Body-camera footage reveals the police as professionals

Long hailed by advocates of police reform as a powerful tool for accountability, the use of body cameras by officers has become more widespread in recent years. But what if the release of the footage after a police shooting has the opposite effect from the one activists intended?

When Hartford, Conn., officers shot and killed Shamar Ogman on the night of Dec. 26, body cameras were rolling through the entire confrontation. The footage they captured is tense and tragic, with the officers pleading for Ogman to put down the handgun and rifle he carries as he leads them on a foot chase through his residential neighborhood.

He screams profanities at them and calls on them to shoot him in the minutes before Officer Ashley Martinez, faced with the imminent threat of Ogman’s firearms pointing at herself and her fellow officers, finally fires a single shot, ultimately killing him.

It is almost impossible to twist the videos to fit a narrative of law enforcement wantonly disregarding Black lives. Hartford Police were calm and professional in a dangerous situation that put the lives of everyone in the neighborhood on the line. They attempted for long minutes in the dark to end the chase without shots fired, dutifully putting their own safety behind that of the citizens they serve, including Ogman.

Ogman was clearly a man suffering a mental health crisis. But the activist-proposed solution of sending a mental health professional into such a scenario is fundamentally unserious. What could an unarmed medical provider have possibly contributed in the midst of an armed chase through the dark December night? Likely having another innocent life to account for on the scene would have made officers more ready to shoot at any sign of danger, not less.

What most shines through from the bodycam footage is the bravery and dedication of the police officers, obviously wanting to restore the safety of the neighborhood, and doing their utmost to do so without needless bloodshed.

These are not videos that support any suggestion of “defunding the police” no matter which of the many competing definitions of this phrase is used.

This is not to say that as a society there are not things we can do to prevent such events from occurring. Ogman had recently had several interactions with the criminal justice system, which had included an acknowledgment by him that he was struggling psychologically. In spite of this, and an order by a judge that he not possess firearms, Ogman somehow ended up back in his own neighborhood, armed, and facing off with officers several days later.

With violent crime spiking in cities across the country and millions suffering the loneliness and desperation of lockdowns and economic despair, combined with the difficulties of getting any kind of medical help during the pandemic, Shamar Ogman is clearly not alone in having fallen through the cracks of a system at the breaking point.

But any solution must start from the reality that the police are not the enemy and include them in the conversation. Divisive rhetoric that pits law enforcement against their own communities and undermines the important and dangerous work that they do will not have the result of saving lives like Shamar Ogman’s.