Surviving A Police Encounter

Each encounter with law enforcement is unique. Even average Americans often have a very hard time interacting with law enforcement in general. The reason is that most Americans don’t encounter or deal with the police on a routine basis. Many have an inherit fear of police, because most people have an inherent fear of going to jail or prison. Police are taught to have a certain safety awareness or suspicious nature when dealing with people. They tend to treat individuals cautiously which often translates into a form of disrespect or condescending behavior. Misunderstandings arise as a result. If you can understand certain key behavioral traits that officer’s portray, you can adjust your behavior to match that of the officers’ and thereby have a winning encounter with the officer.

Many people get themselves into trouble and sometimes arrested or even assaulted by officers, simply because they don’t know how to deal with them. Ironically enough, law-abiding citizens often have a much harder time dealing with the police than criminals do, simply because they don’t understand how to talk to officers. Compound this with racial bias, profiling and prejudging and you have an explosive mix.

An alarming trend of individuals not involved in wrong doing are typically the ones being arrested, or even killed for their behavior when confronted or their objection to how they are being treated. Asserting Civil Rights over the right of the officer to conduct his job safely is a growing epidemic that is going to boil to a head. Where’s the balance? Fortunately, most encounters between police and citizens end peacefully. Unfortunately, some don’t - usually because somebody does something that provokes an incident. The good news is that most confrontations between police and citizens can be avoided with a little common sense. You have the Right to walk up behind a police officer making an arrest videotaping him/her. You also have the Right to stick your hand in a cage with a growling dog. Everything you have the Right to do is not always the smartest thing to do. Use your head!