LA Sheriff Tells His Troops to be MORE Careful

There seems to be some disagreement over the good Sheriff’s intention and how that will translate into effectiveness.

I agree with the Sheriff to a point. Nevertheless, being a cop is not a life that lends itself to caution. We need to be really honest about that. As a retired police officer I can attest to this from personal experience. There were times that I was too cautious and sometimes regrettable consequences followed. There were times that I foolishly threw caution to the wind and ended up coming out of it ok (probably by the grace of God in some instances and dumb luck in others.) I lost a friend and fellow officer when he was ambushed while conducting routine search. I will always feel the pain of that loss.

Having had the privilege to train new officers, it was not always easy to teach the balance between safety and mission, or what I called personal desire. Still, over the years I found that the better officers were generally the ones that had to have their reins pulled in from time to time. They had desire, a love for what they did, which is the defense of the good. On the other end of the spectrum was the officer who needed constant prodding. Oh, sure they showed up for work and took reports but I often wondered what difference they really made.  Worse still, were they up for the time when someone really needed their help?

For cops everyday, every minute, every event has more risk than most other professions. This is the nature of the type of work performed by the police, firefighters, and our military to name a few. Simply accepting and dealing with danger is one of the many sacrifices one makes steping up to the job. Moreover, protecting the good requires sacrifice; it really truly does. Because, left on its own, all good will crumble without the sacrifices made to protect it. Common sense must prevail here. Because, in the end, someone must get a hold of the bad guy and arrest him. No level of caution will ever completely remove that critical, dangerous, and emotional point in time; that liminal space where reality crashes into the ideal, where strength and desire are matched, where good and evil clash. It is this threshold that we can not deny, ever. It is a consequence of our nature. We can never run from it; we can only face it with the courage, sacrifice, and common sense that are also part of our nature.

This article, at one level, speaks to the fine line officers must walk in exercising some level of personal safety while balancing ones public mission, and personal desire too, to protect and save lives.

Click HERE for the full story.