With the news all ablaze with stories of police brutality, I’d like to hear from the front line - the front blue line. What are the statistics on non-cooperation by those being approached by police (once in a blue moon, or every day)? How are you trained to handle it? Are you trained or do you feel you have to project an “attitude” to be effective? What are your personal stories?
I think it depends somewhat on locale - urban vs. rural, beach vs. inland, etc. I’ve worked for 5 different departments in various settings and with varying police-citizen relations. The only serious (requiring physical contact) resistance I’ve ever encountered (except for outright fleeing) is from drunks. Beach community drunks tended to over-estimate their abilities and charm; rural drunks generally just wanted to sleep it off, but were generally cooperative.
From sober people, I’ve never had significant resistance. Then again, I was generally more patient than many and willing to spend a couple of extra minutes talking someone into something.
Your question is more than a bit vague. Non-cooperation could conceivably run the gamut from attempted murder to being snippy. Every situation is different and fluid. You have to be able to adapt your approach to the situation.
Ever hit anything like this? Just basic refusal to make things easier for you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTxEr8MDJko[quote=“kopek, post:4, topic:719336”]
Ever hit anything like this? Just basic refusal to make things easier for you?
[/QUOTE]No.
Like Loach said, good cops adapt to the situation. Some call for immediate, firm action; others beg for patience; and others are a wait-and-see-how-this-develops approach.
To expound on my earlier answer: I’ve never had a sober person, even an angry sober person, even an insane sober person, ultimately refuse to do what I wanted them to do. Drunks are a different problem, but even then the vast majority are “unwilling uncooperation”, if you will.
Most people comply with the police because that’s how they were brought up or they fear the consequences of resisting. A very small percentage (1%?) don’t care about the consequences and will resist even when outnumbered or out-sized by the officer. “Projecting an attitude” or Constructive Authority, as we call it here, can play a big role with the person who is undecided if they are going to resist or not. We all size each other up in seconds and if a bad guy thinks he can take an officer he may attempt do so. If he thinks “This cops is squared away and I’m not likely to win” he may go along with the program. Of course, there is no way of knowing how often this happens. Cop killers have been interviewed expressly said “That cop looked like a slouch and I knew I could take him. So I did.” This happens rarely enough that there is a real danger of complacency setting in.
That said, the resistance I encountered usually came during arrest situations. Some foot chases, a few vehicle pursuits. Fortunately, no major injuries in my experience. The instructor sitting next to me wasn’t so lucky when she and another officer encountered one of the rare ones. She was shot twice and is lucky to be alive.
It’s probably not the type of “non-cooperation” the OP was seeking, but: I lost a former co-worker to, what I believe to this day, was an over-aggressive show of force on the part of he and his team: they went in “big” on a small-time-drug search warrant of a house, in the middle of the night. The occupant, being suddenly awoken amid smoke and flash-bangs, blindly fired in his perceived self-defense against intruders. The bullet entered my former-associates side, between the vest flaps, killing him.
There was no need for any of it.