Being Dumb Is Scary

If you fail to check your corners, chances are you won’t encounter Freddy Krueger, but someone far, far worse.

Halloween makes for some interesting calls. And if the call itself isn’t interesting, then the people or the circumstances around it often are. Halloween brings out the weird. This particular call was no exception.

House On A Hill

It gets dark early in October so it always seems to feel later that it really is. I parked my cruiser, grabbed my giant Maglite, and made my way to the concrete staircase that led from the cul-de-sac to the little house perched on top of an abrupt hill that looked more like a cliff. The house was shrouded in shrubbery and evergreens making it barely visible from the street. I craned my neck to look up at it as I followed the wrought iron railing up the stairs to the front door.

Residential alarms are a dime a dozen and I was mentally prepared for the 99% likelihood that this one would be false. My backup was still a few minutes out so I figured I could walk the perimeter and shake the doors before he got there to save him the trouble of ascending the stairs and having to make oxygen choices like I was.

Check, Please

I was breathing heavily, but I had made it to the top. Nothing checks reality for you quite like summiting a mountain in uniform, and reality said it was time to cut back on the donuts and stop skipping leg day. With no one around to hear my wheezing I started at the front door and made my way around to the right checking the security of the doors and windows as I walked. Everything looked good until I got to the back door and found that it was unlocked. Dang it!

A burglar alarm plus an unsecured door meant the interior of the house would have to be checked. I let Dispatch know and waited for my partner who rolled up a few minutes later. Aided by a Sherpa and a Yak he made it to the top of the stairs and hung a prayer flag for good measure. I gave him a minute to catch his breath and after he had recovered we made entry to clear the house.

Clear As Mud

By the light of our flashlights we began clearing the small, cluttered two-story home. Moving from the kitchen in the back of the house toward the living room I made the colossal blunder of getting ahead of my partner and entering the living room alone. I looked right, but not left, and assumed the room was clear. I lowered my gun and my light and turned to look back at my partner who wasn’t there. As I turned to my left and toward the corner that I had failed to check I nearly jumped out of my polyester uniform.

Standing only a few feet from me, gazing at me, was Freddy Krueger — a life size, museum quality, mannequin-thing that only a weirdo would have in their home. And I had walked right by it, alone, and completely oblivious. The encounter was like a bad dream when you get scared and try to yell, but can’t form actual words so all that comes out is primordial moaning — like Frankenstein after the resurrecting bolt of lightning.

Tactical Dunce

It wasn’t that Freddy Krueger himself was scary — although he is — it was that I had failed Tactics 101 and, had Freddy been a real bad guy, I would have been real dead.

In the end, the alarm was false, the house was clear, and I lived to tell the tale. But if I didn’t learn anything from that experience, then it was all for nothing. Like you, I knew what I was supposed to do, but I let my guard down and just wanted to go through the motions and be done with it. And that’s where I went wrong, and it began with my mindset.

To live to fight another day there are a few principles you must never violate like a Tactical Dunce:

Tactical Mindset: Think Guilty Until Proven Innocent

If you go into a situation assuming everything is fine, that it’s yet another false alarm, or that no one is in there, you are setting yourself up for failure. You are a lamb going to the slaughter. It is imperative that you assume that the bad guy is in there and act accordingly until proven otherwise. You must begin with the mindset of “he’s in here” or “he’s in there” so that when he is, it is no surprise, and when he isn’t, it’s a disappointment. That is not paranoia, that is having a tactical mindset.

Two Men To A Room

Never ever clear a room by yourself. Period, full stop, the end, buh-bye now. The reason is simple: because you physically cannot account for every angle, see everything all at once, or watch your own back. That’s just the way it is. Always have at least one other officer with you before entering a room, and preferably a competent one. They go left, you go right, or vice versa. Check your corners and cover your area of responsibility.

I violated both of these rules by first assuming that the alarm was false and then by carelessly entering a room by myself so I could be done with the call more quickly. I was lucky, I only encountered Freddy Krueger. Next time I might not be so fortunate.

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• What’s your mindset on routine calls?
• Do you assume worst or best case scenario?
• How do those assumptions affect your tactics?
• When have you violated sound tactics but gotten lucky?
• What could have been the result?

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