Incident Visualization

mental-preparation visualization based on the shoplifter incident. The intent is to be able to use the visualization as a role-play to train new police recruits to anticipate critical incidents like this one. What Is Visualization? A visualization is when you re-tell the story of the police incident in your own words (first-person) as if you were one of the characters. As you re-tell the story, you must stick to the basic facts of the incident, but you are to change minor details in what your police officer character does so that the outcome or result is more positive. In this way, you are able to insert “best practices” in order to train new police officers to face similar, high-stress circumstances. You Are Sergeant Marcus Young For this assignment, write your visualization in the first person words of Sergeant Marcus Young. Re-tell the story using action and imagined dialogue. For example, “As soon as I saw a man dressed like Satan approach, I –” Write with as much detail as possible in a way that would benefit all three officers – and the police recruits you are trying to train. For example, “When Wal-Mart security guard Brett Schott approached, I shouted for him not to get too near until he was sure the guy was unarmed.” Or whatever you want to say to provide helpful insights and tips. Focus of the Incident Remember to keep your focus on the assigned critical incident. You will not know all the details of the incident as they happened that evening to Sergeant Young and his partners, but remember to visualize, in as much detail as possible, what you would do and say if you were Sergeant Young. The intent is to find possible words you might say or actions you might commit to reduce the trauma for all three officers and hopefully reduce the potential for posttraumatic stress syndrome. The ultimate intent is to provide a tool that can be used to train new street cops. Write as much as you need until you work through the entire incident, where the offender is captured or incapacitated ************************************** THE SHOPLIFTER INCIDENT Just before 10:00 PM on March 7, 2003, five lives were going to change forever. Sergeant Marcus Young of the Ukiah, California Police Department was on patrol with a 17-year old ride-along cadet named Julian Covella. They got a call of a “shoplifter in custody” at the local Wal-Mart Superstore. It seemed that an 18-year-old female named Monica Winnie had been caught shoplifting by Wal-Mart security guard Brett Schott. A few minutes later, when they moved outside, the shoplifter’s boyfriend, Neal Beckman, appeared in the parking lot wearing two horns tattooed on his forehead and a goatee on his face shaped to make him look like the devil. He approached the security guard and the two officers who had arrived on the scene. The incident hit headlines. The United States Department of Justice made formal recognition of the incident in 2003. The National Rifle Association, too, highlighted the events. Larry Smith’s October 2004 PARADE Magazine article was titled “Officer Down…But Not Out.” That same month, America’s Most Wanted did a story on the incident, titled “Just An Average Ride Along?” and posted video clips on their website. “One Gun, No Hands: The Marcus Young Incident” was the title of the story as it appeared in a Fall 2004 issue of American Handgunner. Law OfficerMagazine has featured the story – twice – with the latest article, a June 2008 story titled “Officer Down: The Marcus Young Incident,” featuring pictures of the “horned” Beckman and sketches of the scene itself. As Sgt. Young walked with the shoplifter to the patrol car in the parking lot, boyfriend Neal Beckman drew nearer. Covella, Sgt. Young’s cadet partner, and Schott, the unarmed security guard, looked on. What happened next would be written about and analyzed in law enforcement circles and beyond, and it provides the “police incident” for your course project