When Politics Gets Officers Killed: A Veteran’s Warning

A Painful Loss and Preventable Factors

This OpEd is a follow-up to my last one, The Sound of Taps: A Brother’s Reflection on Sacrifice and Service. The more I think about what just happened to our very young deputy Devin Jarramillo and our painful final farewells, the angrier I become at several preventable factors that may have contributed to his death and the deaths of other officers around the country. I never speak in 100% terms, and what I am about to say is not a reflection on Devin or the many young, dedicated officers who chose to do the job for the right reasons. It is an indictment of those who perhaps took the job for the wrong reasons, though. Responsibility also lies with the politicians who ordered police to scale back their level of force and use of tried & true defensive techniques, along with the media that perpetuated misinformation about said force. Then there are the departments that surrendered to the misguided whims of those politicians and the use of substandard equipment issued by many agencies to their officers. And lastly, there is one very consequential factor, completely under the control of every officer: complacency. I will upset some of you, both civilian and sworn alike, but this needs to be addressed, and unless you’ve done the job as long and as dedicated as I and many of my contemporaries have, you have no standing for your criticism. These are just some of the stark and horrifying realities of police work, so listen up!

The Push for “Kinder & Gentler” Policing

During the past 10-15 years, there has been a movement to make the police “kinder & Gentler,” which is not the direction we should be headed. “De-escalation” has been the administrative and political catch-phrase used to describe this, and though the majority of the time when handling explosive situations, talking someone down works, I now want to focus on the violent confrontations police get into every day. What politicians and many police administrators seem to forget is that these violent confrontations require an escalation of force so violent that it is the only way for the officer to survive the incident, and that sometimes means killing the subject. Use of Force is an absolutely necessary part of the policeman’s “Tool Box” as it’s called, right along with the “Verbal-Judo” that trended for quite some time. Though effective, REAL JUDO is sometimes needed. Because of the political environment we’re in, officers are afraid to fully engage for fear of administrative or criminal repercussions. If an officer injures or kills a person of the “wrong color,” activist district attorneys will go after them, and even though they did everything right, the political “optics” is what matters most.

When Subjects Refuse to Comply

When someone doesn’t want to comply with police commands, violent force may be required to take them into custody. Sure, the subject could be injured? But many of these confrontations end in officers being injured and sometimes even killed. Too bad if the bad guy gets injured; they put themselves in that predicament and decided to fight the police, who is trained to win the combat. Yes, combat! If you think that an officer getting into a fight with a bad guy isn’t combat, then you obviously have never done the job, and you’ve never been attacked and injured.

Inexperience and the Harsh Reality of the Job

Academy cadets are trained in Defensive Tactics, but it is only a small exposure to actual fighting; many have never actually been in a fight during their young lives, as most are in their early twenties. In general, many people have never been punched in the mouth, and now rookies are on the street, and they’re not prepared for what’s to come. Here is where I need to get the attention of the would-be young recruit and rookie officer; if you didn’t realize when you entered the academy that the job could get you seriously hurt or killed, then, WTF are you doing here! On my academy class’s first day, our Training Advisers told us just that, and if we couldn’t wrap our young, naïve heads around it, walk out now. None of us did, and I want to add that by whatever luck-of-the-draw was in our favor, none of our class has been killed on the job. Others weren’t so lucky.

Banned Technique: The A.C.T.R.

Banned Technique
One technique removed from our tool box by politicians and various police administrations, including mine, that many believe contributed to our young deputy’s recent death, is the Applied-Carotid-Triangular-Restraint, or as well call it, the A.C.T.R. for short. Many of you will refer to this as a chokehold, and you would be incorrect, and frankly, I’m tired of having to explain this. A choke is the cutting off of the airway, just like when food goes down the wrong pipe. Our technique does not impede the airway in any manner. The ACTR, more popularly known and depicted in professional wrestling as the Sleeper-Hold, constricts the carotid arteries on the sides of the neck and, only temporarily, slows the flow of blood to the brain, rendering the person unconscious. Again, temporarily, in case I haven’t made that clear. This simple but effective technique has been used thousands of times by police to take violent, unarmed subjects into custody, uninjured. Miami-Dade Police, my outfit, has never killed anyone with this technique, ever!

