Bill Marvel: Relying on 911

Local residents saw visions of a major crime or disaster when a "flock" of state police cruisers was seen whisking through town toward Ossipee one day last week. Scenes like that suggest a murder, with the killer on the loose, or a hostage situation. This was a domestic complaint, with the victim out of danger, and attention had turned to the suspect, who was thought to be hiding in his home. After police had been waiting outside most of the day, a SWAT team went into the house and found it empty. There were reportedly about 15 officers on the scene, at least toward the end. 

Those circumstances might have offered fodder for a Keystone Kops satire, except that there was good reason to believe the suspect was in the house, and he was wanted on serious charges. Ossipee police had a real standoff less than a year ago, complete with exchanges of gunfire, so a little extra caution seems understandable. In the end, nothing was lost but a few days' worth of man- and woman-hours. 

According to one official, the extent of the police presence was based on an established procedure for dealing with barricaded suspects, but the existence of a prescribed procedure for any one scenario raises a question about flexibility. It appeared to be reasonable for the presumed situation last week, and might have been effective had the suspect been in the house, but is that always true? 

In this latest affair, in addition to the criminal matter, police feared the suspect might try to harm himself. Sometimes, people who have committed no crime end up in standoffs with police who have been called in by third parties worried about suicide. Those incidents usually involve a platoon or so of police, and they occasionally end very badly, with worse consequences than were even anticipated. One such call led to the only instance in which Conway police ever killed anyone, on July 7, 1996. 

The fault doesn't seem to lie with police, but rather with what the public expects of them. When a despondent but unoffending person wants to be left alone, surrounding him with an armed phalanx doesn't seem like the most comforting intervention, but what else does that concerned third party expect from dialing 911? Once alerted that someone is in danger, even from himself, cops have an obligation to respond; they can't be blamed if a situation exceeds the limits of their role or training. 

In the 1996 incident, Conway police were refused the services of the local mental health center to which the town had contributed money for years, and they ended up killing the man they were trying to dissuade from suicide. After a long standoff and much talking he made an aggressive movement with the shotgun he had with him, thereby assuring an outcome that had not previously been certain. 

Pardon me if I don't use this subject as an excuse to jump on the defund-the-police bandwagon. Over the years I've ranted in these pages about SWAT-team blundering and no-knock break-ins, and about unnecessarily rough and humiliating arrest procedures that may provoke as much resistance as they prevent. I also take a fairly libertarian view of individual rights, and tend to bridle at authoritarian control. Yet for the most part I sympathize with cops, who are charged with a difficult job in which the volume and variety of demands are always increasing. Reducing their operational alternatives and threatening their financial resources seems reckless and counterproductive, if they are expected to continue being everyone's savior. 

 Still, the habit of calling police to attend to an otherwise harmless person who seems despondent is a reflex that society could benefit from resisting. For those who can't take no for an answer when their own well-intentioned approaches are rebuffed, a less coercive and more specifically trained class of intervenors might serve better. Reassignment of this and similar duties to more appropriate agencies could help relieve overburdened police departments, and might even partially satisfy those who now seem hostile to the very notion of law enforcement. The main problem may arise in finding people courageous enough to undertake such potentially risky missions unarmed.

William Marvel lives in South Conway.