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From the restaurant video
Officer Jose Rios III was exonerated because a judge was able to hear and learn the entire context of the encounter.
The State’s own expert detailed why Officer Rios’ actions were necessary. The trouble is that too many people failed to learn the details behind the images and rushed to pass judgment.
Police officers have a unique mission in society. They are tasked with handling any and all problems that face a community. Each and every call requires that they succeed in bringing order to a situation, whether it be resolving a dispute between neighbors, breaking up a fight between juveniles, or catching a bank robber.
There is no margin for failure in police work. If an officer fails to bring order and control to a situation, lives can be put at risk.
NJ PBA President Anthony Wieners
The situations police officers are faced with vary day to day. In the overwhelming number of situations, officers are met with cooperative citizens who are compliant even in the most stressful situations. Where situations dictate, officers are required to utilize force to gain control and restore order.
One survey showed that for every 10,000 calls police handle, fewer then 4% required police to use force. Officers are always balancing the need to use force with the need to gain compliance. Officers are trained in the police academy and in in-service training on the force continuum. No level of force is ever considered routine.
Every time an officer is required to use force, it can be a life and death struggle. In 2010, seven officers were killed nationwide when they struggled with suspects and the officers’ own guns were used against them.
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Our goal is to protect society. For those who choose to escalate the situation, we need to neutralize their threat as quickly as possible. Officers know from hundreds of interactions with the public what a normal response to an officer’s instruction is.
When the person you are dealing with begins to clench his fists, stiffen his arms, or change into an aggressive stance the situation has altered. The suspect who is going to resist compliance or aggressively attack dictates the officer’s actions. At any point in time, the suspect can submit and an officer can alter the force required.
Where officers are required to use force, the public can perceive the actions inaccurately. The public views police interactions in the paradigm that they learned through television shows, movies, and reality shows. In these settings, the background music often lets the viewer know something dangerous is about to happen.
SEE: Passaic Police Officer Jose Rios not guilty in beating
The officer depicted on television quickly utilizes some force on the bad guy and the situation is resolved. Movies show a police officer firing a single gunshot to knock a gun out of the bad guy’s hand. Nothing could be further from the truth in real life. The struggle to gain compliance of an individual is often difficult and intense. In real life, people who are under the influence of drugs and alcohol pose tremendous challenges to police who seek compliance.
Using force as an officer is always a challenging dilemma. We can do better as a state in providing more resources for officers who are faced with these situations. New Jersey is one of the last states in the nation to provide police with less then lethal alternatives for use of force situations. These alternatives can often provide police with valuable alternatives to using a baton. We need to expedite these tools to every police department in New Jersey.
Each day, thousands of men and women put on their uniform in New Jersey with the goal of making their communities safer. We joined this profession with the vision that we would make a difference in the lives of those we served.
We understand the risks we take and the sacrifices we make. We ask for understanding of the difficult nature of the work we do. The safety of our communities is based on our police. Our effectiveness as police officers is based on our communities support. Let us not rush to pass judgment on our police officers without understanding the work they do.
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