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control, that when things go bad the officers “lost control of the scene,” in truth they never had the
control to begin with. Control of the events by the officers is an illusion, one we need to help people

see through. Although it is true that peace officers are trained to use tactics to reduce the chances

of bad things happening, they are — by the very nature of the beast — forced to respond to the

actions of those with whom theyʼre dealing. It is the suspect/violator/ citizen/actor (or whatever term
you may want to use) who controls what happens next.

Conclusion

In todayʼs society and in todayʼs legal environment, video can be a tremendously powerful

tool. The question of for whose benefit that tool is to be used can depend very often on how the

incident or incidents portrayed are viewed by the public or by jurors. It is reasonable to ask individu-
als to approach videos from an objective, neutral perspective. To do so, prosecutors

and law enforcement agency administrators must help to provide viewers with the necessary

tools to understand how to watch the videos and what to look for while theyʼre watching them.
It is important for average citizens and jurors to understand that they should not simply focus

on the actions of the police officer while ignoring the actions of others in the scene because of inat-

tentional blindness, especially considering viewers may not even know theyʼre predisposed to doing

so. Individuals should also be made aware of the myth of police control: the person driving the

events portrayed in the video and the reactions to those events should be clearly pointed out.
Despite media or entertainment portrayals of police officers as having incredible skills that can pre-

dict and overcome any actions of the bad guys, the reality is quite different.

4 www.texaspoliceassociation.com • (512) 458-3140 Texas Police Journal