Lessons from the inside

This past summer, I had the pleasure of working for the New York City Police Department. Aside from the valuable career experience I received, I took away much more than just another notch on my resume. While the experience would have been eye-opening regardless of the circumstances, this happened to also be an extremely eventful and controversial summer for police and law enforcement in general. Sparked by the multiple incidents in Ferguson, Miss., as well as by a handful of other incidents across the United States, the police have come under tremendous scrutiny in the past months by both the media and the public. In particular, a good many of my closest friends and media personalities have spoken out and broadly criticized police officers in the wake of these incidents.

I can’t help but wonder if I would be as vehemently outraged at law enforcement as others had I not had the opportunity to observe these events unfold from the inside. Instead, I had a very unique perspective, albeit biased, knowing the details of how these kinds of events typically unfold, told by the very people who experience them on a daily basis. Now, I certainly don’t believe police officers to be infallible, completely free from wrongdoing or free of bias and discrimination, far from it. Police officers are after all, only human. If anything, I learned that there are a lot of problems, at least in my opinion, with the way police are trained and managed. However, I’ve heard numerous criticisms of police behavior recently that are misguided, ignorant and just plain untrue. At the very least, I want to take an opportunity to explain the facts as I have observed them first hand.

First and foremost, as I’ve said before and cannot emphasize enough, police officers are only human. This means a few things. This means that they make mistakes. It is unreasonable for the public to expect robot-like perfection and precision, especially during the tremendously fast-paced nature of a shootout. Despite what you see in the movies, the average shootout lasts a blazingly fast two seconds, nowhere near enough time to critically analyze every move. That said, police officers’ high level of success without lethal force is astounding. While the incidents that go wrong are at the forefront of every website and newsfeed, the incidents that are resolved professionally and peacefully on a daily basis are rarely acknowledged. This is not to say what happened to Michael Brown was an accident, or that the officer did not make any mistake. I refuse to pass judgment on the incident because it is so distorted with sensationalism that the truth of the matter is probably long gone. Regardless, police officers do make mistakes, as does every human. However, humanity isn’t necessarily bad. This means that police officers are, for the most part, well-intentioned and kind-hearted people. They aren’t military drones. They aren’t egotistical power nuts. They are people who want to make the world a safer place and dedicate their lives to doing so. This summer, I met some of the kindest and most selfless people I have ever known, but I also met assholes. It is important to remember that mistakes are made by both the kind ones and the rude ones.

To break up the banality of office life, the summer interns occasionally had days off to see different areas of the department. These included a tour of the 911 call center and a full six-hour ride-along in the worst precinct in The Bronx, complete with bulletproof vest and a full dose of reality. Perhaps one of the most informative experiences I had, however, was the day I spent at the shooting range. This included a two-hour discussion with the head instructor and some hands-on experience. While some of the discussion came off as overly defensive of police actions and clearly biased, there was real value in the experience. One major criticism of Michael Brown’s shooting was the six shots found in his body. Countless friends of mine expressed outrage at this, whereas I actually admired the amount of restraint the officer showed. In reality, when any typical person begins to fire a weapon, there is a very real human tendency to continue pressing the trigger until the magazine is empty. The combination of fear and adrenaline in life-threatening situations takes control and, in a matter of two or three seconds, 16 shots have been fired. So real is this tendency that officers must go through extensive training to resist the urge to fire excessive amounts of shots once they or their partner begin shooting.

Here’s a quick anecdote for you. The interns were given the chance to use the Firearms Training Simulator, which consists of real-life recorded scenarios encountered by officers reenacted by actors. Each participant is given a simulated weapon and told to act as an officer. My scenario consisted of a car accident followed by a physical altercation between the drivers, one of whom was almost beaten to death, despite multiple commands from me and my partners to stop immediately. Even knowing I was in a simulation, my heart raced, sweat poured from my forehead, my hands trembled under the weight of the heavy pistol as I stood there, having the power of life or death at the tip of my finger. Even fully justified in my action of shooting, I could never imagine the pain of knowing that I had decided to end somebody’s life. The simulation after mine consisted of a man threatening an infant with a knife. Within the course of three seconds, the four participants released a total of 73 shots. When asked how many shots they had used after the simulation, their best guess was 15-20.

The amount of self-control and professionalism exhibited by police officers is nothing short of astounding. You may ask: With all of this training and self-control, why six shots? Why not just one? The truth of the matter is that the Hollywood image of the hero lining up a shot and taking down a target with a well-placed shot through the head is complete nonsense. Who knew? In reality, one bullet wound is only lethal in about 30 percent of incidents. This almost never happens at the scene. A single bullet from a handgun is rarely enough to stop anybody. Again, adrenaline is enough to make most individuals never even realize that they are shot. Once an officer has decided that somebody’s life is in jeopardy, the primary objective is to stop the perpetrator at all costs, and one bullet is never enough. It’s OK to criticize. It’s OK to want to see a change in the way we police ourselves. However, don’t presume malicious intention simply because the person is wearing a badge.

ChristianWawrzonek is a computer science major from Pittsburgh, Pa. He can be reached atcjw5@princeton.edu.