USA TODAY International Edition
Charges for Parkland officer unwarranted
Expectations for school employee unrealistic
Everyone loves a hero. The selfless cowboy, soldier or cop who puts his life on the line to save others is an archetype drilled into us through countless movies and books. That’s why it’s so hard for many of us to understand when someone entrusted with protecting others falls short of expectations and avoids risking his or her life.
Scot Peterson, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School resources officer who avoided engaging the shooter who killed 17 people, is now facing the blowback from this public outrage and incomprehension. He has been mocked as the “coward of Broward (County)” and was recently charged with child neglect and culpable negligence — seemingly unprecedented charges involving a school resource officer.
After 26 years in the FBI and 20 years as an expert court witness on the use of force, I have some questions for the people who are blaming Peterson for failing to stop the Valentine’s Day 2018 shooting: How would they have felt about rushing into the line of fire of a maniac wielding an AR-15-style weapon? What sort of training do school officers like Peterson receive, and is it sufficient to deal single-handedly with this type of incident? What sort of mentality and mindset do Peterson and most other school resource officers have? And when did Peterson sign anything saying he’d risk his life by confronting a heavily armed killer?
Yes, it can be maddening to watch surveillance video of an armed officer standing, inert, outside of a building where teenagers are being killed. But the fact is that public expectations of law enforcement are out of line with reality. In law enforcement, officers are explicitly trained to be smart and gather information when faced with a crisis rather than jump into hero mode. If the officers can act safely in their view, they should. If they can’t, they shouldn’t.
Even active, front-line cops struggle to shoot straight in stressful situations: 2006 data for Los Angeles officers showed a hit rate of 40%; New York City officers fared even worse the year before, at 17%. Could we really expect someone like Peterson, 56, a former sheriff’s deputy, to take out a gunman in such a chaoticsituation?
When I train officers
That being said, the great majority of police officers will act in a way that is heroic in order to help people in need. Many officers put their lives on the line every day. Peterson’s actions weren’t necessarily those of a coward. More likely, he was just someone who froze because he wasn’t mentally ready for this type of situation. In other words, he was like nearly everybody else.
When I run use-of-force training programs for law enforcement officers, I focus 60% on their mentality and only 40% on the physical aspects of dealing with crisis situations. After the Columbine shooting in Colorado in 1999, we trained officers not to enter schools alone. We told them to call the incident in immediately and wait for backup.
The type of officer drawn to these roles is usually someone who wants to support the community, help kids and assist schools in navigating day-to-day disciplinary and security issues. That’s the kind of mild-mannered, likable man or woman schools usually want. Tackling madmen armed with semiautomatic weapons is likely not at the front of these officers’ minds.
No easy answers
I know at least two former police colleagues who took school posts; both said they received minimal specialist training. One was not a great shot, and the other was a former SWAT officer. I believe both would have done more than Peterson did, but that may have amounted to gathering information and helping others escape rather than confronting the shooter.
It doesn’t follow that the answer is to stack school resource officer positions with more aggressive former cops. For one thing, most schools don’t want that sort of attitude in their resource officers. For another, an aggressive response to a shooter situation could land an officer in just as much legal trouble as Peterson is facing.
If an officer entered the building and shot innocent students, he’d be open to civil charges — he would have shot and missed because his actions would have exceeded his training and capabilities.
Even if he had shot the right kid, he could be open to questions about how he had handled the situation.
I’ve testified in hundreds of use-offorce cases, and I know that many times the actions that led to a trial were considered “right” at the time. As someone with extensive experience in law enforcement, I see no easy answers. Nonetheless, we should at least be asking the right questions, such as what realistic expectations we should have of people in Peterson’s role, and what sort of schools we want to have.
WANT TO COMMENT? Have Your Say at letters@usatoday.com, @usatodayopinion on Twitter and facbook.com/usatodayopinion. Comments are edited for length and clarity. Content submitted to USA TODAY may appear in print, digital or other forms. For letters, include name, address and phone number. Letters may be mailed to 7950 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, VA, 22108.