Detractors will cite the New York City Eric Garner case in July 2014, where NYPD officers attempted to arrest Garner for the illegal sale of cigarettes, and he resisted arrest. The altercation escalated, and the ACTR was applied. I’ve watched the video, and to be fair, it wasn’t applied fully and correctly during the stages of the altercation, and Garner was killed. To be fair, once again, the medical examiner ruled Eric Garner’s death a homicide (meaning the death of a person by another-not murder in this case). Specifically, an autopsy indicated that Garner’s death resulted from “[compression] of neck, compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police”.[2] Asthma, heart disease, and obesity were cited, and the officer wasn’t indicted in this case. Garner had several contributing factors that led to his death, which police are not responsible for. And why? Because it was accidental, and these deaths sometimes occur and can’t be avoided.

Media Narratives Fuel Hesitation

Hesitation
But here is the way Wikipedia and other media outlets reported it: On July 17, 2014, Eric Garner, an African American man, was killed in the New York City borough of Staten Island by Daniel Pantaleo, a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, after the latter put him in a prohibited chokehold while arresting him.[3][4] Video footage of the incident generated widespread national attention and raised questions about the use of force by law enforcement.[5]

This type of slanted reporting causes many officers to hesitate or not take action for fear of being indicted or severely disciplined by their agency. Just because a situation goes sideways, the ethnicity of the subject should not be relevant, but in politics, it always is. This is a major reason for officer hesitation and their subsequent injury and death.

Complacency: A Deadly Threat

Complacency
Too many officers nationwide seem to think that this job is just like any other, and they can go about their day as if nothing could ever happen. I saw this often while I was still working, and now that I have faded into the background, I see young officers who don’t see me, with their heads buried somewhere they shouldn’t be. As a former trainer of cops, I see behavior that I would never have allowed and immediately corrected when I was a sergeant. Some seem unaware of their surroundings and have forgotten, yes forgotten, that they have a target on them the moment they leave their house, and their situational awareness is almost nonexistent. They weren’t trained like this, but the routine and no close-calls make them feel invulnerable. This is dangerous. Another practice I see and don’t understand is not wearing the issued body armor. You’re doing police work where bad people may shoot at you. No vests? I don’t get it…The other factor that leads to complacency is the inability to put down the mobile phone when working. I constantly see officers on the phone while driving (against policy) and, unfortunately, when they are responding to a call. Their focus needs to be on that call and their surroundings. Remember, I never say 100%, but any percentage is too many.

Dangerous Holster Practices

You’re Doing What?
There is a very disturbing trend that leaves me flabbergasted and appalled; some of our young officers are patrolling with holsters in the unsnapped position. What does this mean? Police officers have available holsters designed to keep the gun in the holster until he or she is ready to withdraw it. These are called Security Holsters with double and triple retention mechanisms designed to keep the bad guy from getting the officer’s gun. Why in the world would you have your holster unsnapped? If you know, please tell me because I don’t understand this one either. This goes against all our training. One reason I’m hearing is to draw the weapon faster. If you feel you’re slow on the draw, then like anything else, PRACTICE! This has led to officers having their firearms taken away and then being killed with them. Completely avoidable and just plain stupid!

Politics Has No Place in Survival

Politicians Making Life or Death Decisions for Police
In the wake of the George Floyd case in Minneapolis, MN. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (democrat), ordered the Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez to discontinue the use of the ACTR, which had nothing to do with what the police did to Floyd, but these are the optics I cited. Director Ramirez complied, but he should have told her NO! This removed an invaluable tool, and I’ll say it again; we’ve used it innumerable times with no deaths, so why? Ramirez caved, losing the respect of the real cops in our department and jeopardizing everyone’s safety. We now have a newly elected Sheriff, Rosie Cordero-Stutz, and she doesn’t answer to the mayor. I implore her and other agencies to re-implement this tool so that when our deputies are in the Jack Pot (combat), they can utilize it and survive the confrontation. It works!!! Politics has no place in police work, yet it’s still here. The other thing that needs to change is the issuing of substandard holsters without the security features. Many agencies, including historically Miami-Dade Police, issue cheap, dangerous holsters that can, and have led to, officer deaths. Economics should not always be the deciding factor in equipment choice, but it frequently is. Again, I implore all agencies to end this practice and buy the best equipment out there. Until that happens, my advice to all officers is to buy your own holsters and DON’T HOLD BACK when you’re in it! Here’s a saying we have: “Better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6!” Maybe it saves your life. Let the cops be cops, and let them use everything they can to make sure they go home. They deserve nothing less.