By Lt. Dan Marcou
Corrections1 Contributor
“I know where you live and I promise...I am going to get out of here and burn down your house with your family in it.”
How will you react when an inmate who is in your custody looks you square in the eye and with a cold sincerity says those words? If something like this has not been said to you yet, you can take faith that, eventually, it will be.
For many officers these could very well be what we call “trigger words.”
Most correctional professionals have been trained to avoid using trigger words when dealing with inmates. Because law enforcement professionals are aware of words that can trigger an unwanted and unintended response from a subject, we avoid using them. Inmates, however, deliberately use trigger words to elicit an unprofessional or excessive response from officers and other staff members.
Identify your trigger words
Correctional staff who deal face-to-face with society’s worst of the worst need to be aware of their own personal trigger words and put a safety on them.
To put a safety on these words you just need to recognize what your trigger words are and be prepared to either avoid using them or to replace them with a more professional response.
Try this experiment:
Picture someone who is handcuffed and controlled after an extremely physical encounter saying your personal trigger words. Then picture yourself utilizing a professional response or non-response — all the while, maintaining your professional demeanor. You can either remember what Dr. George Thompson says, “He can say what he wants as long as he does what I say,” or you can remember what your mother said, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
Make no mistake about it, this is easier said than done, but it must be done for your professional survival.
Entertain yourself by watching it happen
One thing that may help is to watch how artfully inmates choose their words. You will not only be educated by it, but you may also be entertained by it — if, of course you understand the motives behind it. You will also see they are willfully attempting to trigger a deliberate overreaction.
Here are some examples that you will see if you watch:
• To the smaller-stature officer they will say, “You think you are a BIG man with that badge. If not for your badge LITTLE man, I would kick your ___”
• To the overweight officer, “If not for that badge I would kick your fat ___”
• To the officer with the wedding ring they will mention it and tell you what they will do to your spouse and family.
• To the female officer they will liberally use the “B____” and “C___” words.
• To an officer of color they will use whatever inappropriate racial epithet they feel will trigger a response.
• To any officer at all, they will question your sexual preference while you conduct your pat-down search.
As a last resort, when nothing else works, the determined agitator will hurl the ultimate insult. They will attempt to spit in your face. All of these are deliberate attempts to make you lose control so that they can ultimately win.
These are not attempts to trigger a fight — the fact of the matter is that they’ve already lost the fight.
They are attempting to trigger an overreaction. They take the time to assess what they think your weakness is and then verbally attack, hoping you will return fire at least verbally, but preferably physically.
Why?
Why would they try to start a fight they can’t win? Because if they get any response — all the way from “I know you are so what am I?” to a beating — that plays into their hand.
If they can make you look even slightly unprofessional by getting you to exchange barbs they not only have grounds for a complaint but you’ve allowed them to expose weakness in you.
If they can trigger an excessive use of force they know it is like winning the lottery. There could be some sort of large monetary settlement and they’ll get to play the victim.
What about the officer who takes the bait? They will experience the stress. Sometimes there are punitive damages which the officer may be ordered to pay. This officer may be disciplined and even fired from a career they love. There is also the possibility of the officer may find themselves the target of an investigation.
Officer Override
There is a technique to save other officers before something bad happens, called “Officer Override.” Work out a plan before this type of situation even happens, so when you see a partner starting to succumb to the verbal onslaught of a suspect, you’ve got something already set to defuse him or her.
Signal them by saying, “They are trying to reach you on the radio.” This is the pre-arranged signal to let you take over communication with the inmate and allow your partner take a few deep breaths and refocus. By doing this you may rescue another officer’s career.
What happens when another officer loses it?
Imagine how bad a situation — both tactically and legally — an officer is put into when a partner loses control and goes well beyond what is legal and necessary. You are put in a position to have to rescue an inmate and possibly to rescue your own career. An officer that does nothing to intervene in a clear cut excessive use of force may be found just as culpable as the officer who loses control.
An officer that loses control puts their fellow officers in a terrible tactical position. It is not a position of advantage to have to attempt to gain control of a fellow officer while in the presence of inmates.
Intensity vs. Anger
There is a wild inefficient flailing that occurs when a fight is taking place because of anger. It is difficult for the person motivated out of rage to know when to stop because the goals of the fight are not defined and their training has not prepared them for this.
A fight out of necessity may be dynamic, but an officer will be able to focus their techniques and it will be easier to stop — when it is appropriate — because control is the goal for the officer. The officer has been trained for this type of fight from beginning to the proper follow-through at the end.
The officer may physically win both of these fights, but they will often legally and therefore professionally lose the fight motivated by rage.
It can be defensible to punch, kick, strike with a baton, employ a stun gun, and even shoot someone under certain circumstance. Yet, it is difficult for an officer to ever defend calling someone an “___hole.”
It behooves officers to practice something called “courtesy up to impact and beyond.” You can show an inmate respect without respecting an inmate. Train while using not only defensible techniques, but defensible verbalization through the use of force.
To help maintain professional control in the face of very difficult suspects, remind yourself constantly that whatever suspects say to you and do to you as an officer is not personal. They are saying it and doing it to your uniform and your badge.
If you respond out of anger rather than necessity they win! If you respond out of necessity with intensity, you win!
The late Eldon Mueller, an FBI Special Agent and esteemed police educator said something to a classroom full of future cops back in 1973. At least one of them wrote it down and it served him well throughout his long career. Mueller declared: “The man who angers you conquers you!”
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Dan Marcou retired as a highly decorated police lieutenant and SWAT Commander with 33 as a police officer. He is a nationally recognized police trainer in many police disciplines and is a Master Trainer in the State of Wisconsin. He has authored two novels The Calling: The Making of a Veteran Cop and S.W.A.T. Blue Knights in Black Armor available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Visit his website and contact Dan Marcou