Opinion
Think before you act! Time is not always on your side
Saturday, April 29, 2017
When working in law enforcement, you are faced every day with situations that require a great deal of consideration before making a decision in whatever incident you may be dealing with at the time. One wrong decision can change everything, so you must train, and be ready to think about each action you make before you make it even though you often only have a split second to make that decision.
Many of our clients find themselves in predicaments because they do not think things through before it is too late. They do not anticipate the unexpected so they can be ready to decide what to do at the last minute and because of this, when they are in the process of committing a crime and find things are not going like they thought they would go, they make very bad decisions.
The brain receives information, processes that information and sends information back telling the body what to do or say. When you are trying to rob someone’s home and get startled because you think someone is going to catch you, your brain will not have time to tell you that you have just run from the home (with stolen items), and left your phone behind at the crime scene.
It may not tell you that when you jumped from the stolen car to run from the deputy, leaving your wallet in the car is not a good way to keep from getting caught. When the deputy asks you if you have anything in your pocket while he is searching you, blurting out “no” will not make the bag of drugs disappear from your pocket. It only makes it harder for the deputy to believe you when the next thing out of your mouth is “that’s not mine.”
There is an old saying that goes “think before you speak” and the same idea applies when it comes to your actions. Think before you act. I once told someone they were under arrest for a warrant and they turned to run but after a short sprint, decided to jump in a nearby pond instead. I waited for them at the other side, but in the process of their little swim, they lost their phone, wallet and keys to their car. I explained to him on the way to jail that ponds are round bodies of water and there is nowhere to go from a pond. To that he responded, “Yeah I didn’t think of that until I had already jumped in.”
Leaving your prison issued photo ID card at a crime scene will help us figure out who you are, hiding out at a friend’s house will not work when you had the address written on the sticky note on your refrigerator, and calling your boyfriend to ask where the drug money is hidden is not a good idea when you called him on a recorded line at the jail.
When selling drugs to a person, it doesn’t work to whisper that “cops are everywhere so be careful,” when the undercover-cop is the one you are selling drugs to. And if you are going to give us a fake name to keep from getting arrested on a warrant, don’t use a name of a person who is 75 years old. Looks can be deceiving but we will figure that one out. Putting yourself in a situation where you don’t know what to do and must act without thinking will almost always lead to even more trouble. So think things through before you act, and maybe you will find there is a different path to take altogether. A path that doesn’t break the law and leave you with nothing but time sitting in the Vernon County Jail.