If It All Goes Bad - Be Smart, Don't Talk

This is not a knock on Police Officers.

I have the utmost respect for those that look in the mirror every morning and commit to putting their life on the line for a stranger.  It's heroic, to say the very least.  My own Father was an MP in the army and a volunteer fireman.  I have neighbors who are Police Officers and they are a credit to their brethren.  But I believe the information below is important.

There was an Officer involved shooting in my home town on September 27th - no one was hit (thank God.) The local Police Department, like most Law Enforcement Agencies, subscribes to the theory of "two sleep cycles before interviewing their Officers."  Why?  Because Law Enforcement knows that someone who has been involved in such a traumatic experience will have trouble relaying the simplest of information in a coherent form, which includes putting together the chronological order of events that just occurred.  They know the mind needs time to work through the ordeal, time to catch up.  They know you need time for the adrenaline to leave your system, time to calm down and think things through.  Time to shake off the effects of a lethal force encounter, the auditory shutdown, the tunnel vision.  They know you  need time to get over the damage done by a such a harrowing incident.  Time. Time. Time.

On the other hand, if you are involved in a lethal force shooting, you can expect to be interrogated on
the site of the shooting, pressed hard, asked the same questions over and over under the guise of "It's better to get the info while its still fresh in your mind."   Which is not true!  If it were, they would be interviewing their own LEO in the same time frame of a lethal force shooting!
 
You do have the right to refuse to give any answer other than your name, address and such.  Tell the officer interviewing you that you want to help, but at this time you are not answering anymore questions until you have talked with your lawyer.  Advise your spouse to say the same.

It would be nice if we, the citizen, were afforded the same respect as an LEO.