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LIVING THROUGH A DISTURBANCE CALL

By Gerald W. Garner

• Two patrolmen were killed at the scene of a neighborhood disturbance which involved two brothers. Upon arriving on-scene, the officers focused their attention on one of the men who was seen in the open, carrying a rifle. At that point, the other brother began firing from cover. The man with the rifle then began firing, too, and both officers were fatally wounded.

• A state trooper was killed at about 10:00 p.m. after responding with another trooper to a neighborhood disagreement over a vehicle blocking a driveway. The troopers had gotten out of their vehicles and were rounding the corner of an outbuilding when the victim officer was hit in the abdomen by a .308 caliber rifle slug fired by an adult male concealed in some woods about 100 yards away.

• A veteran officer with 12 years in policing was killed on the scene of an afternoon domestic disturbance. The officer was attempting to question an agitated male adult at a residence when a 70-year-old subject produced a 20-gauge shotgun and shot the deputy twice in the head and neck. The man then fired at a second officer who had just arrived. The second officer killed the offender.

• Three officers were working a dance off duty when a fight broke out on the dance floor. The officers escorted the two subjects involved out of the establishment. At about 3:40 a.m., the officers went outside to do a security check when one of the subjects from the earlier disturbance approached, firing a 9mm semiautomatic handgun. All of the officers returned fire.  After firing two rounds, a 33-year-old officer was mortally wounded by a bullet which lodged in his heart. The wounded, male adult shooter was later apprehended.

• A landlord/tenant disturbance led to the death of a 44-year-old county police sergeant. The sergeant and other officers knocked and then entered through a rear entrance in an attempt to assist in evicting a male adult from the residence. As the sergeant ascended a staircase seeking the tenant and leading the two other officers, he was hit with a 12-gauge shotgun round fired down the stairs. The shot entered through an armhole of the officer’s body armor and hit him fatally in the chest. The killer was arrested by a tactical unit after the introduction of chemical agents into the residence.

As the preceding, real-life examples demonstrate, responding to any kind of disturbance call is a potentially high risk assignment for you as a peace officer. Experienced law enforcement officers have long suspected the danger quotient to be high on the scene of a disturbance; FBI statistics have confirmed that belief. In the sample year of 2000, for example, eight American law enforcement officers were murdered after responding to a disturbance of one kind or another. During the same year, 17,224 officers were assaulted handling disturbances ranging from domestic disputes to bar fights to “civil situation” arguments. More officers were assaulted on disturbance handling assignments than on any other type of call or contact.

The danger factor may be compounded for the unwary officer because not every disturbance call appears at face value to contain the risk which may actually be present. For example, one officer in a northern city was killed after responding to an early morning complaint of a man disturbing his neighbors while feeding birds in an alley. When backup officers arrived in response to the policeman’s radioed report that he had been shot, they found the victim dead from nine 9mm bullet wounds. Indeed, disturbance call danger does not always appear evident at first glance.

Why Are They Dangerous?

What makes disturbances dangerous for you, the officer sent to solve the problem and quiet things down? Often, a number of factors combine to add to the danger. First of all, it is safe to assume that emotions are already at fever pitch between the participants. An adrenaline “dump” likely has already occurred and the fight or flight syndrome has kicked in. A physical altercation already may have occurred before your arrival and now you may represent just one more enemy to be attacked.

If emotions make disturbances dangerous, so does the possibility that one or more of the combatants has a load of alcohol, drugs or both aboard. When lowered inhibitions and skewed judgment come into play, a normally peaceful, compliant individual may elect to attack you. That absence of self-control on the part of the subject (or subjects) you are up against could result in harm to you, if you’re not careful.

Finally, the frequent presence of deadly weapons and improvised weapons poses  danger for you on any disturbance busting assignment. The chronic hell-raiser knows he is liable to get into a dispute – and he intends to win. That is why he just might have put a pistol in his waistband, a box cutter in his pocket or a knife is his boot. It may be why he has secreted a wooden table leg studded with nails under his car seat. Once more, unless you remain alert to the possibility of sudden violence, you could end up being the latest victim of it. 

Reducing the Risk to You

You will want to have all of your tools at hand before contacting the participants in a disturbance of any kind. An effective response starts with effective planning.

• Plan your response – Your planning should begin with determining your safest approach to the problem location. Naturally, you will park out of sight and approach on foot from other than the expected route whenever possible. You won’t stand square in front of a door while waiting for a response and you will avoid positioning yourself with a light source behind you, like a duck in a shooting gallery. Because you are safety smart, you will continue your planning efforts throughout the assignment. At the same time, you will remain flexible and alert for eventualities you had not anticipated.

