Pick The Hill You Want To Die On Carefully
February 12, 2008 – 5:55 am
I was reading the newspaper last Sunday when I came across a story that was picked up by the Associated Press about a 70-year-old Utah woman who was arrested for not watering her lawn. Over the years, I have learned to take the accuracy of newspaper articles with a grain of salt. I can still remember one occasion where I responded to homicide during a evening shift. When I got up the next day, I scanned the newspaper to see if they had reported anything about the incident. There was an article in the paper about a homicide but, with the exception of the location, the facts were so inaccurate that at first I didn’t even recognize the incident they were describing as the one I had worked the night before. However, for the purposes of this article, we will assume that the information contained in the article was essentially accurate.
When the story is distilled down, the facts are as follows. A 70-year-old woman hadn’t watered her lawn in more than a year, and the condition of her yard violated an city zoning ordinance. An officer attempted to issue her a summons for the violation but she refused to provide her name or sign the summons promising to appear at the hearing. If you are a cop, you can probably guess what happened next. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to go to jail either, so a struggle ensued and it went downhill from there. The woman ended up being arrested, booked and thrown in jail. I guess you could say that by following the letter of the law, justice was served and the cop did what had to be done . . . or not!
There is no way that a cop is going to come out of a situation like this looking good. Unfortunately, most of us have found ourselves in a similar situation where, what started as a minor situation somehow escalated into a knock down, drag out fight. My moment in the sun started as a truancy at 1:30 pm on the nearly deserted streets of a downtown housing project and ended with an all units call for assistance and seven arrests. I will spare you the messy details but it definitely got a little exciting for a while.
The common theme in these incidents is that neither of us acted outside the authority granted to us under the law. However, neither of us probably exercised the type of judgment and self-control that the public might reasonably expect from a professional law enforcement officer.
In my case, the cops that worked in the projects had an unwritten code of survival – never back down. We firmly believed that a cop wouldn’t last long in the projects once he got a reputation for backing down from the bad guys. Fortunately, no one was injured but I learned that an ego can be a terrible thing.
In the case of the Utah officer, a police spokesman diplomatically explained the situation saying, “Every officer in his career has situations they find themselves getting into, at the end of it they scratch their head and say, ‘gosh, how did this happen?’ Today, I think, was one of those days. Clearly there were some other options available.” The police are not pressing any charges against the woman for either neglecting her yard or resisting the ticket and the cop has been placed on administrative leave.
Sometimes it takes years of experience and maturity to figure out that just because the law says you “can” do something it doesn’t mean that you “must” do it on every occasion. During your entry level academy, someone probably mentioned the concept of discretion. Unfortunately, some officers never grasp the importance of this concept and it can create a public relations nightmare for their agencies.
Lets consider how the situation might have turned out if we could go back in time to the point when the officer realized that the woman was not going to cooperate with his effort to issue her a summons. At that point, he had a decision to make. On the one hand, the law in most states says that if a person fails to promise to appear in court they should be taken into custody. Of course, failing to provide one’s name or refusing to sign a summons will normally get you a quick ride in a patrol car – as it did in this case. However, the officer could have used a problem solving approach to the situation that may have prevented it from escalating into an embarrassing incident for himself and his agency.
Here are some of the facts that the officer should have considered. The “crime” was a relatively minor violation of the law that was not a danger to public safety. The situation had been going on for over a year and a summons was not going fix the situation. The violator was a 70-year-old woman that either didn’t fully understand the consequences of her actions or was very upset or both. The officer was probably becoming upset by the woman’s failure to obey his instructions.
At this point, I would argue that the best course of action would have been to take no action. Had the officer just said, “Ms. Perry, you are obviously upset right now so I’m going to give you a day to think about your situation. You need to contact the city to work out a solution to this issue. If you fail to do so by tomorrow at this time, I am going to come back and issue you a summons. If you fail to cooperate with me by providing the information that is required on the summons or you fail to sign the summons indicating that you will appear in court, I will be forced to arrest you, place you in handcuffs and take you to jail. I don’t want to do that but if you don’t do as I say, you will leave me with no alternative.” Had the officer done this, made a note of his instructions and then informed his supervisor of his actions, this situation would have probably turned out differently.
The manner in which the arresting officer handled this situation was probably “legally” correct but it was not “reasonably” correct. The officer’s actual actions failed the “Reasonableness Test” which is a really simple way to stay out of hot water.
Here’s how it works. When you realize that a situation is starting to escalate, ask yourself one question, “Is what I am about to do reasonable given all of the facts and circumstances?” If the answer is no, back off and try to de-escalate the situation even if it means backing down for now and coming back later when you are better prepared to deal with the situation. That’s it!
Remember, even General Douglas MacArthur was forced to back down and return at a later date to accomplish his mission.