Heather (Veteran Police Officer)

And yeah, it's frustrating to hear the rhetoric about, you know, us using too much force because then the way that it is now, we're seeing cops get hurt more because they're not using force when maybe they should, like lower levels of force because they're worried about what it looks like or

We see so many people turning away from this job because they're worried about that Monday morning quarterback when we're making those split-second decisions, that we're having less great cops on the road to help train, to recruit, to retain officers, and then that makes our world less safe.

And if we really take our role as law enforcement seriously in the way that it was meant to be, which is to safeguard and protect, protect and serve,

then we need to do the things like have the hard conversations, be open to understanding other people's point of view and things like that.

I mean, I think we need equilateral leadership to come together.

Like, I think everybody just needs to come together.

I think the benefit of doubt needs to come to all too often.

Part of the issue is very much the way that incidents are portrayed.

You know, you you'll see a certain incident.

You'll see all these different views and certain law enforcement agencies are not allowed to put out the full body cam or anything until approved by certain entities.

And so.

you know, everybody's so quick to judge what happened.

Now, if we want to talk what happened with ICE in Minnesota, what I can say is that in New Jersey, we're not supposed to shoot at moving vehicles unless we have another, we have no other avenue of escape, right?

And in having very honest conversations, like I wasn't in the moment, I wasn't in that officer's view, I wasn't in her view, the driver.

So for me, like I know for myself, I wouldn't have walked in front of the car, right?

Like that's automatically putting you in a position

to potentially have to use a level of force you're not comfortable using or shouldn't be using.

I mean, and so am I going to rule whether or not I feel that his shooting was justified or not?

I felt he was put in a position where, you know, he felt the need to.

And then you can see the other side of it from law enforcement where she looked right at him.