The Need for a Psychological Assessment
The case involving Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, has been followed by a series of events, including protests from African American communities of Ferguson, Missouri, to frequent death threats directed to Wilson. Wilson spoke to The New Yorker and said that he bought a new house, but the deed does not bear his name. He added that only a few of his friends and family know where he lives (Halpern, 2019). These circumstances show that Wilson is in need of a psychological evaluation before he resumes active duty.
According to Charoen (1999), when an officer takes another person’s life, they are bound to experience some devastating effects. He states that police officers are often expected to be or portray themselves as invincible. When they go through events of officer-involved shootings that lead to fatalities, they usually believe that they are able to handle the emotional stress without them spilling over to their job performance, personal, family, or social lives. However, psychological stress tends to build up with time and often takes a toll on the officer’s psychological health. Charoen states that a psychological evaluation, which should last approximately six months, should be conducted to help the officer involved in the shooting to accept and resolve the shooting experience (Charoen, 1999).
Even though Wilson was not indicted, the killing of Brown may still cause him to experience high stress levels. In this case, he is experiencing a fight or flight response. Since he fought to save his life by shooting at Brown, he may then experience a flight type response. He may want to escape certain situations to find some alone time to enable him to relax. Wilson may also find it hard to sleep and may have flashbacks of the incident. The fact that he has had to move to an unknown location shows that he fears for his life. If he is to return to active duty, Wilson will indeed need to undergo an additional psychological assessment.
Deductive Analytic Techniques and Inductive Analytic Techniques
While the deductive approach aims at testing a theory, the inductive approach focuses on the generation of new theories. The former starts with a hypothesis, while the latter uses a research question, which is then narrowed down. The deductive approach is mostly used to determine causality. On the other hand, the inductive approach aims at discovering new phenomena or having a different perspective of those that were previously researched (DeCarlo, 2018).
From Wilson’s account, Brown was violent throughout their encounter. He claims that Brown kept charging at him even after shots were fired. Wilson feared for his life when Brown engaged him in a physical altercation. From this scenario, Wilson has seconds to a few minutes to respond. However, his decisions were based on the inductive approach. This means that he was trying to find out why Brown was charging at him even after he fired shots. The inductive approach is mostly qualitative, and so Wilson used only his intuition and mental assessment of the situation.
Characteristics of a Well-Prepared Officer
I do not believe that a well-prepared officer must always display the characteristics of agreeableness, listening comprehension, sociability, and empathy, although they may be necessary in specific cases. Agreeableness helps a police officer look at civilians from a more optimistic standpoint, instead of always expecting the worst. However, a police officer should not always be in agreement with civilians, since this would compromise their objectivity. Listening comprehension is a quality that enables an officer to understand what the subjects or the general public are saying. Sociability is a trait that makes it easier for the public to approach law enforcement officers. However, a police officer should have clear-cut boundaries between themselves and the public. Empathy makes the officer respond in a way that does not necessarily involve the use of force. This characteristic may, however, come in the way of law enforcement. In this scenario, Officer Wilson did not display any of these characteristics. He failed to act empathetically when he shot at Brown several times. Given the prevailing circumstances, he was not required to have listening comprehension. He did not display sociability nor agreeableness.
The Best Option Officer Wilson Could Have Chosen
Officer Wilson did not have to call for backup because he could contain the situation by himself. It would not have been a wise decision for him, however, to engage the suspect without a weapon, since he could not be sure that he was not armed. Leaving the suspect to wander away to his destination without any confrontation was also not a reliable option since Brown had earlier stolen from a shop. In this case, Officer Wilson could have followed the suspect without engaging him to find out where he was going.