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Old 06-14-2014, 01:11 PM   #13
Brett Charvat
Location: Pullman, WA
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 64
United_States
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Re: Receiving Verbal Abuse.

While the topic at hand (remaining calm while being verbally assaulted) is a worthwhile discussion, the video linked to in the first post is also a good example of our needing to be careful what we believe in just because it's on video. As a former Highway Patrolman myself, the video in question and the (former) officer involved were the subject of one of our lectures at the academy. Obviously we can see what happens; the officer initiates a stop on a psychotic motorist and keeps his cool even in the face of the world's worst human being. Pretty cut and dried, right?

Wrong.

The officer in this case is most assuredly the bad guy, even though you can't see how in the video. He had been receiving so many complaints about verbally abusing citizens during his traffic stops that he decided to rig the game in his favor. His M.O. was to initiate a stop, shut off his dash cam, make initial contact with the driver and verbally abuse them for several minutes, screaming and threatening jail time, etc., really winding them up. Then he'd return to his patrol vehicle, start his dash cam and return to the stopped vehicle as if it were his initial contact, cool as a cucumber in the face of the now terrified and wound-up driver. It even worked for a little while, until the complaints continued to pile up and an investigation was initiated on him. It didn't take long for investigators to toss him out of the agency. His case is one of the chief reasons that most if not all in-car cameras are now equipped with constant overwrite memory; that is to say that once it is triggered on via activation of lights, siren, and/or body mic, not only does it record from that moment forward, but a separate drive also records the ten minutes previous to the activation trigger. It's a brilliant idea, and one that has helped to keep both officers and the public they serve safe from dishonesty on both sides.

Anyway, the point is that not everything is as it appears. Even on video.
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