Monday, July 11, 2016

"Dallas police chief says ‘we’re asking cops to do too much in this country’"

From The Washinton Post:




"DALLAS — The police chief here said Monday he feels that law enforcement officers across the country are being asked to take on too much, comments that came as his department was still investigating the mass shooting of Dallas police officers last week and protesters in other cities continued demonstrations against how officers use force.

 "Even as the Dallas police worked to sift through massive amounts of evidence from the shooting rampage that killed five officers — an effort that entails watching hundreds of hours of videos and conducting scores of interviews — David Brown, the Dallas police chief, said he believes officers in his city and nationwide are under too much strain.

 "'We’re asking cops to do too much in this country,' Brown said at a briefing Monday. 'We are. Every societal failure, we put it off on the cops to solve. Not enough mental health funding, let the cops handle it.

'Here in Dallas we got a loose dog problem; let’s have the cops chase loose dogs. Schools fail, let’s give it to the cops. That’s too much to ask. Policing was never meant to solve all those problems.'"

"During his remarks Monday, Brown also offered a hint of the toll that overseeing the response to such a shooting was taking on him. Brown, who has lived through traumas including his son’s death following the young man’s fatal shooting of an officer, said he was 'running on fumes.' The chief also said he and his family 'received death threats almost immediately after the shooting.'

"'We’re all on edge,' Brown said of police in Dallas. 'And we’re being very careful.''

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/07/11/grief-and-anger-continue-after-dallas-attacks-and-police-shootings-as-debate-rages-over-policing/?utm_term=.cfdb4d4455c0