Officer Needs Help? Hold Your Horses!

The Las Vegas Metro Police have reined in patrol officers who might be anxious to respond when they hear an officer radio for help–a “444” call. Starting earlier this year, the departments captains began formulating a policy that will send only specific officers to calls for emergency help, moving more distant officers to cover vacated beats, and planning on-scene tactics. The changes were sparked by several recent critical incidents involving officer shootings, and even the Mumbai (India) terrorist attacks that occurred at several places in that city. The Metro Police wants to avoid a crowd of officers randomly approaching a deadly shooting scene, and leaving parts of the city unprotected after officers leave their beat to respond. Such a procedure raises a number of issues about delayed responses to officers needing help, the workload and decision-making of dispatchers, and how the officers’ union might respond. Read more about the incident and read the comments here.