Sep 21, 2016 3 min read

We can recall a time when police generally reacted much differently to dangerous situations than they do today. That was a time when cops were told the use of their service weapons was a last resort; that they should keep their gun holstered unless they intended to fire it.

Police were, and presumably still are, trained to observe situations and evaluate the risks, then try to defuse danger. It is in the interest of public safety to get an angry, violent drunk, for example, to calm down, maybe let him vent a little, rather than to confront him with overwhelming force.

Times changed, of course. This country has gone gun crazy, and police never know who might be packing a weapon. They feel outgunned and, after recent attacks on officers around the nation, targeted. It’s understandable they answer calls much more warily.

Being cautious, however, should not mean police should approach every situation – even the report of a stalled vehicle – with guns drawn.

That’s what apparently occurred in Tulsa, Okla., last Friday, when an unarmed 40-year-old father of four was shot to death by police. When police arrived, a widely distributed video shows Terence Crutcher walking back to his vehicle with arms raised. He puts his hands on the roof of the vehicle, but police said he was not following commands and was shot with a Taser just as Officer Betty Shupe opened fire.

Why the driver, a black man, was not following commands is still not clear. He may have been under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Surrounded by white police with their weapons drawn, he might simply have been scared.

For all the police knew, he might have been experiencing a diabetic seizure, but they didn’t bother to find out.

We have to wonder what sort of training these officers are receiving. Remember, they were not responding to a report of an armed robbery or shots being fired but to a vehicle stalled in the road. How might they have reacted if the driver of that vehicle was an elderly white woman who seemed confused and did not follow their commands? Would there have been commands?

It should be noted the hair-trigger responses by police around the country that have generated so much angry reaction – some of it violent – are not something we’ve experienced here in Washington and Greene counties. Although there has been plenty of gunfire in the city of Washington in the past few years, none of it is coming from police weapons. In fact, no one in the newsroom at this newspaper can recall a time in the last 40 years when a city cop fired a gun in the line of duty.

The local police have not avoided criticism. Many people over the years complained police protection in their neighborhoods is inadequate, but few complained the cops overreacted and escalated dangerous incidents.

Something’s right about the way police in Washington are being trained. We wish other communities were as lucky.