• Don’t rush when speed is not required – True, you may have to take action the moment you arrive at a disturbance scene in order to save the life of someone who is in danger of being killed right in front of you. The truth is, however, that situations requiring instant response are relatively rare. More often, you can take a few moments to size up what you are facing, catch your breath, plan how you will tackle the problem and wait for your backup help to arrive. In the meantime, quietly observing the goings-on can help you devise a safe and effective course of action. As any veteran officer can tell you, listening at a door or window where a disturbance is in progress can tell you a great deal. How many voices are there; what are they saying; what can you hear about injuries or weapons? Who is the aggressor? What you hear (and, perhaps, see) may tell you about special hazards you are facing and whether (or not) the help you have on hand will be sufficient. It also can help dictate your tactics, such as making a quick entry versus pulling back and waiting for more help.

• Approach and position yourself carefully – Avoid parking your patrol car in front of the address where the problem is occurring. Do not linger in the “fatal funnel” present in any doorway opening. Keep a reactionary gap of several feet between you and the subjects you are dealing with so that you have time to respond to a sudden attack. During your exterior approach and throughout your handling of the call, remain alert to the location of solid cover just in case a weapon appears and shooting starts. Don’t get too close, too soon.When you have to accomplish a “laying on of hands” to take someone into custody, be sure your backup officer is covering your every move.

• Control the scene – Control the disturbance environment as much as possible, rather than allowing the disturbance participants to control you. Do not allow the disputants to wander out of your sight. Keep their hands in view. Know where all of the actors, including your backup, are at all times. Try to remove uninvolved parties from the immediate area.

• Obtain plenty of help – You should not handle any kind of disturbance call alone. The potential for things to get out of hand – with you in the middle – are simply too great. If an attack develops, the presence of some extra sets of muscles increases the likelihood that a resisting offender can be taken into custody without serious injury to anyone. If what you know about the call tells you that one cover officer is unlikely to be enough, summon as much help as you think you will need. It is easier (and safer) to send away unneeded assistance than to call it to the scene after big trouble has already started. In addition, practice excellent contact and cover tactics in which the contact or primary officer acts while the other serves as an informed, vigilant “lifeguard” in a covering role.

• Gather information with caution – You cannot make an informed decision about your best course of action unless you allow each side in the dispute to tell his (or her) story. Meanwhile, keep the speakers physically separated, preferably out of each other’s hearing. Take your time. Speak in a firm, yet calm and reassuring, manner. Do not shout or make empty threats. Let your speaker vent – you can learn a lot in the process. But, do not hesitate to steer a wandering conversationalist back to the subject at hand. Meanwhile, look for physical clues and keep all your senses attuned to what your own observations can tell you.

• Remain alert at all times – The strong emotions often present contribute to the explosive atmosphere to be found in many disturbances. Things can get worse in a hurry, perhaps culminating in an attack on you, the peacemaker. To mitigate this very real danger, you must remain constantly alert for situational changes, such as a participant getting more and more worked up. Your announced decision to take enforcement action also could result in a participant going over the edge. On rare occasions, that may even mean backing off until you can get more help on-scene.

• Act decisively – Cops have to be good actors. Even if you are initially uncertain about your course of action, shield your doubts from the disputants. Troublemakers may exploit your apparent weakness if you reveal that you have doubts about what you are doing. Once you do decide on a course of action, state firmly and directly what is going to happen. (Try to ensure that your backup knows your plans ahead of time.) Respond to questions, but avoid getting drawn into an argument. It is important that you appear to be clearly in charge without crossing the line into arrogance.

• Use care in arrest and prisoner handling duties – Everything you know about safely effecting an arrest must be applied at a disturbance scene. Tell the person to be arrested what is happening and what will happen next (booking, bonding, etc.) Use proper handcuffing and searching practices. Make the arrest under the careful observation of your cover officer. Do not relax too soon. Officers have been attacked on disturbance calls even after placing someone into custody. Keep an eye out for allies of the prisoner to come to his aid. Throughout the arrest and transport process, follow excellent weapon retention practices. Also remain mindful that handcuffs are a temporary and fallible restraint. Monitor your prisoner carefully and continuously for his welfare as well as your own.

