Newsletter February 2009
in this issue
Off-Duty Intervention for Law Enforcement Officers
Evaluating A Subject's Posture During An Interview
Panic Can Cause Inappropriate Decision-Making
Top Ten

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ILEETA Use of Force Journal
with Larry Smith
 
In the early days of my police career carrying a firearm off-duty was the policy. I can remember if you met a ranking officer off-duty it was not uncommon for him to ask you to produce your off-duty firearm. If you did not have it, you could be subjected to disciplinary action. As time passed, off-duty officers were exposed to situations where the use of a firearm was a judgmental decision. Some of these incidents were controversial. The police department soon learned that requiring an officer to carry a firearm off duty placed the officer into an on duty capacity. Civil law suits named the city as a co-defendant because the carrying of a firearm was mandatory and noted that the officer was really on-duty. The legal staff of the department came up with the idea if we made carrying a firearm off-duty optional, it would ease the liability to the city. This would leave the officer still in his off-duty capacity and make the officer more responsible. In 2007, the San Diego County Chief's and Sheriff's Association adapted a countywide protocol concerning officers and off-duty intervention.

The protocol states that an officer has full police powers when off-duty and can take law enforcement action when they observe criminal activities. When off-duty officers observe criminal activity they must take many things into consideration. The first consideration is to contact on-duty officers, if possible, and become a good witness. If immediate action to prevent serious bodily injury or death is necessary, the seriousness of the offense and the immediate threat must be top priority before intervening.
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The foundation of a subject's nonverbal communication is his posture. How a person's body is positioned in a chair often dictates arm and leg movements and, in some cases, even eye contact. Three inferences can be drawn from a subject's posture: the person's level of interest, their emotional involvement and their level of confidence.

Dynamic vs. Static
An important assessment of a subject's posture is the extent of change within the posture over the period of a 30 or 40 minute interview. For a number of reasons, a truthful subject will exhibit a variety of different postures throughout the course of an interview. These postures will be appropriate given the content of conversation during the interview.

A deceptive subject, on the other hand, may assume an initial posture and never significantly deviate from that posture. It is theorized that the deceptive subject is exerting so much thought and energy to generate verbal responses to the interviewer's question, that nonverbal communication becomes frozen. A static posture clearly reflects a lack of confidence within the subject. 
 

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ILEETA Use of Force Journal
with Larry Smith

My son, Randy, and I were SCUBA diving off the coast of San Diego, CA in the kelp beds at about a depth of 40 feet. We were looking for abalone and spear fishing. Randy was only 14 years old and already an accomplished diver, but he lacked the fears of what could happen if safety procedures were not followed. He was wearing a smaller air tank than I was, but it had an air gauge to determine the amount of air that he consumed during the dive. Being a watchful parent, I always kept checking his air supply as a precaution. Things progressed well and his air consumption was much less than mine. Randy just finished spearing a big link cod and put it into his "goodie bag" when I looked at this air gauge. His air tank was down to less that 200 PSI and we usually surface at 300 PSI. I gave him the hand signal to surface. He motioned that he wanted to spear one more fish. Then, he gave me the signal, finger across the throat that he was out of air.

Luckily, I had plenty of air my tank. I felt the onset of panic. We could both perish if I did not get air to him or he had to make a free assent to the surface from 40 feet, which is not an easy task for a sport diver. I momentarily slowed my breathing and grabbed his SCUBA tank harness. Randy knew from recent practice sessions that he should grab my SCUBA tank harness to connect us for buddy breathing. I would control the air regulator taking three breaths, and then he would take three breaths as we ascend to the surface.

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Top Ten Reasons to Reevaluate Your Life: 
  1. The chief had your locker moved to the garage.
  2. After being garnished by your ex, your take home pay is $2.75.
  3. You have outgrown all your uniforms.
  4. The suspects you arrest are now calling you a loser.
  5. At your last promotional oral board your personnel package had to be brought in on a dolly.
  6. The Captain calls you Brenda. Your name is Dave.
  7. You can't afford half priced meals.
  8. You daydream about winning "American Idol".
  9. Your partner says that he is tired of working alone.
  10. Match.Com deleted you from its site because of "concerns".



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