Backing up other Officers

weed_npd193

I know personally when I back up another officer ill stand back and just go with the flow of things. But when I'm assisting a female I jump in and try to take charge in the situation, it's not intentional because I know they can all handle themselves perfectly fine, but something in my mind just tells me to do it. Do any other male officers do this? And how do female officers feel about males stepping in?

Deputy_Pepper

We're trained backup Officer is to stay back and let the lead Officer run the show. Backup's attention should be to surroundings and safety of the scene unless the situation dictates otherwise. This training is broken a lot. Some people are type A dominant. I find it kinda across the board gender wise.

MountainCop

jpad74: I totally agree. Usually the lead Officer should be exactly that - the lead. There have been times where I have performed an unexpected action as the backup officer, but always for a good reason (such as holding a subject's arm when he was starting to flail around, etc.), but the lead is the lead.

MCameron

I've found the female officers will be the first to tell you if your "extra" help was not needed. & you didn't want to get on the bad sides of the females I worked with. Mean SOB's!! LoL

I agree with jpad & Mountain ... Lead is lead, unless they are (or indicate that they are) unable to finish due to physical injury, or getting hit with their own (or anothers) Chemical agent & are incapacitated for a moment, etc...

Trpr5566

I position my self in an L with my contact officer and take up a position behind the violator and where I can watch the remaining vehicle occupants if needed.

Miche351

I ran into this multiple times with the same person. As a female officer it drives me bat$h!t when a male officer over steps me and assumes the lead. Thankfully it is not something I run into with most of my fellow officers. This particular guy seems to do it a lot and not even realize it. Tried the nice "hey you're stepping on my feet" kind of conversation and it went mostly deflected. It's a sensitive subject because I want to make it clear that I do appreciate and need a back up officer at times (as we all do), however; what I don't need is to be over stepped.

All I know is that if it happens again I will have even less patients and I am very sure he will get more of a fiery verbal explosion.