisdiction requires of potential officers; but I do know that under stressful situations the best training can fly out the window when one's life is in jeopardy and split-second decisions can be the difference in life and death.