I have gotten great feedback from my appearance on "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet" live from FOX Studios in New York City. I've heard from law enforcement and non-law enforcement alike who appreciated the public explanation of the use of Tasers.
That is my aim. I hope that my interviews, etc. help people to understand what law enforcement does and why we do it. Not all law enforcers are good and not all officers are bad. I am the last person to take a hard line view dumping all possibility of the latter or the former.
I want to give the public the tools needed to make informed judgments about the conduct of police officers and deputy sheriffs. That educated perspective will hopefully result in dignified treatment of the police and the public that we serve.
Here is one of the particularly enjoyable emails that I received. The writer even addressed the situation on the University of Florida Taser incident's Andrew Meyer. This one is from a police officer in Fort Worth, Texas:
Chief Weinblatt. Sorry but once a chief, always a chief. This email is
in comment to the Morning Show that I watch today. And as a fellow law
enforcement officer, I was happy to see that a law enforcement officer
was given the opportunity to explain how tasers work on national
television.
Your law enforcement career exceeds mine by 10 years if not more. I
believe your explanation and demonstration of the taser will help people
better understand their use and purpose in the law enforcement world.
Being tased myself I can tell you that it's far better than a bare
knuckle brawl with a 250+ suspect where arms and shoulders are going to
break. Like the guest on the show for example, one lady stated that it was
mistaken identity and she was tased three times. First off why would it
take three times to subdue this woman?
I feel that a portion of society feels that they are above and out of reach of the law. I'm not even going to touch the topic on the Fl kid. He's just lucky that the
secret service or other feds weren't present.
The taser is a highly effective devise. When I was first trained on
one, I thought come on how much can it really hurt. WOW! I'll take
pepper spray any day. I still was a little weary about them and maybe it
was more doubts about the effectiveness of them. I mean the last thing
any officer wanted was to be in the middle of you know what and a taser
takes a crap on you.
The first time I saw one deployed, I was in FTO and got in my first
pursuit. I was the second patrol car in the pursuit. I was so excited,
radioing dispatch of our location, a lot was going through my mind. The
car stopped, and the suspect fled on foot. We were able to catch him
during the foot pursuit. I was so happy that I got him. But I was now on
the ground fighting with this guy. It was the first time anything really
big happened on my first phase of training. All I thought about was,
"I got him, I caught him". But the real fight started. I heard my
FTO behind me and he yelled, "TASER". I just let go of the suspect
and moved away. He took the ride 4 times before compiling with officers.
But after everything was done, I walked over to the car and thanked the
guy. I said, "Thank you so much you are officially my first arrest".
He looked at me and said, "Damn that hurt. Next time I'll take the
ass woopin'".
I've read some of your articles Chief and I'm glad you were given
the opportunity to help people better understand the vital role that
tasers play in law enforcement.
And here was my email back to this Fort Worth police officer:
Thanks for your nice email concerning Tasers and my recent appearance on "The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet." I've gotten quite a lot of feedback on the segment.
You are right. The more that the law enforcement community educates and informs the public, the more they will understand what it is we do and why we do it. That is my aim.
It sounds like you care about what you do. That is great. We need more police officers who care about the professionalism and service aspects of the job. Keep up the good work.
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