Years ago, undercover referred to police officers who conducted
investigations posing as someone other than a police officer. Today,
undercover can also be applied to multitudes of plainclothes police
officers running around all over the place. Years ago, as today, new
police officers couldn't wait to get into plainclothes assignments. I
wasn't any different; however, thinking back on that desire, I can't
remember why it appealed to me.
Police departments used to be very sparing in their use of plainclothes
officers. Aside from detectives, who generally looked like detectives,
plainclothes assignments were limited.
What you shouldn't be expected to know, but what police administrators
should know, is that plainclothes assignments are generally inefficient,
and they can create more problems than they solve.
You probably haven't given this much, if any, thought, but how many
times have you seen a plainclothes police officer working by him or
herself? The answer is, you won't. Now, how often do you see a
uniformed police officer working by him or herself. The
answer...frequently.
Whether anyone realizes it or not, the uniform has a tremendous
psychological impact. It clearly identifies the police officer as a police
officer, and it conveys the authority possessed by the police officer. On
the other hand, a person dressed like everyone else doesn't convey
anything except, perhaps, the officer's taste in clothes. Even with
identification -- showing the badge -- the presence of a second officer is
required to make most people more susceptible to believing who you say
you are.
Now, imagine yourself as a newly trained police officer. You're off duty,
and you're driving through a relatively high crime area of a neighboring
jurisdiction. As you sit at a red light, a man approaches your driver's
door. He points a handgun at you with one hand as he holds out a badge
in the other hand. He shouts, "Police," and he orders you to "exit your
vehicle." He's dressed down like a lot of plainclothes officers, and the
"police" and "exit your vehicle" commands sound good. But...since
you're a police officer, you're familiar with the police badge in this
jurisdiction. While it's similar in appearance, you quickly realize it's
not a real police badge. The handgun doesn't fool you either. It's a
different type or make carried by officers in that jurisdiction.
While most people don't pay a lot of attention to the designs of badges
and types of guns, cops do, so you know you're dealing with a potentially
deadly situation involving a person(s) who is not a police officer. In this
circumstance you determine that you're probably dealing with a
carjacking. You don't have a lot of choices. You could comply with his
orders and hope to get through the robbery unharmed. Of course, the
phony cop could decide to search you, and he'd end up with another gun.
You could feign compliance. As you exit your car, you could draw your
gun and shoot the fool, before he realizes what's happening. My
personal choice would be to make a quick check of the
intersection...peddle to the metal while getting as low in that seat to
protect my upper body and hope that any shots fired will miss or be
slowed down by the car's body and seats.
The reason I cited this example is to make you think about what any
person might feel when accosted in this manner by anyone in
plainclothes claiming to be a police officer. It's not a big deal when
you're accosting a real criminal, for he or she is going to do whatever it
is he or she is going to do. The criminals are just as savvy at
recognizing plainclothes cops as cops themselves. However, people who
are not accustomed to such confrontations are unpredictable. There are
any number of reasons for a law abiding citizen to become involved with
police officers under stressful circumstances. In such situations, it
should be obvious that the uniform will remove a lot of doubts from an
already stressful situation.
You may ask, "What about detectives? Why couldn't a single
uniformed police officer perform the functions normally done by a two
person detective team?" The short answer is...yes, a uniformed officer
could; however, it would not be an efficient way of doing investigations.
First, the public is used to detectives who are dressed neat and
conservative projecting a professional image. Detectives can go about
their business, interacting within any environment, without people
immediately recognizing them as police officers. When it comes to
investigations, the semi-undercover status is beneficial. There's
another important advantage. Investigations can become intricate and
complicated. When two detectives work well together...two heads are
better than one.
A uniformed officer is constantly exposed to people approaching him or
her for any number of reasons. This single circumstance of frequent
interruptions would play havoc with the efficiency of investigations.
While detectives can certainly take police action when they observe
criminal activity, they're not exposed to the multitude of duties as is the
uniformed police officer.
Aside from detectives, there is only one legitimate use for plainclothes
police officers. Undercover should mean undercover. Covert
assignments can be of long duration or short duration. Short duration
simply means the police officers are truly concealing their identity;
until, they're ready to perform an enforcement action. An obvious
example of this is when police officers are conducting drug and vice
enforcement activities.
