April 2024. Blues Vol 40 No. 4

GUEST COMENTARY Daniel

GUEST COMENTARY Daniel Carr Boots & Flashlights: The fog of Naivety I started the police academy in July 2005 - a few months after I graduated from college with an undergraduate degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration (an unnecessary way to say “Criminal Justice.”) Going away to college as a quasi-independent young adult and half-heartedly attending easy college courses prepared me exactly zero for the police academy and somehow less for the realities of policing in a violent city. It’s strange to look at a career on a timeline where norms and practices dramatically evolve but you exist as the same person. The official training that I received in the police academy was some (now unimaginable) version of “Ask, Tell, Make.” I sat through that “training” enamored, hanging on every word as though my police academy instructors were Socrates and nearly two decades later I was the detective investigating officers for not using enough “de-escalation” and the teaching the preferred police ethics course of the day. BOOTS AND FLASHLIGHTS As a rookie I was assigned to work graveyard shift in an area dubbed “the warzone.” It was 2006 and I was in a squad with my best friend. Policing as a new cop in a wild area 24 The Blues - April ‘24 is more satisfying when close calls, near misses, and successful foot chases are shared with a friend. My buddy and I were dispatched to a residential burglary call in the middle of a busy night on a specifically awful street. The victim scared the burglar and after forcing entry he ran from the scene. The caller provided surprisingly accurate information to dispatch that included: a description of the offender, the direction of travel, and an update of where the offender was in real time. As my partner and I approached the scene, to our absolute shock, we saw the offender near the scene of the crime. There was no one else on the street at this time of the night and the description provided was exactly what my mind imagined and now saw. We quickly exited the car (we were riding together as one of our cars was out of service) and approached the offender - shouting a barrage of verbal commands. As we approached I noticed that in between the offender and us - was a six-foot chain link fence. In the darkness, from a distance, I had not realized that a fence separated us. The offender was encased in another backyard. With the clarity of nearly 20 years of 20/20 hindsight - we had multiple options. But, in the moment we gave the offender commands to climb over the fence - so that we could arrest him. He hesitated at first and said that he could not climb the fence. I responded that he surely did not want us to come and collect him. The offender meekly obliged and climbed over. He climbed over and was now on our side at the top of the fence and we put hands on him and guided him to the ground and got him in handcuffs. The explanation of “guided” is not an exaggeration. This guy was not armed, did not resist arrest, and we used zero force to get him into custody. As this was one of my first felony arrests I turned to my friend with the intent to give him a high-five, a chest bump and celebrate like Canseco and McGwire after a steroid fueled game-winning homer. For that brief second I was on top of the world. I just made a felony arrest without using force. I thought that this was the epitome of good police work. That brief second was corrupted by a squad of slightly more senior cops and their sergeant. Without knowing it they had pulled up on scene and starting approaching us as we guided the offender off of the fence and into

get your FREE SUBSCRIPTION to The BLUES, scan the QR code or click here. handcuffs. I expected them to join our celebration or at minimum give us a “good job guys.” But, to my dismay, the first words spoken by our backup was criticism that the bad guy didn’t have any injuries. The sergeant condescended from on high that when cops catch someone who committed a felony that the drive to jail should be proceeded by a stop at the emergency room. There was then a sudden cloud of anonymous dust as a few seconds of boots and flashlights proceeded getting this guy to his feet. DARK Things after that were different for me. There was a cynicism and a darkness in policing that I had previously, naively not been aware of. This opened a new door and closed others in the structure that I had set up neatly in my mind. All these years later the fog of time clouds some of the details but the experience of disappointing eyes judging me in the moments after that arrest is still clear. I don’t know if the other officers on scene used force that day. I know that there was no stop at the hospital. I can’t even remember the names or the faces of the officers/sergeant. But, that isn’t the point. I am not griping about their possible unprofessionalism - but instead this is a vulnerable highlighting of my obscene naivety. FINAL THOUGHTS I had held this idea that police were always the good guys and that criminals were always the bad guys. Things after this incident were different for me. I questioned the paradigm of what “good guy” and “bad guy” really were. I explored the idea that maybe more aggressive policing is the answer. That if police were slightly more aggressive with criminals who victimize the innocent - that the community may be safer for everyone else. And, maybe the statistics reflect that. Between 2006 and 2024 the city entered into a DOJ Consent Decree (2014). In 2006 the city had 36 homicides. In 2022 the city had 121 homicides. Maybe aggressive policing saves innocent lives? Maybe aggressive policing further divides populations that already distrust police? I still don’t have the answer. That’s the reason I continue this project. Asking important questions at the intersection of morality, law, and reality. “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster” - Friedrich Nietzsche The Blues - April ‘24 25