Page 30 - FOP JUNE Newsletter

Letter to the Editor
To whom it may concern:
I have been an attorney for 22 years, and have spent most of those years representing police officers and other law enforcement employees. In those years, I have worked with many, many officers who were involved in shootings or other traumatic incidents, and have been on the scene to see the aftermath of these incidents. I also provide training regarding critical incidents such as shootings to officers, police chiefs, state’s attorneys and others across the State.
After reading the article in the Chicago Tribune on May 20 as part of the “Chicago’s Cop Crisis” series, I felt com- pelled to write and address what appears to be a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of the waiting period that takes place before the interviews of officers involved in shootings or other traumatic events.
After these incidents, the goal of investigators is to ob- tain an accurate version of events. Only then can investi- gators determine why the incident took place and wheth- er it was justified. However, immediately after a traumatic incident like a shooting, officers simply are in no condi- tion to give complete, accurate statements.
This can be explained by science and research which has shown that after an officer-involved shooting, the involved officer suffers from several serious emotional,
physical and cognitive effects which would negatively impact his or her memory. Just some of these effects in- clude trembling, hyperventilation, elevated blood pres- sure, confusion, disorientation, difficulty concentrating, memory impairment, amnesia, tunnel vision, shock, guilt, skewed view of spaced and time and a sense of slow motion.
Why on earth would you want to interview someone in this condition if your goal is to obtain a complete and accurate account? Waiting times are not for the purpose of allowing officers to “collude” or “create” a story. On the contrary, the purpose of the waiting period is to allow the officer to recover to a point where his or her memory is at its best, usually after two or three sleep cycles.
A closing thought: Before judging police officers’ ac- tions, perhaps it would be worthwhile to have at least a basic understanding of how law enforcement officers work and the very difficult job that they do, day-in-and- day-out.
Tamara Cummings General Counsel
IFOP Labor Council Western Springs, Illinois
Where Cops Live: NORTHWEST SIDE
30 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JUNE 2016