by Stanley W. Shura

Created on: December 14, 2007   Last Updated: November 01, 2009

It is a fact that police have an immense upper-hand in society and out in the community in terms of the authority bestowed upon them. Police know, or they damned well should, and whether they like or not, that with that authority comes a responsibility to wield it safely, respectfully and with a constant awareness of the inherent real and psychological power they possess in any personal interaction. Therefore, as they are sworn and *obliged* to protect and serve, it seems to me that they should heed a very important and sensible premise that has been THE golden rule in medicine for eons: first, do no harm.

First, do no harm. What is the point of capturing a criminal, who may or may not be partcicularly dangerous, who in fact may have only been a person of interest because of a minor traffic infraction, whose behavior was not particularly threatening to society UNTIL he was being persued by a police officer? What and who are police supposed to protect and serve?

A-ha! Well, then it seems a very simple decision whether or not to take extraordinary measures to subdue and capture a particular citizen. What if an officer has run someone's plate, and it came back that the driver is wanted on failure to appear for say, a marijuana possession charge, or is perhaps delinquent in his or her child support payments? The officer puts on the blues and maybe chirps the siren. And the driver does not stop.

Who...who the hell is served by engaging pursuit, especially if speeds and/or driving behavior of both suspect and cop become dangerous to other drivers and/or citizens in the vicinity? Is getting that twenty grand to so-and-so's ex important? Yes. Is it important enough to endanger lives? What about the pothead? Is it vital to society's well-being to chase him down and get him to court to answer for his love of hemp? Is the war on drug users important enough to put other people's safety in jeopardy?

NO! In either of these and scores of other incidents involving non-violent offenders, the answer is a hundred, a thousand, a million times NO! Are there times when an officer ends up having to deal with and ultimately control a situation involving a dangerous circumstance or violent person? Yes. And in this awful situation, it is the cream of the crop who ends up either saving some citizen's life, or sacrificing his or her own. I am not ever going to second guess the instincts, performance, or even motives of somebody who finds himself in such a dire circumstance and has to

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