How It Gets Done: The Reality of Law Enforcement

Right around the year 2000, a new police department was created in Maryland. The Chief was experienced and knowledgeable. She knew the value of technology in law enforcement as well as the need for technology. Perhaps most important of all, she knew the absolute need to build and maintain the community’s trust in her new agency.

With that in mind, as the new agency was built and equipped, every patrol vehicle had the necessary emergency equipment, plus emergency first-aid equipment, as well as every new (at the time) piece of technology so as to show a focus on community service. What wasn’t in those patrol cars, in the first few years of operation, were shotguns, rifles, protective masks, etc. The “warrior” tools weren’t there. At the time, the observation was made that the agency might be focusing too much on technology and not enough on the necessary tools to physically arrest suspects.

Over time, the agency morphed a bit and the focus on meeting the potential violence of police work was brought in. Today, those patrol vehicles all have the latest and greatest in technological tools but they also have every tool needed to meet the ugliest and most violent side of criminality. Because of the way the agency was started, the community had faith and trust with their police. That matters a lot when an officer makes an arrest and it’s not pretty; it’s violent; the suspect fights hard, is on drugs, or some other circumstance and the police officer has to use force. Maybe a bystander is running their cell phone camera or maybe the angle of the dashcam is wonky. But something happens to bring criticism to the officer’s actions.

On an agency where the Chief is a relative unknown or there’s noticeable mistrust between the community and the PD, that criticism can become a huge issue. God forbid the mainstream media get involved and start Monday-morning-quarterbacking what the officer did. But, if the agency and the Chief have a large portion of trust, that arrest – completely legal and with only justified force – isn’t as widely questioned; the officer gets a better benefit of the doubt.

All of that makes me consider the words of Charles H. Webb, Ph.D.:

“There is no nice way to arrest a potentially dangerous, combative suspect. The police are our bodyguards; our hired fists; batons and guns. We pay them to do the dirty work of protecting us. The work we’re too afraid, too unskilled, or too civilized to do ourselves. We expect them to keep the bad guys out of our businesses, out of our cars, out of our houses, and out of our faces. We just don’t want to see how it’s done.”

Let’s talk about that “bodyguards, hired fists, batons and guns,” part. Law enforcement professionals’ first job is peacekeeping. We always use the term “Protect and Serve,” or sometimes in reverse, “Serve and Protect.” Too many people get caught up in the “enforcement” part of law enforcement and they fail to realize that the largest part of law enforcement work is response and protection. Sure, officers enforce traffic laws, but 99.9% of everything else they do is in response to a 9-1-1 call. The officers respond to a call for help, report of a broken law (shoplifting, other theft, assault, breaking & entering, etc.), or some other dispatched call.

Let’s also remember that bodyguards are defensive in nature. Bodyguards block the threat from the protected. Bodyguards take the risk, mitigate it, anticipate it… whatever it takes to keep the threat of actually injuring the protected. Even when officers are acting in an enforcement capacity, in response to a call for service, they’re still acting as bodyguards; they’re making sure a given circumstance is rendered safe or is already safe before letting the protected into it.

It's interesting that Webb implied violence is uncivilized. Most would agree that he is 100% right, but the only way to overcome violence is with equal or greater violence. There is no amount of peaceful response that will stop a violent person. The unfortunate reality is that there is no way to look pleasant or civilized when you’re in a fight to arrest someone or to defend a life. A violent fight is… well… violent. A fight is a fight. There can only be one victor and if a police officer loses a fight, he potentially loses his life. He also potentially loses all of his tools, one of which is that issued handgun. A proven violent criminal in possession of a handgun, even without a spare magazine, represents potentially 10, 15 or more additional deaths. Police Officers simply can’t allow that to happen, so they have to win every fight.

And, as has been proven since the “defund the police” movement showed just how much crime can go up with even a few less officers on the street, while the community may not want to see how the job actually gets done, they do want and need the job to be done. They want and need the officers out there protecting and serving. The want and need law enforcement enforcing laws and arresting criminals. Also, as we’ve seen, there is a lot of change in the air, focusing on serving those in need and extending understanding toward non-violent criminal circumstances that help people in need. But… at the end of the day… there will always be a violent criminal targeting a victim or victims and, therefore, a need for law enforcement officers willing and capable of exercising that justified violence to serve the community.