drhowardwilliams

Long war story.

I once got a call of a man passed out in a movie theater. It was about 2:30 a.m. Apparently, he had gone to see a movie and passed out drunk, falling onto the floor between the seats. The crew cleaning the theater found him and called the police.

When I woke him up, he was so drunk that he could not tell me where he was, how he got there, or how he was planning to get home. Naturally, I arrested him for public intoxication.

He plead not guilty to the charge, and we had a trial. The judge found him not guilty because she felt that, since he had been sleeping for about four or five hours, he must not have been that drunk.

About two years later, I ran into the man again at a disturbance call. He was not part of the disturbance. A lady in his apartment complex ran to his apartment when her husband was threatening her. He let her in and called the police.

When I had finished the call and was preparing to leave, he asked if I remembered him, because I had not said anything about our previous encounter. I replied that I did remember him, but that had nothing to do with why I was there so there was no reason to bring it up.

That's when he said, "Well, I want to tell you something."

Immediately I started thinking he was going to fuss about my taking him to jail when he was not guilty of being drunk. Instead, he started explaining that he was an alcoholic, and that he never realized it until he awoke in jail and had no idea why he was there or what he had done. He went on to explain that his wife and family had been threatening to disown him over his drinking, and his boss was threatening to fire him. He said that was their problem, not his.

When he awoke in jail, he decided he needed help, and he joined AA as soon as he got out. He said things were going much better for him now. He had just gotten a promotion and raise at work, his family was back in his corner, and he and his wife had recently welcomed a baby daughter (they let me hold her).

He told me I had probably saved his life, and wanted to apologize to me and thank me for what I had done for him. Going to jail was what it took to convince him to turn his life around.

Many times in police work we see our failures over and over again. We get calls on them all of the time. We rarely get to see our successes, because they stay out of trouble. We seldom realize how much good we actually contribute, because we get called to deal with failures, not to celebrate successes. Luck of the draw is the only reason I got to hear his story. His story is why we do what we do.

The greatest advance, DNA. What an incredible tool when it is available. While I was Chief, my detectives solved a 35-year-old-murder because of DNA evidence.

I think to some degree that is true. There are always people who, for whatever reason, are going to be anti-police. That is okay. Everyone should be entitled to their opinion. However, I do not believe that all of BLM is anti-police. I have spoken with BLM members who are very concerned about police/community relations, and they are sincerely trying to make things better, not worse.

Unfortunately, news is news. The anti-police rhetoric is often newsworthy, but genteel cooperation and discussion are not. We all need to do a better job (and that includes the media) in emphasizing the efforts to improve relations. That does not mean ignore the protests, but let's also include a balanced view to include the community meetings and rallies that do not become disruptive.

There is pressure whenever there is a police shooting, armed or not. This is the most drastic measure a government can take -- taking the life of a citizen. There should always be pressure to explain and justify it. It is equally important, however, for government officials and the public to listen to the answers.

As I have often told my students, "Question authority, but have the grace to listen when it answers."

One thing that is important to remember, is that unarmed does not mean the person is not a threat. The third most frequently used murder weapon in the United States is a person's hands and feet. It might be more difficult to explain a fear of death or serious bodily injury from someone without a weapon, but they can still be deadly. The person's being unarmed does not automatically mean deadly force is inappropriate.

Open and honest conversations are critical to resolving tensions. Relationships, whether they are between family members or are between the police and public need open honest communication to survive critical times.

So often the public begins to complain long before they even know what happened. Part of the reason for that is the police departments' reluctance to release information.

There is no substitute for beginning that conversation right away after a critical incident. There will always be questions unanswered early in an investigation because there has not been sufficient time to get all of the answers, yet. Nevertheless, the sooner we can begin a conversation based on the facts instead of supposition or suspicion, the better off we will all be.

This is not going to be an immediate fix. It takes time to build that trust level once it is lost.

I do not believe there is a problem with relaxed hiring standards. I never saw any evidence of that. Every Chief I knew refused to lower standards and would rather work short than hire someone who was not qualified.

I do believe that there is a problem in newer officers being somewhat limited in communications skills. Let's face it, I am old. I am a Baby Boomer. Our childhoods were built around pick-up football and basketball games, playing face-to-face with others. We learned how to work out our frustrations with each other and keep going.

Today, unfortunately, our youth seem to think that playing computer games with people they cannot see or speak with directly is entertainment. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but it does not lend itself to learning how to mitigate personal conflicts face-to-face.

Law enforcement is, and always will be, a face-to-face business. We must communicate with people when they are scared, drunk, high, sick, angry, or mentally ill. We have to spend a lot of time in training new officers how to talk people down because they did not learn that growing up. The state does require such training for new officers.