San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Don’t vilify all officers for actions of some
With all the negative conversations about police, I feel compelled to provide a perspective as a retired
San Antonio Police Department assistant chief of police. I am a minority woman who raised my sons as a single mother. San Antonio has always been my home. My family resides here, and I love my city.
As I see it, with a broad stroke the police have been vilified. We have forgotten how our police are also called upon to answer for and resolve a myriad of social problems. Yes, danger can come in any form. That is why we go to extremes to assist our diverse community, and, yes, we make every effort to go home every day to our families.
I know in SAPD, chokeholds haven’t been taught since the 1980s. Police tactics are taught to protect the officer from harm and to accomplish their job with minimal force. Our greatest objective each and every day is to protect our community, ourselves and our police family.
In my 42 years of proudly serving as a police officer, I was always taught to treat everyone with deference. was I taught to take another person’s life except when all other measures were exhausted and only to save a life, including my own.
I, too, acknowledge the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis was a travesty. Floyd’s life was taken in an arrogant, cavalier manner. I also fault and give blame to the officers who stood by. As police officers, we say we protect one another; that protection extends to not letting our fellow officers do wrong. We are taught to do nothing improper, unjust or illegal. Those who stand by and do nothing are guilty by omission. Officers are required to act on behalf of a victim, and that protection extends even if the aggressor is the police.
SAPD requires its officers to attend training that includes cultural diversity, ethics, stress management, crisis communications, civilian interactions, crisis intervention, racial profiling, mental health, community awareness and cultural awareness. This is part of the SAPD’s investment in providing its officers with meaningful interaction tools.
Realities are bitter pills. What we know is most crime is committed during the late-night hours and in high-crime areas (time and place). Large congregations of people and multiple passengers in a vehicle, along with time and place, can be irregular. Police officers are trained to be proactive and preventative to ensure the safety of the community.
This perspective is important because there are conversations about “the talk.” I have often heard of guardians saying they had to have “the talk” with their loved ones. I am familiar with “the talk.” I had “the talk” with my sons; they are Latinos. I believe it is important for all young people, maybe society in general, to know how police will respond to a cooperative individual and the effects of a combative or noncompliant individual on police responses.
Has anyone asked the police how they feel about being officers? I can give you my perspective. I was fearful. Yes, scared, exceedingly cautious with calls involving weapons, violence, domestic disturbances and mental health, and in-progress calls. I also had “the talk” with my sons and family about the possibility I wouldn’t come home. During my 34 years with SAPD, this community lost at least 20 officers who were killed in the line of duty. Those officers never returned home to their families.
Each day I pray for a better society; I pray for peace and healing. But I also pray for the officers who go to work and believe they are doing the right thing for the right reasons, and who go to work each day and put their lives on the line. We are driven by believing we will be helpful; we swear to protect and defend our community from any threat or evil. I am saddened in how all officers have been vilified by the actions of bad people disguised in police uniforms. They are not us.
To all our men and women who serve in law enforcement, I am grateful for all that you do to protect us. Your service deserves our support and gratitude. I salute you!