FEB. 2025. Blues Vol 41 No.2

BY BRIAN MCVEY,RETIRED

BY BRIAN MCVEY,RETIRED CHICAGO PDLearning Humility through HumiliationOfficers are human. Humansmake mistakes. Officers mustremember to work on themselves.Unfortunately, sometimeswe learn the hard way throughhumiliation. The good news isthrough humiliation we learnhumility. Something I know verywell.My story plays out as a ChicagoPolice Officer working on aSouth Side Gang Unit on ChristmasEve 2010. Working a threemancar, my mind-set was elsewhere.I was relaxed, believingthe cold weather would makefor a slow Christmas Eve night.My mind-set was not focusedon work that evening. MidnightMass was my focus and avoidingovertime was my goal. Weparked our car in a high crimearea and saw a man duck insidea restaurant, come out andseemingly hide; strange enoughbehavior to draw our attention.He went to the alley and stoodby a dumpster. On approachingwe discovered he was relievinghimself.We conducted a field interview,a *pat down and a namecheck that revealed he had anoutstanding warrant, and furtherhe was waiting for food he’dordered while in the restaurant.We made the arrest on a verycold, slow night.In the Christmas spirit, I returnedto the restaurant to getour arrestee his food and wouldallow him to eat while we processedhis paperwork. Enteringthe Police station, we notifiedour supervisor of the arrest, andwe processed our arrestee.I checked on our arresteebecause he had not yet touchedhis food and felt a bit wary andsomewhat offended because Iwent out of my way to get hisfood. At first, I thought, maybehe lost his appetite because weruined his night. Later, I lookedinto the holding cell, where hehad this “look” that seasonedofficers recognize as a warning.Sometimes you can’t explainwhy someone’s behavior makesyou uncomfortable, it just does.We showed him respect, yetthings didn’t seem right. Again, Ilooked at the bag of food untouched.I walked into the roomand decided to do a more thoroughcustodial search, meticulouslyparsing his three jacketsand two hooded sweatshirts.Grabbing the numerous layers,I surmised he had drugs in a hiddenpocket or compartment. Boywas I wrong. I grabbed anotherjacket, felt something heavyand figured it was a glass cokebottle that went with his meal. Iwish; it was a loaded handgun.I thought, “OH MY GOD. I MISSEDIT.” I literally started to shake.He could’ve murdered all of us!An officer watching this begantelling EVERYONE in the office.Like a fire, our incident spreadthroughout the station. I felt likea complete fool. I looked at mytwo partners and wondered,“How did we miss it?” Howcould we miss a gun? Ashamed,I avoided eye contact with anyonethe rest of the night. Thisarrest for public urination andwarrant was now a FELONY Gunarrest. Humiliation flowed overme instantly.134 The BLUES -- FEBRUARY ‘25

Reflecting, I know I was notmentally prepared when I arrivedat work. Complacent, Iwas thinking, it was ChristmasEve, cold and going to be a slownight. NOT SO!!After finding the loaded weaponI had to make the embarrassingcall to my supervisor andfelt like crying. The shame I hadtowards myself was enormous.My only thought that night wastrying to make midnight Massand had “blinders” on. Thissmall error could’ve been fatal.The humiliation didn’t endthat night for the three of us.The following day we came towork and found numerous signsposted that read, “The ThreeBlind Mice”: more humiliation.We learned an enormous lessonthat night and because ofthis incident, I became an expertat searching arrestees. It wasa great learning experience oncomplacency.Put distractions away whenyou are at work. Everyone bringsstress from home and for officersit can be fatal. Luckily formy partners and i we survived.Days later a few courageousofficers heard about our ChristmasEve “miss” and went outof their way to inform me, “thishappened to me too!” One toldme, “Unfortunately you will haveto carry this burden for awhile,but this will make you a betterofficer!” It did. Because of thisincident I was reminded of theproper mindset at work whilebecoming an expert at pattingoffenders down for hidden contraband.A few reminders:• En-route to work prepareyourself mentally for the day.• DO NOT take phone calls ortext while transporting arrestees.• When transporting prisonersALWAYS perform another patdown of subject.• Be cautious and slow and methodicalso as to not get pokedby needles or crack pipes.• Be aware of the many concealed/compartments on asubject wearing layers.Brian Mc Vey, MAP, Proud Dad.Brian is a former Chicago PoliceOfficer injured in the line ofduty in 2012. You can reach Brianat btmcvey77@gmail.comThe BLUES - - FEBRUARY ‘25 ‘25 135