question at oral board

[T.COTE]

I recently went to an oral board for a small police department. Some of the questions I had been asked before, but I would like to throw these out there. Any feed back would be appreciated.
    You are called to a party for a noise violation. When you get there, there are 6 angry men and they make it clear you are not wanted. Your closest backup is 15 minutes away.  They grab two women and start abusing them. they are obviously being hurt. What do you do? Is deadly force neccesary and if not when would the situtaion be bad enough to use deadly force?

    Second question was: You and only one other officer are on duty tonight. You know where he last was and haven't heard from him in a while. You wonder if something is wrong. When you get to his last location his lights are off, the car is parked and he is drinking a six pack, what do you do?

Thanks again for any input, I appreciate it!!



T.cote

[junior]

t. cote,

these are very interesting questions.  reagarding the first question,  i would use whatever force necessary to prevent the women from being beaten any further.  i would probably try to use pepper spray first.  if that didn't work then i would draw my service weapon.  obviously you can't shoot  if you are in danger of hitting the victim.  deadly force is necessary in order to protect the life of the officer or victim.  

regarding the second question, this one is easy in my book.  i would without a doubt report the incedent to my supervisor or chief.  a police officer is given a tremendous amount of responsibility and authority, to abuse it that way is not only dangerous to himself, you, as well as the public, but is also a disgrace to leo's all over this country.

just curious, how did you answer these questions?

junior  8)

[T.COTE]

Junior,
    I said they same thing you did about the drunk cop. I basically said that I was not going to put my job at steak being associated with him. I also said that he could be the one officer I needed for back up in the previous question and I don't want to rely on a drunk.
    On the question about the physical fight with a large number of men, I said that I would do what ever it took to get the men off the women. I hadn't mentioned pepper spray but that also sounds like a good idea. I told them that I felt like I could control the situation without deadly force. I would make as many observations as possible of the men so if they took off I could later I.d. them and the vehicle they took off in. I also mentioned that my main concern would be for the safety of the two terrified women. I would not just let them run off and forget about it, but rely on  my other policing skills to bring closure to the incident. I said to the board to imagine what the questions would be like being asked to me by my c.o. or a review board if I had shot this man. They would of asked if I tried anything else first. They might ask if my solution was just to shoot anyone in a domestic dispute. In the end I told the officer that I didn't belive simply because a man grabbed a women that the answer was to shoot him.

These are the answers I gave at the oral board. Hind sight being twenty/twenty I probably could come up with some better answers.

One problem I have with the oral boards is when they ask a situational question, wait for your answer, then put a new spin on things that would lead you to change your answer. Especially when it comes to loyalty toward other officers and officers in other departments asking for professional curtisy.

IF anyone has an opinion about professional curtisy I would enjoy hearing it. I know alot of decisions are based on circumstances of that particular traffic stop. I told them that in the end I would try to treat an officer as I would anyone elese. Feed back?



T.cote

[junior]

t. cote,

hopefully when they tried to get you to change your answer, you stuck to your guns .  i fully believe in professional courteousy.  if you pull somebody over for speeding, or some other minor traffic violation, and find out they are a cop, are you gonna give them a ticket?  probably not, to me that is professional courtesy.  in this situation this officer's actions are grounds for punishment.  the bottom line is that i would turn the guy in and let brass decide his fate.  if he needs a cold one that bad, maybe he could use some real help.  

but regarding professional courtesy, in my opinion it will depend on the circumstance.  if i am not mistaken, writing a traffic citation is under the discretion of the officer.  if i pull over somebody that is really driving dangerously, and they are a fellow officer, then i may be inclined to give them a ticket.  anyway, just my humble opinion.  i would be interested in hearing others response to this question.

junior  8)

[griffin]

Regarding the question about the use of deadly force in a situation of domestic abuse. The frist thing is that you have come to a party where there are intoxicated men, that means that they are not in any kind of frame of mind to make an appropriate and moral decision, second with your presence there they should have taken a step back and realized that " wow, the police are here, maybe we should calm down" but instead they showed a complete and utter lack of respect and control. Therefore, I would need to establish control over the situation, whether it be pepper spray or something else. However six guys completly out of control,you could probaly spray one or two befoer the other four decided that they were going to attack you. So, at the point where they grab hold of they two women you almost have a hostage case and in my opinion i would have taken out my service revolver and regained contron there is something about a gun that sobers the mind very quickly as oppose to just yelling and trying to talk them down. After you had the attention of the men you would need to seperate and get yourself in between the women and the men to prevent any further confrontation. From there you wait for your backup to arrive and make the appropriate arrests. Thats what i would say anyway, granted probaly some of that isn't standard procedure, i am only talking from military expeirience which is some of the best for drunks and fighting. as far as the secin question i definetly agree with junior. Well just giving my opinion, hope it helped.

good luck
-griffin

[T.COTE]

Thanks to everyone that responded to my questions, it was good to hear my answers and views from other leo's.

T.cote