• Bring it to a safe conclusion – Do not loiter in the area after handling a disturbance call. Even if you have not taken anyone into custody, participants or their pals may decide to seek you out for one last word – or worse. If you do have a prisoner, you are obligated to get him to the booking or lockup facility as quickly as possible. If you want to talk to your backup about the call, do so out of the immediate vicinity. 

Handling Some “Special Problems”

• Bar fights are dangerous – Altercations in establishments serving alcohol include all of the hazards you might expect at any other disturbance site, with a few more thrown in for good measure. For one thing, there is a good chance you are dealing with disputants who are drunk or under the influence. With their judgment and inhibitions dimmed by alcohol consumption, they may be all too willing to take you on physically. Second, in many bars, it is not unusual to find that some of the clientele routinely carry weapons in order to have an edge in the fights they know can erupt there. Under the right set of circumstances, they may be willing to use those weapons against you. Additionally, the dark and crowded environment found in many bars can make it very easy for an attacker to take you by surprise. This setting also may make it harder for you to see just what you are up against, including weapons in the hands of the disturbance participants. Finally, the nature of the place itself and the crowd which gathers there may work against you. You are probably considered an unwelcome outsider here. In such an atmosphere, you cannot count on others present to come to your aid.

Once again, knowledge of a few, basic “tricks of the trade” can help assure that you exit your bar encounter with all of the parts nature gave you still attached and functioning. Advance knowledge of your beat and the bars in it will help. Learn the physical layout of each. Know what kind of crowd it attracts. Be familiar with special hazards which may be present, such as a particularly dark, ambush-friendly area inside or a gun routinely kept behind the bar. You also need to be aware of “hidden” rooms upstairs or in the basement where an offender may hide or launch at attack against you.

Don’t rush into a bar disturbance. Wait outside for your backup(s) to arrive before committing yourself to action. Meanwhile, be a careful observer and gather all that your senses can tell you. Remember that the situation may have changed considerably since you were dispatched. You may encounter a suspect blocks away from the establishment or the fistfight inside may have turned into a gun battle or a stabbing. 

Once you are inside, practice careful contact and cover tactics with your partner. Call as much additional help as you think you’ll need. Stay alert the whole time you are on-scene. Keep watching for new dangers, such as additional “players” who want to give you a piece of their mind or join the action. Be especially watchful for the drunk who wants to jump on your back as you are exiting the place. Keep your weapons in your possession by following excellent weapon retention practices, such as keeping your arm and elbow locked down tightly atop your pistol. There is probably no “better” place in the world for an attempted weapons grab than the interior of an unfriendly bar. Stay sharp and be prepared to counterattack instantly against any attempt to latch onto your sidearm.

Once you make a decision to take a body with you, get out of there quickly. If it is feasible, escort your subject outside before you snap on the cuffs. Doing so inside may be more likely to spur interference. If you must effect custody inside, be sure you do so under the watchful eye of your backup and remain extremely alert for resistance or a “rescue” attempt. Even though you are properly in a hurry to get outside, do not neglect a search for weapons. In the excitement of the moment, it is all too easy to skip a good search. That’s a mistake that well could have fatal consequences later. Your cover officer should follow you out the door with his (or her) eyes on the crowd during the exit. Once you get your prisoner loaded up (after another really thorough weapon search), get out of the parking lot and exit the vicinity. As you head for the lockup, check your rearview mirror for a problem which may have followed you.

• Domestics pose big risks – Advocates for domestic violence victims state that perhaps six million women are assaulted by their intimate partners annually, with as many as 4,000 dying as a result of domestic abuse. In this atmosphere of violence, it should come as no surprise that domestic batterers pose a significant risk to you. Domestic crime scenes are often extremely volatile. An offender who knows that he is going to jail under appropriately toughened domestic assault laws may feel he has nothing to lose by attacking a peace officer. To make things even more dicey for you, a victim of the domestic abuse cycle may be too terrified to help put her batterer behind bars by cooperating with law enforcement. In this scenario’s worst extreme, the victim may even turn on the officer who is trying to help her.

It is worth noting that the same errors which result in peace officer deaths at other kinds of calls also claim law enforcement lives at domestic disputes and assaults. Failing to watch their hands; failing to wait for a backup; making false and dangerous assumptions; practicing poor approach or positioning and missing the danger signs are potentially fatal mistakes which are all too often made at the scene of domestic violence. Add to this mix the umbrella error under which they all gather – carelessness or complacency – and you have a recipe for personal disaster.

