INGO does a fantastic job of tracking the positive and (mostly) negative reactions to CC and OC firearms. I think the prevalence of negative encounters that border on absurdity reflect the need for LEO education on citizen rights, and the true statistics on related officer safety.
I am somewhat just creating this post to educate myself on how an attempt at remedying this would go. The problem is twofold- current officers need education, and academies need to better teach this information. That being said, negative officer reactions are the product of one of two things:
1) A genuine (but misguided) concern for their own safety, as a fear of being shot is a natural part of their job, and/or
2) overzealousness in a desire to carry out the enforcement of the law (about which they are underinformed or misinformed).
I am trying to be objective here, so please, no one turn this into a cop bashing thread. I think we need to be as understanding of #1 as we would like them to be of #2. This problem could only be corrected through departments being imbued with the initiative to educate their officers. What motivates organizations? Money. If departments were presented with the reality that misconduct by their officers in dealing with this issue could result in a lawsuit (like Departments X, Y, and Z in IN) maybe that would create some motivation. I don't know if a simple email sent to the chiefs/sheriffs statewide would at least prevent a few episodes? Anyone have thoughts on this? Maybe even a personal visit from a pro-2A attorney would generate more respect and interest. I think citing statistics from our side could be helpful, in terms of "In Indiana in the last 12 months alone, there have been 123 number of reports of harassment by officers that created a dangerous situation and opened the door for charges to be filed against the officer and the department, all over a simple misunderstanding that could be prevented with less than 30 minutes of education. Ironically, the law abiding citizens least likely to pose a threat to an officer are being met with greater criticism than legitimately malicious criminals. While these people are among the most respectful toward law enforcement, they receive considerably lower than normal respect from officers during encounters." Etc. I don't know how you could quantify it, most of what I just said is anecdotal (but true nonetheless).
The other half of the coin is that a lot of these incidents have the recurring theme that it is a young/new officer, meaning that the academies have the opportunity to remedy this as well. The academy already has 1,000,001 liability issues they have to try to cover I am sure, so this is just one more seemingly insignificant thing to them. I have seen people post that guns aren't even in the top 100 things that officers deal with regularly, so I don't expect training institutions to take a huge interest, but you never know- as the saying goes, INGO is everywhere.
I am trying to read between the lines here, but is anyone actually concerned that pushing for education about this will result in legislation or regulation, like Indiana being turned into a CC state?
I am somewhat just creating this post to educate myself on how an attempt at remedying this would go. The problem is twofold- current officers need education, and academies need to better teach this information. That being said, negative officer reactions are the product of one of two things:
1) A genuine (but misguided) concern for their own safety, as a fear of being shot is a natural part of their job, and/or
2) overzealousness in a desire to carry out the enforcement of the law (about which they are underinformed or misinformed).
I am trying to be objective here, so please, no one turn this into a cop bashing thread. I think we need to be as understanding of #1 as we would like them to be of #2. This problem could only be corrected through departments being imbued with the initiative to educate their officers. What motivates organizations? Money. If departments were presented with the reality that misconduct by their officers in dealing with this issue could result in a lawsuit (like Departments X, Y, and Z in IN) maybe that would create some motivation. I don't know if a simple email sent to the chiefs/sheriffs statewide would at least prevent a few episodes? Anyone have thoughts on this? Maybe even a personal visit from a pro-2A attorney would generate more respect and interest. I think citing statistics from our side could be helpful, in terms of "In Indiana in the last 12 months alone, there have been 123 number of reports of harassment by officers that created a dangerous situation and opened the door for charges to be filed against the officer and the department, all over a simple misunderstanding that could be prevented with less than 30 minutes of education. Ironically, the law abiding citizens least likely to pose a threat to an officer are being met with greater criticism than legitimately malicious criminals. While these people are among the most respectful toward law enforcement, they receive considerably lower than normal respect from officers during encounters." Etc. I don't know how you could quantify it, most of what I just said is anecdotal (but true nonetheless).
The other half of the coin is that a lot of these incidents have the recurring theme that it is a young/new officer, meaning that the academies have the opportunity to remedy this as well. The academy already has 1,000,001 liability issues they have to try to cover I am sure, so this is just one more seemingly insignificant thing to them. I have seen people post that guns aren't even in the top 100 things that officers deal with regularly, so I don't expect training institutions to take a huge interest, but you never know- as the saying goes, INGO is everywhere.
I am trying to read between the lines here, but is anyone actually concerned that pushing for education about this will result in legislation or regulation, like Indiana being turned into a CC state?
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