Coming at this thread a bit late... So my apologies if this has already been thrashed out in later pages.
If the consequences of "Get off him, boss" are so grievous that it's worth letting a civilian die?
There are 2.5 consequences.
1. Suspect uses the distraction to break free & kill people
2. Rookie is sacked & banned from ever working any kind of job requiring a background check or security clearance, because he/she has just risked the lives of every civilian within about half a mile, as well as their training officer, any other officers who have to be called in on the manhunt, and all the victims who couldn’t get police response, because the officers that would have been assigned to their emergency are busy chasing the guy you let get away and hurt people.
Half. Quick nod, shake, and quick blinking of officer snapping out of fight /flight and back into adrenaline up but not in charge.
The half? Is because that almost never happens / happens all the time.
People with PTSD tend to understand adrenaline. There are lost moments/minutes/hours & events/actions/thoughts/feelings with trauma. Whether you have PTSD or not. TRAINING helps minimize that, repetition teaches as much control as possible, helping you be able to direct your actions no matter how much adrenaline is in your system. It’s still a bit iffy at best. Infinitely better than someone with no training, but still a very difficult thing. Imagine your worst flashback. Every single second of it. Now imagine someone outside of that assaults you in the middle of it. That’s the “half” when someone “interrupts” fight/flight mode. It’s... jarring... to say the least. Even more so, when it’s not a flashback, but actually happening. You get used to it, working in trauma, but it’s still a violent gear shift with touch&go results. Often the person locks themselves down immediately, and gets back to the task at hand. Often the person assaults you &/or tries to kill you for half a second. The second one? May sound worse, but IME it’s better. As it blows off the steam on a target prepared for it, and who can take it, and allows a smooth transition back to the task at hand... rather that SHOVING the fight/flight response down, to have it leak or explode out sideways within the next few hours/days/weeks.
^^^ The reason this almost never happens wih ROOKIES? Judgement call. You’ll find some combat vets & paramedics who’ve switched over to LEO rein in a training officer, from time to time, because the judgment is there... but the discipline is also there, so even when they want to, they usually don’t. Very much like the difference between a service dog in training (Rookie) & a fully trained service dog, being trained to new task (Vet/Paramedic to LEO). The fully trained service dog is going to ignore 90% of what spins the SD-IT up. The 10% of the time it does react? It won’t be right all of the time. Or even most of the time. Because it’s learning, too.
^^^There’s a reason why there are rookies, service dogs in training, junior level (ADAs, Barristers), Residents (fully educated/licensed doctors, who still have to be supervised by senior physicians), etc. It’s not go to the police academy/ law school/ medschool and graduate perfectly competent and capable in your chosen career. Junior level people DEPEND on senior level people to keep them from killing others. The responsibility for the life of their client, patient, suspect? Is in the senior’s hands. For very good reason.
Trying to hold a junior to the same standard as their superior, is just blind to the seriousness of the job. If the senior f*cks up? Holding the junior accountable for their teacher’s actions is bass ackwards.
