The most dangerous weapon in law enforcement | Brian Willis | TEDxNaperville

now we go live to the scene of an officer-involved shooting where Brian Willis is standing by I'm here at the scene of the officers officer-involved shooting from earlier today that left one man dead details at this point are sketchy in fact we just came from press conference with the chief where he said he had no comment refused to provide details on what led up to the shooting or what occurred during the shooting well we have been able to piece together is that earlier today a member of the police department was involved in a traffic stop during that traffic stop he was engaged in a struggle or an altercation with a 30 year old white male and that male was subsequently shot and killed by the officer how many shots were fired unknown reason for the traffic stop is unknown and it's not sure whether this gentleman was the driver or passenger in the vehicle I'll continue to work on this story and bring you live updates as they become available Brian Willis reporting live from the scene of a candlelight vigil being held outside of police headquarters where citizens have gathered tonight demanding answers information and justice regards to the officer-involved shooting two days ago that left one man dead that man has subsequently been identified as John Doe now earlier today I spoke to the chief of police and he's still refusing to provide details about the events leading up to the shooting or what happened during the shooting itself I've had the opportunity to speak to members of the crowd tonight that have identified themselves as family and friends of the deceased John Doe one of them said that he believes that the police used a Taser on John before they shot and killed him and other family members have told us that John was a troubled man and although he was going through a difficult time in his life there was no reason for the police to shoot him Brian Willis reporting on the evolving continuing evolving situation where last night's peaceful protest has turned into a large-scale disturbance that's resulted in major clashes between large groups of protesters and the police resulting in rocks and bottles being thrown at the police the police using tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd there have been a number of businesses in the downtown area that damaged we're getting reports a number of people have been injured although the numbers are exact numbers are unclear we've had information at least two officers are injured and a number of arrests have been made overnight the police are continuing to work to establish order in the downtown area and while things now are relatively calm tensions remain high now in the story that I just relate to you what was the most dangerous weapon used by the police was it the gun that killed John Doe was at the Taser that was allegedly used against John was at the pepper spray was that the tear gas was at the shields and the batons in the crowd control unit that responded to disperse the crowds or was it words and not just any words to words perhaps the two most dangerous words and law enforcement executives vocabulary these two words no comment now why would I suggested these two words are the most dangerous words in a law enforcement executives vocabulary because when there is a shooting in your community that involves the police and somebody is dead as a result of that shooting and you hear the chief of the sheriff or the head of the State Police stand up at the press conference and say no comment what you think is cover-up and you wonder what the police did wrong and why are they trying to cover up now why would we think that because in every other major event in your community at the press conference the police give the facts as we know them and we talk about the ongoing investigation if there's a murder in your community we talk about the facts as we know them and we talk about the ongoing investigation if there is a school shooting or shooting in a church or a mall we give the facts as we know them when we talk about the ongoing investigation if there's a shooting where the police have shot someone to protect a citizen and say the life of a citizen we generally talk about the facts as we know them we praise the actions of the officer for saving the life of a member of our community and then we talk about the ongoing investigation but when there's an off sir involved in a life-or-death struggle and they shoot a subject and take a life to save their own life then too often the chief of the sheriff stands up and says no comment and when members of the community hear no comment very often they think cover up when the officers from the involved agency hear no comment they feel angry and they feel betrayed because one of their brother or sister officers was just involved in a violent struggle for their life perhaps the most traumatic event in their lifetime and they took the life of another human being to save their own life and now their leader at that press conference an opportunity to educate people about what happened and voiced their support for the officer stands up and says no comment and when the police are going to refuse to comment then it opens the door for self-appointed and alleged experts for politicians for special interest groups to comment the problem is is their comments are often based on rumor and innuendo and speculation they're always based on emotion rarely based on the facts because we don't release the facts as they're known at that moment in time now we need to understand that police use of force is very rare in fact all of the research that's been done around North America that would suggest of the tens of millions of interactions that law-enforcement professionals around North America have with members of the public then less than 1 percent of them result in the use of force beyond the mere application of handcuffs and low-level control holds police involved shootings are extremely rare and yet you wouldn't get that from watching the news or television how rare well in 2011 according the National Institute of Justice of the in excess of 40 million contacts that took place between law enforcement professionals and citizens in this country the number that resulted in shootings not in the police killing somebody but in a shooting by the police would equate to point Z zero zero zero two eight six five percent now the statisticians would likely tell you that that's an insignificant number but if you're that Officer if your family members involved in that incident if that's your community if that's your neighborhood if that's your village your town your city then it's a significant incident and at that press conference following the incident the comment or the no comment by the chief or the sheriff is very often the tipping point that will determine how this event is going to play out in that community following the shooting so what is the answer the answer is to grow courage the answer is to grow relationships grow the courage within the law-enforcement community to give the facts as we know them and to comment and if the facts as we know them support the fact that the officer acted reasonably then say that and if the investigation proves that the actions of the officers were inappropriate or unlawful or unreasonable then we need to have the courage to stand up and say that as well we need to grow relationships between the law enforcement agencies and the communities that we police and that we serve and protect and we grow those relationships through a culture of integrity and courage and character through discussion through dialogue through debate through communication and through education education about what but we need to have the courage to educate everybody within the law enforcement profession and the law enforcement culture about the realities of the dynamics of these confrontations and we need to educate the general public about this as well so here are some things for us to consider this term has been used an awful lot in the news lately and for some reason this term has come to mean no threat and has certainly come to