Portland Police Say They Must have 48 Hours Before Answering to a Deadly Shooting

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The call for the Portland Police Department to remove the “48 hour rule” that is currently required before an officer can be interviewed following a deadly shooting is another attack on law enforcement that may seem harmless to some but it is dangerous to the profession.

The demand made by a police oversight panel is just another uneducated, baseless request that makes no sense unless you want to harm law enforcement.

Of course the rule exists, hopefully in every agency, because of the sound research and past history of interviewing officers immediately after a critical incident. One component of a high stress situation is a loss of memory. Research calls it a “memory gap” and immediately after a shooting or other high stress event, those involved will often not remember details or misinterpret facts. Those gaps begin to fill in and after a few days officers will have a clear picture of what occurred.

The importance of a 48-72 hour window after a critical incident is vital if you want an accurate depiction of what happened. I have been there and witnessed it myself. This so called “oversight committee” would have no clue and the only reason anyone would push for the elimination of this sound practice is to harm the reputation and/or indict more cops.

I’ll tell you how it would happen. If an officer is involved in a shooting, most will experience memory loss of the incident and if forced under a criminal investigation to give details of that incident, they simply will not be able to be completely accurate. What they say will be used against them and when the complete memory of the incident returns and they change their story, lawyers, prosecutors and oversight committees will call them liars or worse attempt to indict them.

Continue to Full Story at The Law Officer

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