Police Ready Challenge #1

June 22, 2009

A Police Ready Challenge is a weekly challenge posted on our Police Ready blog which tests viewers such as yourself, on your cognitive reasoning and judgment as a police officer at a crime scene. This week will feature our first challenge, so let’s kick start our Police Ready Challenge with a bank robbery scenario.

You’ve been called to respond to a bank robbery in progress. As you pull up to the bank, the suspected robbers are fleeing the scene of the crime and are carrying guns. They also have backpacks that may have the stolen money in them. The bank manager runs over to your cruiser and says the bank security guard has been shot.

What would you do in this situation?

1) Pursue the robbers on foot, weapon drawn?
2) Pursue the robbers on foot, updating other officers as to where the suspects are headed?
3) Call for back up, tell the bank manager to call an ambulance and lock the bank doors and stay put until you return and then chase the suspects updating dispatch as you chase?

Here are brief descriptions that explains the outcome of your selected option.

1) Pursuing the robbers on foot with a weapon drawn endangers you and other innocent civilians. The risks are too high to consider following this course of action.
2) This is a good option as it keeps your personal safety in mind.
3) This is the best option as it deals with all the concerns present at the crime scene, delegates some of the responsibility to the bank manager and frees you up to give chase while keeping in touch with dispatch. It will also allow you to see if the suspects ditch the backpacks and weapons as they run and give you enough information to be able to describe them. If they jump into a getaway vehicle, you may also be able to get a full or partial license plate number to run.

Joshua Mok
Police Ready
www.PoliceReady.com