Tragedy-Free Policing or Else: The Need for Critical Thinking

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Abstract: What is “tragedy-free policing?” It is a worldview that the police must proceed without taking any actions that could cause harm, without using force, and without ever making a mistake. Using a baseball analogy, the standard seeks “no runs, no hits, no errors.” From this view, no one ever runs from the police, and if they do run, the police should not pursue after them, as even in foot pursuits some “harm” may occur. Second, no one should be forced to comply with any police order, seeking voluntary compliance is the only acceptable approach for the police. Third, all police actions must be error-free, without exception. The very nature of policing regularly necessitates propelling police officers into circumstances that are not of their own making, and into situations that are already tragic or at grave risk of quickly turning tragic.

On a fundamental level, the duties we as a community assign to our police officers require them to: (1) be on watch to help prevent tragedies from occurring, (2) try to intervene when tragedies begin to unfold, and (3) respond in their aftermath. Policing is inherently wrapped in the perpetual vulnerability of tragedy. Based upon the data, relative to the annual number of police-related deaths, four times as many people drown, and 270 times as many people die as a result of an error or other issue related to the quality of care by the medical profession.

Every death that comes before the end of a long and happy life, no matter what statistical category the death is placed, brings with it an associated tragic story. Tragedy-free medicine, tragedy-free policing, tragedy-free life in this world is unattainable. There will be tragedies – and we must learn from them. We must transcend the tragedies that occur, and we must strive to lessen suffering where we can. The way forward must be a proactive one. In this effort, it is essential for us not to be deceived by those who are seeking perpetual division for their own ideological and political purposes.

When the police are one with the community, the community is safer, freer, more stable, and better positioned to help foster the improved health and wellbeing of all the community’s members. Those seeking and participating in police reform efforts must not lose sight of this reality, and they must see the detriment to the community that comes with a tragedy-free-policing-or-else standard and reject it. Police accountability efforts must distinguish between unintended or unavoidable tragedy and true misconduct. This article was published in the June 2021 issue of the FOP Journal by the National Fraternal Order of Police, pages 36-39.

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