Stop judging the quality of decisions based on the outcome and with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. No one involved in an incident knows the outcome until after. And your “20/20 Hindsight” is likely distorted and not even close to a clear picture of what really happened.
Stop making bold definitive statements about what people should have done when you only have some of the information, which is incomplete and may be inaccurate, some video, no direct knowledge and no context or forensic analysis of the video.
Stop making bold definitive statements on social media about what you would have done. You were not there. The best you can do is speculate and fantasize about what you “would have done”.
Stop smearing and slandering officers on social media and in classes you might teach, who did not do what you think they should have done by calling them cowards and posers and suggesting they need to quit. You are not helping the profession move forward. What you are doing is compounding the trauma those officers are already experiencing.
Stop trying to sell your programs on the back of a tragedy by claiming that if people had your training they would have performed differently.
Stop expecting military special operations performance levels from street cops.
Stop expecting SWAT levels of performance from street cops.
Stop claiming people are “trained” when at best they attended a one, two or five day class at some point where they were exposed to tactics with no ongoing follow up.
Stop recommending changes to training, procedures and protocols based on a single incident.
Stop jumping on the bandwagon after a tragedy and suggesting that most of the training time for officers be committed to a single topic.
Stop always looking back and talking about what we should have done and look forward to discussing what would we most like to do in future situations and then figure out the best way to train the mind for where the body may have to go.
Start by keeping your opinions to yourself until a full investigation is complete, and ALL the information is available. Even then realize that not all the information is going to be made available for public consumption and may still be subject to the bias and interpretation of the many parties involved in the investigation as well as your biases and interpretations.
Start by looking at your own agency, your own programs, and the methodologies used to teach. Skills are perishable. One off training is not going to result in retention and the ability to apply the training down the road. Make sure you are teaching principles and concepts that are applicable in a wide variety of situations. Teach and build on the skills of critical thinking, decision making and problem solving.
Let’s stop the crap and start moving forward. We owe it to the profession.
Take care.
Brian Willis
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