Today, many police departments are developing a bad habit of deploying
plainclothes police officers for enforcement activities where uniformed
police officers in marked patrol vehicles would be better suited. You'll
know what I'm talking about when you see a pair of men standing in
line at a carry-out restaurant wearing bullet proof vests -- over their
shirts -- with their holstered handguns visible to all. My favorite is the
tactical style holster that's attached closer to the knee than the hip.
The officers' badges may or may not be visible. Of course, the officers
do make an effort to be covert by skipping a shave and wearing tattered
clothing.
The truth is, there's not much "undercover" when it comes to most
plainclothes police deployments. Another big misconception is the value
of the unmarked police vehicle. The standard unmarked police car
doesn't fool any of the people you're trying to fool. The ideal unmarked
police car could be obtained from the many cars and trucks seized in
drug cases. This idea is brought up often, but for a police department to
obtain the use of such vehicles requires the cooperation of other
agencies responsible for the storage and maintenance of such vehicles.
It's usually too much trouble to go through all the hoops to provide you
with a truly covert vehicle. However, the high end models frequently
find their way into the possession of high ranking members of any
number of government agencies...it's called a "perk."
As plainclothes enforcement units proliferate, particularly in larger
police departments, the plainclothes aspect is taking on a new look. The
BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) is becoming popular with units that are
supposed to be working in plainclothes. The BDU isn't really uniform
since officers like to make their own alterations to fit their personal
tastes.
When you hear about controversial, and sometimes tragic, outcomes
involving police enforcement actions, you should notice that most
involve police officers working in plainclothes assignments. You'll soon
learn that when you take any enforcement action as a police officer,
things can happen pretty quickly. The nice thing about the uniform --
the real uniform -- is that you don't have to worry about identifying
yourself beyond yelling..."POLICE!"
investigations posing as someone other than a police officer. Today,
undercover can also be applied to multitudes of plainclothes police
officers running around all over the place. Years ago, as today, new
police officers couldn't wait to get into plainclothes assignments. I
wasn't any different; however, thinking back on that desire, I can't
remember why it appealed to me.
Police departments used to be very sparing in their use of plainclothes
officers. Aside from detectives, who generally looked like detectives,
plainclothes assignments were limited.
What you shouldn't be expected to know, but what police administrators
should know, is that plainclothes assignments are generally inefficient,
and they can create more problems than they solve.
You probably haven't given this much, if any, thought, but how many
times have you seen a plainclothes police officer working by him or
herself? The answer is, you won't. Now, how often do you see a
uniformed police officer working by him or herself. The
answer...frequently.
Whether anyone realizes it or not, the uniform has a tremendous
psychological impact. It clearly identifies the police officer as a police
officer, and it conveys the authority possessed by the police officer. On
the other hand, a person dressed like everyone else doesn't convey
anything except, perhaps, the officer's taste in clothes. Even with
identification -- showing the badge -- the presence of a second officer is
required to make most people more susceptible to believing who you say
you are.
Now, imagine yourself as a newly trained police officer. You're off duty,
and you're driving through a relatively high crime area of a neighboring
jurisdiction. As you sit at a red light, a man approaches your driver's
door. He points a handgun at you with one hand as he holds out a badge
in the other hand. He shouts, "Police," and he orders you to "exit your
vehicle." He's dressed down like a lot of plainclothes officers, and the
"police" and "exit your vehicle" commands sound good. But...since
you're a police officer, you're familiar with the police badge in this
jurisdiction. While it's similar in appearance, you quickly realize it's
not a real police badge. The handgun doesn't fool you either. It's a
different type or make carried by officers in that jurisdiction.
While most people don't pay a lot of attention to the designs of badges
and types of guns, cops do, so you know you're dealing with a potentially
deadly situation involving a person(s) who is not a police officer. In this
circumstance you determine that you're probably dealing with a
carjacking. You don't have a lot of choices. You could comply with his
orders and hope to get through the robbery unharmed. Of course, the
phony cop could decide to search you, and he'd end up with another gun.
You could feign compliance. As you exit your car, you could draw your
gun and shoot the fool, before he realizes what's happening. My
personal choice would be to make a quick check of the
intersection...peddle to the metal while getting as low in that seat to
protect my upper body and hope that any shots fired will miss or be
slowed down by the car's body and seats.
