Surviving a Police Encounter

1. Surviving a Police Encounter

2. On January 12, 1998, Deputy Kyle Dinkheller pulled over a speeding motorist in what, at first, appeared to be a routine traffic stop. Dinkheller activated his dash camera, and over the next three and a half minutes, it recorded every patrol officer’s worst nightmare. The motorist, who had exited the vehicle, quickly became uncooperative, and when he heard Dinkeheller radio for backup, he charged at the deputy who beat him off with his baton.

3. The motorist returned to his white pickup truck, retrieved an Iver Johnson M1 carbine, and in the ensuing gunfight, he shot the deputy 10 times, including a fatal shot through Dinkheller’s right eye. The camera recorded Dinkheller’s terrified screams during the final desperate moments of his life. It was one of the first dash-cam videos to “go viral” on the pre-YouTube internet, and practically every patrol officer in the country learned the name Kyle Dinkheller. 23 years later, on February 4, 2021, New Mexico State Police Officer Darian Jarrott pulled over a motorist (who also happened to be driving an inconspicuous white pickup truck). The stop, which at first appeared routine, ended with the driver exiting the vehicle with an AR-15-style rifle and murdering the officer. Like the Dinkheller murder, the encounter lasted just over three and a half minutes.

4. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that in 2020, “44 law enforcement officers were feloniously killed in the line-of-duty.” Patrol officers understand all too well that routine traffic stops can turn deadly in a matter of moments. It’s understandable, therefore, that a law enforcement officer may approach a traffic stop with some trepidation. Conversely, The Washington Post maintains a database of “every fatal shooting by an on-duty police officer in the United States.” In 2020, they reported 1021 deaths. The database also shows that Black and Hispanic men are killed at a disproportional rate compared with the rest of the population. News coverage of civilians, often unarmed, being killed during police encounters has been unceasing. It’s understandable, then,

5. Retired Oklahoma City Police Lieutenant Stan Campbell has trained officers for over 25 years and had his fair share of traffic encounters with civilians, and he knows firsthand the anxiety officers feel. He’s also a Black man and the father of a son, and as such, he understands the apprehension citizens feel during the same encounters. “We see a situation where there are two scared people in a legal stop,” Stan says, “where they are both fearful of each other, and they may even hate each other because of the stories they have heard, or the experiences of the individual from the past.”

6. Lorenzo has joined Stan to spread the word about D.O.P.E. the Movement with the goal of educating police and citizens alike about De-escalating Officer Patrol Encounters. As part of the effort, Stan has developed “The Three Cs” for surviving a police encounter with your rights intact: Caring, Communication, and Compliance. Because law enforcement officers are in a position of authority, because their job is to serve the community,

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8. Caring begins with empathy, and it’s important for citizens to realize that law enforcement officers risk their lives to do their job, knowing that any given traffic stop holds the possibility of quickly devolving into a deadly encounter. Acknowledging that risk by pulling over quickly and in a safe place establishes a good foundation for the following interaction. Keeping your hands in plain view and adopting a calm respectful demeanor sends a signal to the officer that they have nothing to worry about from you. Behaving this way doesn’t guarantee a perfect interaction with law enforcement. Stan says the officer carries 90% of the responsibility for the result of a patrol stop, but he encourages citizens to “Avoid launching the encounter into a downward spiral through your actions.” Lorenzo says, “Make sure that you’re blameless, and that starts by knowing the law and governing yourself accordingly.”