As soon as I heard the thud and the raised voice of my partner, I snapped my head around and looked out the living room window toward the driveway. I had been inside talking to the father and taking note of the broken coffee table in an effort to restore the peace to a domestic disturbance between the father and his adult son. After arriving at the house, my partner and I had separated the two of them. He took the son outside while I stayed in the living room and spoke with dad. My conversation was cut short when I heard the commotion coming from the driveway.
In that split-second glance out the window, I saw and heard my partner ordering the guy to turn around and put his hands up against the garage door. The guy was reluctant and I noticed the beginning of a struggle. I ran out the front door and joined my partner who was now pressing his body against the guy, pinning him against the garage door while whispering sweet nothings in his ear. I whipped my handcuffs out and slapped them on with the nimbleness and dexterity of a Christmas elf assembling an Etch A Sketch. Once the cuffs were on I escorted the guy to my cruiser, sat him in the back seat, and closed the door.
Confusion Sets In
I checked with my partner and made sure he was okay. After we exchanged an I’m- good-are-you-good gesture we said we’d see each other at the station and cleared the scene. We met up in booking where I asked him a question that I should have asked him just a tad bit sooner which led to the following exchange:
Me: “So, what did you arrest him for?”
Him: “I didn’t arrest him. You arrested him.”
Me: “No, no. I saw you struggling to arrest the guy, so I came outside and helped you put the cuffs on.”
Him: “Uh, it’s your route. Besides, I wasn’t arresting him. He was just being mouthy and moving around a lot so I told him to put his hands on the garage door. So what did you arrest him for?
Me: “I didn’t arrest him, you did! You had him up against the garage!”
Him: “No, you came outside and put handcuffs on him. You arrested him.”
Well, you get the idea. For a few minutes there I was seeing myself in court for a civil rights violation. I’m not going to lie, I started to sweat. Thankfully, we were able to sort it out and charged the guy with damaging the coffee table during the domestic. It was all on the up-and-up, mind you, just not very well communicated between the two of us. In my partner’s mind he was giving that guy some extra leeway while he was in my route and avoiding paperwork. In my mind I saw him go hands-on and need help with an arrest. Two different perspectives. Two different ideas. One confusing situation.
Lots of Bricks and Assumptions
We laugh about it now but at the time I was pooping enough bricks to build an outdoor fireplace. Our department was small, super up-tight, and I had a lot of fears as to what might become of me had we just unlawfully arrested someone. And though we got it all sorted out the whole situation could have been avoided had we just slowed down and talked about it instead of making assumptions.
Since my partner was the senior officer — the dinosaur — I played off of him rather than taking the time to hear both sides and then make the determination myself as to whether or not an arrest should be made. I simply deferred to his seniority without asking what was going on and why. And my partner was doing what senior officers do — avoiding paperwork and letting the junior guy handle it. He also deferred to me without talking about it. Making assumptions is a recipe for poor communication.
The Nature of the Beast
Had we both given our input to each other from what we had learned at that call we would have made a better, more informed decision and not had a guy in handcuffs that we each thought the other had arrested. Yes, it was my route and my call to make. Yes, he was the senior officer acting as a backup unit. But we could have best handled that call together.
Communication is key. No matter how junior you are or how much of a dinosaur you are, there’s no excuse not to communicate. Communication is something we ironically talk about but not do very well in law enforcement. Type-A personalities just want to run through walls and get stuff done — they don’t want to press pause and talk things through. It’s just the nature of the beast. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The Boot
If you’re a boot — a rookie officer — you have a lot to learn from the veterans, but you also have your own minds, intellect, observations, and experience. You need to be just as willing to receive advice and feedback as you are to assert yourself.
The Dinosaur
If you’re a salty veteran with socks older than the boot (see what I did there?), you need to mentor that new officer and not let them handle a call poorly. Speak into the situation, talk it through, and be a coach. You can do all that and still not take a report.
Know your roll, communicate, and work together for the best possible outcome. Together the dinosaur and the boot make a formidable force for good.
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- How has a lack of communication affected a call you were on?
- Who took ownership of that shortfall?
- What could you have done differently to change the outcome?
- Do you offer appropriate input on a call?
- Are you asking the right questions?
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