A police officer led my role-play partner [a complete stranger] and me through a simulation. First, he read us the scenario:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re on patrol when, at 2:30 am, we are sent to an elementary school, where it\u2019s suspected that someone has illegally entered the building.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, he leads us to a small room, opens the door and tells us to go to work. We enter the room and see no one.<\/p>\n

In previous sessions of the program, we\u2019ve been introduced to some of the laws that pertain to police work, the definitions of various crimes, options for interacting with suspects, and the gradations and rules for use of force. Now, we\u2019re supposed to put that information to work.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what happened: [Remember, we were making this up as we went along. There was no script and no suggestions. Our police-officer mentor was watching. The \u201csuspect\u201d was a police officer with excellent acting skills.]<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cWho\u2019s in there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Suspect:<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s just me. Bob.\u201d [He was crouching in an alcove, out of sight.]<\/p>\n

Pretend police<\/em>: \u201cWhat are you doing in here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob:<\/em> \u201cI had a fight with my wife, so I came over here. I went to grade school here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cThat\u2019s not okay, Bob. You\u2019re going to have to come out of there. Show me your hands.\u201d [Bob sticks his hands around the end of the alcove. One of them holds a beer can.] \u201cOK. Keep your hands out like that and come out.\u201d [Bob emerges from the alcove.]<\/p>\n

Bob:<\/em> \u201cAre you arresting me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob:<\/em> \u201cFor what?\u201d [We have to scramble to think up what the charge would be in this situation. Later, we find out that we got this wrong. It should have been burglary, even though he hadn’t stolen anything.]<\/p>\n

Pretend police<\/em>: \u201cTrespassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob:<\/em> \u201cI\u2019m not trespassing. The door was unlocked. I\u2019m one of this town\u2019s most important defense lawyers, and I know the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> [This is my best line of the night, if I must say so myself.] \u201cNo, Bob. I AM the law. It doesn\u2019t matter what degree you have or what you think. I\u2019m in charge here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bob:<\/em> \u201cWell, all I want to do is finish my beer and go home.\u201d [He grabs a chair, sits down, puts his feet up on the table and goes for the beer can.]<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen, Bob. We\u2019re placing you under arrest. Stand up\u2014now– and put your hands behind your back.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Bob complies. My fake-police partner fake handcuffs him, and we begin to walk him out the door.]<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when our real-police-officer monitor stops the simulation. He tells us we did pretty well, except for one rather major omission. \u201cBob\u201d reaches into his pocket and pulls out a screwdriver and a bag of fake drugs. He also lifts up his pant leg and shows us the knife he had hidden there. We had failed to search him after we cuffed him. Not so good, but, apparently, acceptable for a couple of improvising idiots who should never be let loose on the streets.<\/p>\n

Role-play #2: Traffic stop<\/h3>\n

Our next scenario takes place outside, in the parking lot of the police department. We get into a real police cruiser, and our monitor describes our new situation:<\/p>\n

We\u2019re on patrol. It\u2019s 3 am. We\u2019re answering a call describing a black car driving through a supermarket parking lot with no lights on. There\u2019s also been a report of a burglary nearby, from which a black car was seen driving away. We have just pulled over a car fitting the description.<\/em> Go.<\/p>\n

Just as we get out of our police car, the driver of the black car jumps out and starts gesturing, as if he is telling someone in the distance to run away. Again, we have to improvise the dialogue:<\/p>\n

Pretend police<\/em>: \u201cGet back in the car, sir. Get back in the car and put your hands on the steering wheel. Get back in the car!\u201d<\/p>\n

[He gets back in the car. We approach\u2014me on the passenger side, my partner on the driver\u2019s side. We have been told by several officers that working from the passenger side is safer when you are on a highway. I remembered that!]<\/p>\n

Driver:<\/em> [slurring his words] \u201cHey there, ossifer. I\u2019m just stopping to take a pee over there in the woods with my ol\u2019 friend. Hey! Two lady cops! Hello, ladies!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cI need to see your driver\u2019s license and insurance, sir.\u201d [He hands it over.] \u201cNow, get out of the car and put your hands on top of the car, where I can see them.<\/p>\n

Driver:<\/em> \u201cDo I gotta?\u201d<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cYes. Get out of the car and put your hands on top of it. Now.\u201d [He complies. But as he gets out of the car, he tosses something on the ground, which I didn\u2019t notice, because I was walking around the car.]<\/p>\n

Pretend police:<\/em> \u201cSir, you appear to be under the influence of something. I\u2019m going to ask you to do a little test. Walk along that line, toward me. Now walk back the other way.\u201d [He does it, but he is totally wobbly. He goes to pick up the knife. We stop him. ] \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to take you in to the station for driving while intoxicated, sir. Put your hands behind your back.\u201d [He does, and my partner fake cuffs him.]<\/p>\n

End of scenario. Evaluation? We did fine, we are told. We even did some things right that we didn\u2019t know we were doing, like staying between the driver and the flashing lights of the cruiser, making it hard for him to see us and possibly shoot us if he had a weapon.<\/p>\n

Later, we learned that one pretend cop in a different group was \u201csuspended from duty\u201d when he went too far in his scenario and fake tasered the suspect four times.<\/p>\n

Lessons [real, not pretend] learned<\/h3>\n

Not that I\u2019ll ever have the chance [too old, too scared], but I wouldn\u2019t want to be a cop. What I\u2019ve learned in this 9-week program\u2014mainly\u2014is that police work involves a shitload of split-second decision-making. Every situation\u2014even a routine traffic stop\u2014involves juggling a lot of factors\u2014the rules of engagement, awareness of the situation around you, effective communication, appropriate use of force, the proper sequencing of your actions, etc., etc., etc. .<\/p>\n

The role playing made me acutely aware of how much I don\u2019t know. I took a lot of detailed notes during the previous sessions, and I even looked at the handy Power Points that the academy generously sent to each of the participants. But synthesizing all that stuff into the live, on-the-spot role-playing experience was a different animal.<\/p>\n

I ended up taking the lead in each of our scenarios, but I had no idea what was the right thing to do or say. I think, to a major extent, I was mimicking what I\u2019ve seen on the 20 years of the fictional “Law & Order” that I have watched and re-watched many times. How embarrassing is that? Detective Lenny Briscoe is my role model? Geez. I hope that real cops are way better than that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m assuming that the vast majority of them are. Of course, I realize that Citizen Police Academy is as much an exercise in community public relations as it is an honest effort at letting us in on the real, non-TV workings of law enforcement. When asked tough questions about recent police-involved news events, our presenters walked a tightrope between being 100 percent in defense of their fellow cops and letting in some measure of doubt.<\/p>\n

I know that, in a pinch, I’d be the first to call for a cop to save my ass. And I know that I\u2019ve drunk some of the Kool-Aid during these past nine weeks. But not all of it. The police officers we\u2019ve met in this program have seemed very well-intentioned and dedicated to doing a good job. But even they have to admit that not everyone is. But I now can see that all of them–good one, bad ones, and everyone in between–face challenges and moral conflicts that are unimaginably daunting to someone like me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a cop, but I played one yesterday. On the final night of the 9-week Citizen Police Academy that I\u2019ve been attending, 30<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,1360],"tags":[2435,120,2517],"yoast_head":"\n