It is vital that you protect yourself at the same time you intervene to help the victim of domestic violence. As you investigate, keep those involved separated and remain sensitive to changes in each party’s demeanor and degree of cooperation. Control the immediate vicinity and try to shoo away uninvolved parties. Apply careful arrest and prisoner handling tactics and work under the protection of a cover officer. Disengage carefully and keep a close eye on your prisoner throughout the transport and booking process. Do not allow an opportunist an opening to attack you successfully.

• Large-scale disturbances mean large-scale danger – Multiple subjects involved in a disturbance of any kind multiply the risks you face. It is as simple as that. Although you certainly could become involved in confronting a full-scale riot involving hundreds or thousands of people, it is more likely that your encounter with a large disturbance will arrive without much warning at a postgame celebration, a drinking party gone bad or simply a “plain vanilla” fight among family members or neighbors which suddenly draws reinforcements for the participants. The hazards for you are multiplied, of course, by the additional sources for a potential attack. A big crowd (with you unwisely in the middle of it) can make it easier for someone to strike you, go for your gun or stick a knife in your back. You could even get knocked down and trampled by the unruly crowd. The mob psychology often present at such a scene may make it a lot easier for someone to think he can get away with attacking you with impunity, the act made all the easier by the anonymity of the crowd. 

You can stay safe once again by employing basic officer safety skills bolstered by a respect for mob psychology. First, to the fullest extent possible, try to take the surprise out of mob violence by staying attuned to what is going on in your beat or community. Where are the most likely problem spots? What is going on this week or tonight, such as a big teen party or a planned after the game celebration, which could get out of hand in a hurry? Share the intelligence you collect with your peers and supervisors. A little preplanning on your part could help prevent major mayhem later. Could this be a mutual aid situation requiring officers from other jurisdictions to help? How about crowd control equipment, such as helmets and gas? If it’s not readily accessible beforehand, it could take too long to assemble it when the stuff hits the fan. As in so many things you do in law enforcement, planning and preparation are the twin keys to success.

Never go into a large disturbance alone, even if a major crime is occurring in the middle of a writhing mass of troublemakers. You have only made things worse if law enforcement resources have to be diverted to rescue you. Your self-control and discipline are vital here. Officers should be committed as an organized group in which each member knows the plan, not sent in piecemeal. Wait for a sufficient force to assemble and then go in with a clear-cut mission, such as the rescue of a downed victim. Everyone involved must look out for his own (as well as his partner’s) weapon retention. Solo missions and similar heroics cannot be tolerated here. Work as a member of a strong, unified command. If you venture into the crowd alone, you may get cut off, engulfed, pummeled, disarmed or worse by the mob.

Basic crowd control tactics apply. You should be properly equipped with gloves, helmet, baton, chemical defense spray and soft body armor. The officer in charge should give the offending group repeated verbal warnings to disperse or face arrest. Give them time to go. The more weakhearted or sensible among them probably will. Leave them an escape route. Individuals who feel trapped are more likely to fight you. Observe carefully and try to identify the agitators. If they have clearly committed law violations and you have sufficient personnel to do so, formulate a plan of attack and extract them from the crowd with a solid group of officers. Then, spirit these ringleaders away promptly before they can instigate a rescue attempt. You will not be able to do that, of course, unless you have kept your police vehicles gathered in one spot nearby and under guard. It is not unusual for a hostile crowd to target law enforcement vehicles. Your station or jail may need protecting, as well, in case part of the crowd reassembles there. Don’t get caught napping by assuming a disturbance is over before you know that for a fact.

Conclusion

Disturbances are dangerous. You know that. You also should know that by relying on time proven, commonsense tactics and techniques, you can reduce the risks you face. You must remain ever alert for the danger signs. You must approach the scene carefully and summon sufficient assistance to handle the problem. You must control the scene and the discussion and act decisively once you have selected a course of action. You must utilize careful arrest, search and prisoner handling practices and withdraw from the danger area once you have completed your assignment. Finally, you must review your handling of each disturbance quelling assignment and learn how to get better for the next one.

Every officer safety skill you have ever learned can be applied to minimize the danger you confront on the scene of a disturbance. Reinforce them in your mind, rehearse them as necessary and apply them on-scene. That’s what surviving a disturbance call is really all about.

About the Author: Gerald W. Garner, a 34 year veteran of law enforcement, is a division chief with the Lakewood, Colorado, Police Department. He holds a master’s degree in administration of justice and writes and instructs on the topic of officer safety. One of his six books (Surviving the Street, Charles C. Thomas, 1998) includes a chapter on defusing the danger of disturbance calls.