An example of good policing that puts Norbits and Finney to shame

I happened to catch a news story on ABC World News about an innovation in police technology. It's a tiny video camera that a policeman wears near his ear that records what he sees and hears on a small computer. It was being tried out in Cincinnati and the video it produced was riveting.

What makes it worth writing about are the classes announced in the News-Gazette, apparently in response to the death of Kiwane Carrington, teaching ‘proper’ behavior around police officers.

In the incident highlighted in that news story, a policewoman responds at night to a store being terrorized by a large black man. She chases him down an alley and after he ignores her demands to halt, she uses her projectile taser on him. Unfortunately, he's wearing a heavy jacket and the taser is ineffective.

He manages to pull the taser away from her. She responds by pulling out her gun which she keeps on him even as he lunges at her. With the gun always pointing at the suspect, she stays out of his reach. This is all clearly seen on the video.

The policewoman never fires her weapon though the suspect is large and clearly threatening. With the help of a second police officer, the suspect is soon brought into custody without further incident. Contrast that with how Norbits and Finney handled a skinny, unarmed, 15 year-old kid and you've got to wonder. Why are we the only ones being asked to take classes?