April 2007

Put yourself in the shoes of Dep. Seth Dawson of the Santa Clara County (Calif.) Sheriff’s Department and consider these questions: • What kind of mindset does your agency encourage? What kind of mindset do you possess? What is at the forefront of your consciousness when it comes to a "shoot/don't" shoot reality in the field? • How do you feel about one-man foot pursuits? What dictates your chasing a suspect? At what point do you decide to establish a containment and search? • If you were to find yourself being administratively undermined to the point that your job or emotional well being was jeopardized, how comfortable would you feel about your union representation? • Have you ever been sued incident to a use-of-force incident; and if so, how did you feel about your representation?