Police Intervention in Violence Can Result in Deadly Force
Albuquerque Journal Editorial Page Editor Bill Hume edited the original piece down to how it appeared published in the Albuquerque Journal, Monday June 10, 1991, Op-Ed Page A-7 under the headline "Police Intervention in Violence Can Result in Deadly Force" and over the byline by Mark G. Bralley, Albuquerque Police Officer

The attitude of the Albuquerque Police Department in the past was to take care of our business without much assistance from the public. We didn't want to bother you with the gory details of murder, violence, drugs, child abuse, human suffering and all the other sordid details of the job.

It is now time to break with tradition. Your police force has not been able to fight the tide of crime by itself for a long time. We are only as good as the citizens allow us to be and we do need your help and support.

We are not television heroes. We are your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, nephews, cousins, neighbors, friends and sometimes, we are not your friends. We have to issue you traffic citations and deal with you when you are involved in negative circumstances.

So, as we ask for your help, we ask that you understand how we become involved in the difficulties of having to take a human life.
I can not tell you the details of the shootings or what actually went through the officers' minds for I am neither clairvoyant, nor have I talked to those involved, or to the investigators in the cases.
I do however, have some insight into what has been reported in the press, which differs from what appears to be the popular opinion of the general citizenry, local press and plaintiffs attorneys. I have the insight learned from 18 years of service as a law enforcement officer.
I preface my remarks by saying that though the average police officer feels the bitter sting of public attacks and is defensive. I can assure you the internal review process is quite a bit tougher than anything the general public dishes out. The difference is we try to assess our actions without the emotional overtones which attach to the loss of a fellow human being or loved one. It is not that we are cold, but delving into the emotions does not resolve the problems.
We further are not in the business of trying to sell newspapers or get better ratings by stirring the various neighborhoods and special interest groups, some very anti police.
The officers in recent incidents had to determine the situations for themselves. Though we can sit back in the harsh light of the following day and say, "they could have done this," or "they might have done that," we were not there and were not able to bring our personal knowledge and expertise to bear in an attempt to resolve the predicament.
The fact that other cities have what appear to be "better" statistics in use-of-force situations may be based on several factors, including different attitudes towards deadly force. They also have very dissimilar attitudes towards crime and murder in particular. Albuquerque maintains a "wild west" attitude towards the use of guns and knives and people are extremely ready to resolve problems through violence.
The recent incidents may have started as suicide threats, but each soon changed into aggravated assaults on police officers. The "suicide threat" was no longer directed inwards but was turned towards the officers. The public has not recognized that the officers became the victims of crime, aggravated assault, and only then fired in self defense. If the public thinks it is paying police officers to be targets of violent citizens it is wrong. If special interest groups' demands cause the surrender of the right of officers to self-protection, only fools will be recruited for police work.

The public has been influenced by grieving friends, relatives, and "witnesses," a naive, sometimes manipulated press and self serving lawyers, who have never been placed in the situations the officers found themselves.

The families would have you believe the person was gentle and incapable of harming anyone. But, this is the same family which had given up on controlling the person's behavior and resorted to calling police to solve the dilemma.
No doubt there was no intention to have the loved one die. But, equally, the officers never expected that this call would irreversibly alter their lives when it ended.
No officer intends to take a life when he goes to work. During the remainder of their career officers involved in shootings will always wonder why, as the training changes and improves, they did not have updated information which might have allowed them to take some other action. But, they acted as best they could with what they knew at the time.
There are assertions that officers are not trained properly in the handling of mentally deranged, drug crazed, or drunk persons. This is not true. Part of the reality of dealing with such people is when armed they pose one of the greatest threats to others. The majority of all violent crimes occur by offenders who are mentally deranged, drug crazed, or drunk. Anyone suggesting officers can, in every case, talk an impaired and determined subject out of a crime has not dealt with reality and lacks an understanding of the depth of the social dilemma caused by mental problems, alcohol and drugs.
The Department has made some major changes in the Training Section recently as the result of some retirements, and replacements have shuffled the staff. Ongoing internal review has identified needed adjustment in our training. But, before we could implement additional training, this series of unfortunate incidents occurred. There is no guarantee such training would have altered the outcome.
The use of a knife is deadly force and should be met with deadly force. In Albuquerque, knives have been the second most popular weapon of choice in the commission of murder.

In a recent survey of Albuquerque police officers, employed as officers in this City, about 28 percent responded that they had been victims of murderous assaults; 38 percent an aggravated battery; 68 percent an aggravated assault; 83 percent a simple battery; and 88 percent a simple assault. One-half of one percent reported they had never been attacked. Four Albuquerque police officers have been murdered since 1980.
The statistical model for training in confronting a person armed with a knife indicates that distances of less than 20 feet constitutes a killing zone for a subject armed with a knife.
Many would like to believe officers are trained like the stunt men of Hollywood and can disarm a person without injury to either the perpetrator or the officer. Mace and the baton are thought to be appropriate weapons, they are not.

The policy and training in the police department is to shoot to stop the action. The fastest and most effective way to stop action is to apply force which totally disables an offender. Unfortunately, this usually results in death.

Shoot to kill means you must be legally justified in taking a life because another life is in fact being threatened.
Though this description sounds cold every officer who learns it is a human being who has to come to grips with the basic human revulsion to taking a life. I can assure you no officer takes such responsibility lightly. As a matter of fact, I have known numerous officers who upon realizing they no longer could overcome such feelings, have left the police service. I have also known officers who failed to recognize their unwillingness and met with an untimely end when they were unprepared.
Responsibility for lethal action being taken resides in the perpetrator, not the officer. The officer unfortunately has a reactive role in the close-in public fray. In each of the recent cases, the officers knew they were being attacked. The subjects each made aggressive moves towards them, within the killing zone. The officers all had used repeated simple, loud and clear instructions for the offenders to stop, drop the weapon and not move. Each subject controlled his own destiny and forced the situations.
There have been comparisons to the handling of these cases and the handling of bears who wander into town, but the comparison does not survive analysis. We would never consider trying to tranquilize a fleeing citizen - or, for that matter, an attacking bear. If the bear had turned and attacked, she would have met a fatal end.
The problem of how to establish a better deadly force policy acceptable to society, without creating a greater danger to law enforcement officers, will continue to be difficult.
I am sure that as long as police and an informed citizenry work on reasonable solutions - and curb the tendencies to grab for quick fixes - we will successfully continue to modify and improve our policy.

But, as long as human beings engage in violent activity, whether directed against themselves or others, and officers intervene, deadly force problems will continue to unfortunately plague us.
"A 19 year APD veteran, Mark G. Bralley holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of New Mexico and is a past president of APOA."