mean in the eyes of many people know deadly threat in fact there are alleged experts that have stood up and said that there is no way that a law enforcement professional could add verges by shooting an unarmed person well I would ask you to consider some numbers fourteen hundred and six that's the number of people murdered in this country in a two year period starting January 1 2011 by unarmed people where personal weapons were the weapon used in those murders if you factor in its fixation strangulation and drowning those numbers jump to seventeen hundred and ninety-six now consider this number three three would be seemed to be a reasonably insignificant number compared to 1406 and 1796 but three is the number of law enforcement officers murdered in that two-year period by unarmed people where the weapons used were personal weapons and in fact in this country in the last week there was an officer who died in the line of duty where the weapon used against the officer and his death was personal weapons consider this number 25 in the last decade starting January 1 2003 25 law enforcement professionals in this country have been disarmed and murdered with their own weapons murdered by people who prior to taking the officer's gun away and murdering the officer with their own gun or unarmed people other things for us to consider we need to consider the whole element of time action time reaction time time and distance time to start time to stop in fact we're going to do some exercises here as a group to highlight this now this is a training pistol it's incapable of firing any type of a projectile it's an inert pistol now why would I have to explain that to you because if I just pulled this out and started pointing it at you many of you would be very nervous and many of you would be very upset because you don't know if it's a real gun or not and that's legitimate now some of you would say well the slide of the pistol is red it's obviously not a real gun and yet there are criminal elements in this country that will take real guns and paint them for us in colors too cause law enforcement officers to hesitate and there are tyga pnes and replica guns that are so realistic that the only way that you would know that it is not a real firearm is for you to have it this close and to hold it in your hand but for the purposes of this exercise i want you to imagine that this is a real gun that this is a loaded gun and i'm a subject and you're going to be the law enforcement officers you're the law enforcement professionals when i do something with this gun that would cause you to believe that you need to shoot me to protect your life or the life of someone else because as law enforcement professionals you're sworn to protect everyone in here so when i do something that would lead you to believe that you need to shoot me to protect yourself or someone else i want you to yell bang in a loud voice i want you to have the courage deal bang in a loud voice when i do something with this pistol of what leads you to believe that you need to shoot me already guys are kind of slow let's do this ready now how many of you just shot me in the back how many of you just shot me in the back while i was running away now those of you who did that are going to say well i didn't shoot you in the back where you're running away i shot you while you were pointing the gun at me and you're right but it takes time takes time for us to process that information takes time for you to process that information and to raise your gun and to fire that shot and in the time you did that i've already raised this gun fired that shot and turned and run and it might have run 5 or 6 or more feet and now your bullets are in my back and the video shows that you shot me in the back while i was running away time is a critical factor in these events now let's do this this is a training knife now when i do this with the knife then i want you to start tapping those of you in the front row can tap on a leg or a pad if you have it and all the rest of the rows and the chairs in front of you there's two metal strips on the back of the chair so I want everybody stir their hands in their lap and when I do this with the knife you're going to start tapping as hard in these fast as you can in the front row on your lap and then the other rows on that metal bar in the back of the chair in front of you and when I drop the knife you're going to stop tapping ready now let me ask you two questions number one how many of you would be able with 100% certainty under oath to stand up in a court of law or a court of inquiry and testify with a hundred percent certainty as to how many times you tapped now some of you say I would and you'd be right some of you say well I would but you'd be wrong and some of you saying you know I don't know I don't know if it was this many times or that many times and yet we have an expectation that law enforcement professionals engaged in a violent encounter or the threat to their life are going to have some kind of clear memory of everything that happened including how many times they pulled the trigger now let me ask you this question how many of you continued to tap after I dropped the knife because I heard tapping and here's why because it takes time to start and it takes time to stop it took time for you to process that information that I was a threat to you and to move your hand and start tapping which would signify pulling the trigger and it takes time for you to stop and it's not instantaneous and many of you continue to tap or continue to pull the trigger two or three additional times after I drop the knife and the video shows that you shot an unarmed man after I followed your commands and drop the knife because all of these events are captured on video they're captured on someone's camera or some other video and there's a huge movement now to have all law-enforcement officers wear some type of body-worn camera and I think that body-worn cameras can be a great asset but they're not a panacea they're a piece of the totality of circumstances a piece but we need to understand this about cameras that there are limitations to cameras video is only ever two-dimensional and yet we live in a three-dimensional world and the officer is processing information three dimension the video that is recorded can be interpreted but the camera does not interpret what he's what it sees or records it we as human beings interpret videos never experience fear or emotion videos do not have any training or experience videos do not experience inattentional blindness if I have a body worn camera here and my hands are out in front of me while I'm shooting what you're going to see is my hands if I'm in a face-to-face struggle with somebody you're going to see bodies and cloth and movement and you're going to see little else videos we'll never record what the officer sees feels perceives videos or a piece of the puzzle but they are not the answer the answer is for us to grow courage and to grow relationships within the law-enforcement community no comment should no longer be acceptable we need to have the courage to comment to give the facts as we know them and if the facts as we know them support that the officer acted reasonably and appropriately that we need to have the courage to say that and if the investigation shows otherwise then we need to have the courage to say that and we need to grow relationships between the law enforcement profession and the communities that we serve and protect and those relationships need to be growing well before we have these events growing through integrity and courage and character going growing through discussion and dialogue and debate and communication growing through communication growing through education and my sincere hope is that all of you are part of that growth thank you very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 155,999

Rating: 4.5419631 out of 5

Keywords: Global Issues, TEDxTalks, United States, Law, tedx talk, Social Justice, tedx, tedx talks, ted talks, ted, English, ted talk, ted x

Id: qwC-RHsC6gw

Length: 18min 20sec (1100 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 08 2014