Police officers are fixers. To fix something, you must identify the individual elements, understand their integration, and devise a solution. Typically, most of an officer's experience is within patrol, so you must have a solution before going home. As a result, officers tend to be hypercritical and detail-orientated. It's a good thing for the job, but it is bad for job satisfaction and a bad thing for your personal life. I find myself falling into this mindset often. Specifically addressing job satisfaction, roll call, breaks, and meals tend to focus on what is wrong or not going right. So, being intentional about focusing on the positive aspects of this profession is needed.
In this vein, there is positive change for law enforcement in Cook County, Illinois. For the majority of my law enforcement career, the attitude of the Cook County State's Attorney's (ASA) office and our sitting judges was that we signed up to be attacked by offenders on the street. This was reflected by the ASA's absolute refusal to approve aggravated battery to a police officer (Felony level crime), and if it made it past them unless it was horrific, it either was dealt down or dropped with the judge's approval. Basically, it started with a broken bone, and really, you needed to be shot to have this charge go through approval, not be changed to a lesser charge and have the judge convict. This was so commonplace that routinely, when we would get a black eye, bloody nose, broken finger, or twisted knee due to the criminal actions of the offender, we wouldn't even call felony review; we would just charge simple battery (A misdemeanor) and go to court, where it would not be upgraded to a felony.
However, it appears this attitude has changed or is changing. Recently, two of our permanent homeless men were drinking at the rear of an abandoned store. Both suffer from some significant and untreated mental illnesses, so one got upset at the other and punched him in the eye (For snoring too loud). My guess, by the way it looked, is he had a broken orbital bone, but while he insisted on being taken to the hospital, he refused any scans but got stitches. The Asa's will not charge the aggravative battery without a medical diagnosis of significant damage. When it came time to arrest his buddy for simple battery, he decided while screaming profanity and something...he was hard to understand...at us that he did not want to go without a fight. The officers had their hands full but were able to get him into custody with very little injury to anyone despite our offender really going for it. We got him into an ambulance and to the hospital, where it took two full doses of Ketamine to get him quieted down.
A little later, one of the officers came into the report room and pulled up his pants legs. One side was a small laceration, and the other had a small abrasion. We reviewed the video footage of the incident, and the offender was purposefully kicking our officer. I said well, we might as well try to aggravated battery to police officer, but I highly doubt we will get it.
After working the case for two and a half days, the primary reporting officer called felony review...and got it!
Change for the better and something good to focus on.