The reason I cited this example is to make you think about what any
person might feel when accosted in this manner by anyone in
plainclothes claiming to be a police officer. It's not a big deal when
you're accosting a real criminal, for he or she is going to do whatever it
is he or she is going to do. The criminals are just as savvy at
recognizing plainclothes cops as cops themselves. However, people who
are not accustomed to such confrontations are unpredictable. There are
any number of reasons for a law abiding citizen to become involved with
police officers under stressful circumstances. In such situations, it
should be obvious that the uniform will remove a lot of doubts from an
already stressful situation.
You may ask, "What about detectives? Why couldn't a single
uniformed police officer perform the functions normally done by a two
person detective team?" The short answer is...yes, a uniformed officer
could; however, it would not be an efficient way of doing investigations.
First, the public is used to detectives who are dressed neat and
conservative projecting a professional image. Detectives can go about
their business, interacting within any environment, without people
immediately recognizing them as police officers. When it comes to
investigations, the semi-undercover status is beneficial. There's
another important advantage. Investigations can become intricate and
complicated. When two detectives work well together...two heads are
better than one.
A uniformed officer is constantly exposed to people approaching him or
her for any number of reasons. This single circumstance of frequent
interruptions would play havoc with the efficiency of investigations.
While detectives can certainly take police action when they observe
criminal activity, they're not exposed to the multitude of duties as is the
uniformed police officer.
Aside from detectives, there is only one legitimate use for plainclothes
police officers. Undercover should mean undercover. Covert
assignments can be of long duration or short duration. Short duration
simply means the police officers are truly concealing their identity;
until, they're ready to perform an enforcement action. An obvious
example of this is when police officers are conducting drug and vice
enforcement activities.
Today, many police departments are developing a bad habit of deploying
plainclothes police officers for enforcement activities where uniformed
police officers in marked patrol vehicles would be better suited. You'll
know what I'm talking about when you see a pair of men standing in
line at a carry-out restaurant wearing bullet proof vests -- over their
shirts -- with their holstered handguns visible to all. My favorite is the
tactical style holster that's attached closer to the knee than the hip.
The officers' badges may or may not be visible. Of course, the officers
do make an effort to be covert by skipping a shave and wearing tattered
clothing.
The truth is, there's not much "undercover" when it comes to most
plainclothes police deployments. Another big misconception is the value
of the unmarked police vehicle. The standard unmarked police car
doesn't fool any of the people you're trying to fool. The ideal unmarked
police car could be obtained from the many cars and trucks seized in
drug cases. This idea is brought up often, but for a police department to
obtain the use of such vehicles requires the cooperation of other
agencies responsible for the storage and maintenance of such vehicles.
It's usually too much trouble to go through all the hoops to provide you
with a truly covert vehicle. However, the high end models frequently
find their way into the possession of high ranking members of any
number of government agencies...it's called a "perk."
As plainclothes enforcement units proliferate, particularly in larger
police departments, the plainclothes aspect is taking on a new look. The
BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) is becoming popular with units that are
supposed to be working in plainclothes. The BDU isn't really uniform
since officers like to make their own alterations to fit their personal
tastes.
When you hear about controversial, and sometimes tragic, outcomes
involving police enforcement actions, you should notice that most
involve police officers working in plainclothes assignments. You'll soon
learn that when you take any enforcement action as a police officer,
things can happen pretty quickly. The nice thing about the uniform --
the real uniform -- is that you don't have to worry about identifying
yourself beyond yelling..."POLICE!"
Undercover
Cops
Cops
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| Copyright © 2006 - 2008 - Barry M. Baker - CareerPoliceOfficer.com |
| Disclaimer |
| CareerPoliceOfficer.com is not responsible for the contents of any linked site or any link contained in a linked site, or any changes or updates to such sites. Links are provided only as a convenience, and the inclusion of any link does not imply endorsement by this site. |
Police Author Lisa Lockwood is the author of
Undercover Angel -- From Beauty Queen to SWAT
Team...a true story. During Lisa's law enforcement
career she served as a police officer, SWAT Team
member, and an undercover narcotics detective.
Lisa's femininity, initially perceived as a drawback
in the male-dominated world of law enforcement,
became her greatest weapon in the field.
Undercover Angel -- From Beauty Queen to SWAT
Team...a true story. During Lisa's law enforcement
career she served as a police officer, SWAT Team
member, and an undercover narcotics detective.
Lisa's femininity, initially perceived as a drawback
in the male-dominated world of law enforcement,
became her greatest weapon in the field.