This does not enhance the image of the St. Louis Police Department.
Just so everyone knows, I’ve been in law enforcement for some twenty-four years now. I’ve been carrying a gun and handcuffs and such. I’m still a line trooper, not in management. Allow me a few related but separate comments.
I’ve never dropped a gun, which fired when dropped. I’ve dropped a couple along the way and it always embarrassed me. I’ve had single action revolvers and single action autopistols that might fire if dropped in a specific condition, but so far, those conditions have not been meet.
Every agency I ever worked for has required the timely reporting of shots being fired under any conditions other than intentional practice. Proper self-defense shootings – on duty or off; accidental or negligent discharges, or getting liquored up and shooting out the streetlights, they all have to be reported. In all agencies I’ve worked for, failure to report such an incident is grounds for termination.
I am responsible for all rounds I fire, intentional or negligent. I am subject to both civil and criminal penalties, as well as agency discipline, for any ‘damage’ I might do. ‘Damage’ may include embarrassment to the agency.
I am responsible for the safeguarding and protection from misuse of all my duty weapons. At some times, I have been allowed to carry a personally owned sidearm. Those personally owned sidearms are reviewed by the agency as if they were agency issue. I must account for a personally owned duty gun as if it were an agency duty gun. In other words, I cannot throw one out the car window and no one be the wiser.
Calling a foul on the St. Louis PD may not be technically correct. One is arrested only after the police has ‘grounds to believe’ a crime has been committed and the arrestee has something to do with the crime. In this case, the police knew who the woman was and where to find her. She would normally be arrested when sufficient evidence was developed and the District Attorney reviews the matter and decides to prosecute. No point in arresting someone the DA isn’t going to prosecute. Nor is there any reason to believe this is an ongoing criminal enterprise. Ongoing incompetent enterprise, perhaps.
I feel more anger at the St. Louis District Attorney. He (she) is the one who decides to file or not file criminal charges.
She resigned, so they can’t give her time off or fire her. Okay. I cannot see how this woman has not been charged with some form of ‘negligent endangerment’ or the appropriate Missouri statute; I’m sure they have something covering allowing a firearm to go off in a public place.
When a citizen sees something like this, it is perfectly acceptable to ask, “What is going on here?” From the information we have so far, the response to the incident seems a little casual, if not lackadaisical. But to be fair, we don’t know all the facts here. It’s possible the decision is based on facts not available to us which make any prosecution inadvisable. Then again, if we knew all about it, we might be madder than we are.
To ask such questions is not ‘cop bashing’. However, to paint every lawman and every department as crooked and evil and incompetent based on this story is illogical. A demand for equal protection under the law is not cop bashing. Pretending all lawmen are involved in this incident is cop bashing.
Speaking of training; Agencies train ‘masses’ of employees. All agencies train to a ‘minimal’ standard. Some are more minimal than others; some lawmen are less interested in learning than others. Agencies routinely conduct training in order to be able to say, “Look, we trained them.” All agencies have training records which will, in court of law, provide a defense against improper or inadequate training. I have a suspicion that is the primary motive in many agencies.
Which is not to say the training officers are not dedicated. Most are dedicated and desirous of giving the troops the best instruction and methodology possible. However, agencies only allow so much training time and budget. Any trainer will tell you not everyone in the agency or department ‘gets it’, either in shooting or report writing. The management, which in this sense includes non-agency politicians, is not so much interested in properly trained employees as with liability defense.
I can tell you all this; If I did what this officer did in my agency, the very best I could hope for would be two weeks off without pay. I’d probably get fired. If I let go a negligent shot and confessed it all properly, I’d probably get two weeks off without pay. Maybe more.
Frankly, ditching the gun has me more worked up than the negligent shot. That act shows a disregard for others, a disregard for the truth, and a knowledge of guilt. My agency has a policy outlining what guns can be carried off duty. I wonder if St. Louis PD has such a policy? I wonder if she was in compliance?
And the real capper is her comment at the Dairy Queen, “I ain’t got no gun.” Quotas, Affirmative Action and protected groups aside, she doesn’t sound like she was hired under the ‘gifted scholar’ program.