Cops: The Silent Victims
by Dr. Joel F. Shults
I was surprised to find out just how malicious and deviant I was because of this badge I wear. While doing some Internet research on domestic violence by police officers I found several websites like http://www.life-span.org/policedv_victims.htm that outline why my fellow peace officers are such brutal Neanderthals. Among the skills I am reputed to have learned along my career path are being “deceptive and manipulative,” the ability to “blame others for his use of force”, and to “inflict pain and leave no marks or bruises.” During “Spy Week” at the academy I also presumably learned how to use a police scanner to listen in on cell phone conversations, attach tracking devices to cars, and am well practiced in harassment, planting evidence, and making false arrests. In league with the likes of Darth Vader, I also have the gift of “The Voice” which I can use to “humiliate loved ones.”
I unearthed this web-based sludge pile while looking for studies on violence against police officers. Go to the internet and search “police violence”. The slanderous misinformation and hate-mongering is stunning. We have a good and growing data base about deadly force and murders of police officers but precious little information about other victimization and anti-police violence. In a quest for helpful study of this issue I have created the Violence Against Law Officer Research (VALOR) Center.
The purpose of VALOR is to explore issues related to the integrity of officers’ safety regarding the social norming of violence against police. Attitudes of acceptance of assaults on officers can result in the lack of prosecution as well as the lack of support for peace officers in general.
Anecdotal evidence of the acceptability of violence against police officers is likely found in conversations among colleagues. Some officers think little of facing a resistive subject and taking a shove or kick as part of their workday. Prosecutors often think that short of a gunshot wound police officers should expect and accept assaults as normal just like boxers and hockey players do. Police officers are sued every day, but officers seldom use their right to file suit for violations of their rights by suspects. Slander, threats, resistance, and aggression have somehow become so accepted as part of the daily toil for officers that at the end of the day when they get home and their family asks “Anything interesting happen today?” that the officer may not even think to mention the punch they took from the drunk they arrested.
Only when studying victims of crime did it occur to me that police are one of the most victimized groups on the continent. Not only do police officers suffer more physical attacks, verbal threats, and harassment than other individuals, officers must also investigate their own victimization, are accused of precipitating the attacks against them, become suspects if they allege an assault against themselves, and are often ignored when it comes to victims’ rights and services.
As I remember some of my own experiences the truth of living life as an un-served crime victim is evident. Many years ago a fleeing felony suspect rammed my patrol car while I was standing outside of it ordering the suspect driver to stop. After the perpetrator crashed into my door as I scrambled to get into the car he continued fleeing, crushed the door against my leg, and subsequently crashed into several other cars until he hit a gas main and utility pole after a wild pursuit through the city. The driver was not prosecuted after he promised to join the military.
In another jurisdiction I was confronted by an intoxicated machete-wielding male who escaped getting shot by me and assisting officers only by the benevolence of a supervisor who was willing to use a nightstick and pepper spray to subdue him. Apparently because the offender was too drunk to know what he was doing and didn’t actually hurt anybody, the prosecutor thought a night in detox was sufficient for punishment. This was the same prosecutor who got no jail time and a misdemeanor plea for a 19 year old martial arts student who knocked me unconscious on a traffic stop and left me bleeding on the pavement as he fled into the woods.
Recently, a fellow officer who was forced to shoot a resistive burglar was not notified of the sentencing hearing of the suspect until a chance conversation prompted a demand that she have a voice in the proceeding. The offender got no jail time.
In order to begin a study of police officers as crime victims I created a survey of officer experiences and opinions on the matter. Thus far the survey shows some interesting trends. Over 67% of respondents had five or more years of armed patrol experience, representing both genders and all levels of jurisdiction. When these officers were asked if they thought taking an assault was part of their job, 7% said yes. They estimate that 14% their supervisors thought getting assaulted was part of the line officers’ job, but underestimated their peers’ views by saying only 3% of their coworkers felt the same way. Interestingly about the same percentage (40%) of officers say that their prosecutors take assaults on officers very seriously as those officers who say their prosecutors think getting assaulted is part of the job. More than half of those surveyed state that they have been assaulted but didn’t consider themselves a crime victim, and fewer than 12% have ever been offered victim’s rights services. Slightly more than 15% of officers confessed to failing to report being a victim for fear of negative peer pressure and about 10% have decided that pursuing charges against an offender who assaulted them was not worth the effort.
The survey verifies that policing is dangerous work on duty and off. Six out of ten officers report having encounters in which they had to make the decision to use deadly force. While actually using deadly force is relatively rare, the majority of officers during their careers had been in a position where using deadly force would have been legally and morally justifiable but they chose not to use it. Only 7% of officers report having not been threatened within the past year. Nearly 90% have been threatened with a lawsuit, over 75% have had their job threatened by an offender, and nearly 80% of officers have been threatened with assault if seen by the offender when the officer is out of uniform and off-duty. Actual threats received during off duty hours were reported by 17% of officers responding to the survey. Over 10% reported being a victim of vandalism to personal property from offenders seeking revenge within the past year and almost 30% experienced personal property damage by offenders at least once in their career. An astounding 82% of officers report suffering painful injuries without reporting it or seeking medical care sometime in their career. About 14% report seriously considering getting out of police work because of the danger.
Only 3% of those surveyed report being injured by a deadly weapon in the past year but 10% have been injured by an offender’s weapon over a career. Threats with a deadly weapon occurred to 25% of officers in the last year while nearly 50% of respondents reported being victimized by threats with weapons during the course of their career. Almost one in four officers reports making a hospital visit because of an injury caused by an offender in the past year and over 50% have sought treatment in their career with 20% report losing time off work because of an injury caused by an offender.
Fewer than 20% of officers in the survey report that offenses against police are aggressively prosecuted. A significant 60% of respondents believed that assaults on officers were among the first charges dropped in plea bargaining, with half of officers reporting that felony cases were prosecuted as misdemeanors. Further, nearly a quarter of officers were investigated for wrongdoing in cases where they believed they were the victim. Nearly half of the officers were not consulted on plea outcomes on cases where they were the victim of assault or resisting arrest.
Despite what many say is the assumption of risk that police officers accept, the laws of every state require citizens to submit to an arrest; slander is an actionable civil tort; and police officers theoretically are given special protections by laws that have enhanced punishments when an officer is victimized. Must we have a police funeral in order to evoke the outrage that any other citizen would voice if they suffered the same indignities and assaults?
The effect of violence against police officers is corrosive to the social order. How assertive are police officers going to be if chiefs, sheriffs, and prosecutors give tacit permission for offenders to get a free kick or punch on any street contact or in our jails? How empathetic with victims can officers be when the officer is denied those basic victim rights and services themselves? What price is paid by police departments that lose officers to resignation, premature retirement, injury, excessive force claims, or stress-related maladies when that department views violence against their front line as an acceptable working condition? What price is paid by the individual officer when the guardians of justice are not protected within the system they serve? Television psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw is known for stating the principle that individuals teach others how to treat them by what behavior they accept from them. How are we teaching our public to treat us?
