Both Tyreek Hill and the Miami Police Officers were At Fault in My Opinion

I have worked as a Federal Law Enforcement Officer for 20 plus years and I wanted to break down the bodycam footage released yesterday of Tyreek Hill’s incident on Sunday in Miami-Dade county.

I will tell you, I understand both sides point of view, but I will give you the side of the law enforcement officer, as well as the what I feel was incorrect from both parties. Accountability is everything, and can save lives, and in this situation I feel both parties could have overstepped their boundaries at times.

Anytime there is a situation, a road stop, a domestic violence call, whatever it is, you have to be prepared as a law enforcement officer for the unexpected. It is no different than a nurse receiving an ER patient. You do not know what you are dealing with. In the ER they say treat everyone as if they have AIDS, so you need to make sure you are protected, have gloves on, and are you are alert. Same thing with a law enforcement officer. You have to treat every situation like it could be your last. We call it keeping your head on a swivel.

Let’s look at the video, and then we will break it down.

It starts off bad, let’s just say that. As a law enforcement officer you are taught to deescalate the situation. You can tell frustration set in on both sides. When the officer knocked on the window, it upset Hill. The Officer when Hill rolls down his window asks Hill “Why don’t you have your seatbelt on”. This is a normal question for a law enforcement officer. He is not doing anything wrong at this point.

His response is met with push back immediately. Hill immediately says to the officer “Don’t Knock on My Window like that”. He is then asked again why he does not have a seatbelt on to where Hill says two more times Don’t Knock on my Window like that. This is a red-flag for law enforcement. The person is not complying from the get go. The officer asked him a question and was met with talking back.

I will always look at our use of force policy on de-escalation because you can never go wrong. This right here is the Use of Force Model for us as Federal Law Enforcement Officers. It is simple. If you look at this case, you can see that the officer asked Hill a simple question. Why didn’t you have on your seatbelt. If Hill would have responded, it was a mistake, or I should have had it on, this Use of Force would have remained in the blue, and it would have probably not been on the news, at all. (That is if the Officer do their job correctly).

With Hill showing passive resistance by not answering the question, he has already raised his level to green. I want people reading this to understand what that means as well. That does not mean you can shoot someone, or go higher than the force level you are on. So the highest part of the use of force the officer can go at this point is green. He can act via green or blue, but this is based on the Officers perception. What they don’t tell you is the officer’s perception is what triggers his level.

So in this case, the officer begins looking at the VIN number more than likely in the front of the window. When he does this Hill begins putting his window up. As a law enforcement officer myself, he has now just raised the level to yellow. He is now acting resistant. He is no longer talking to officers, and he rolls his windows up. Number 1 his windows are tinted, you have no clue what he is doing behind those doors. He could be getting a weapon, he could be hiding something, you have no clue as an officer. The Officer then has to raise the level up to yellow as well. That is when he must react.

If you watch the officer however, he is calm, he looks around he is not worried too much about the window being down, but he knocks on the window again giving Hill an order to roll the window down. Hill at this point rolls it down a little. That again is suspicious. That is when a second officer comes into the screen. That officer is a little more aggressive. But remember each officer has a different level of how they react on the Use of Force scale. Not everyone is going to act the same way.

This is where I think the second officer was a little wrong. He reaches in the car and unlocks the door, he can do that. Hill is on the phone with his agent Drew Rosenhaus at the time, and has the phone in his hand and he is actively trying to unbuckle his seat belt. At this time he is beginning to comply. Which would be back to the green level, but the officer grabs him behind the head and places him on the ground.

The officer is trying to put his hands behind his back when they have him on the ground, and Hill is still talking to Drew his agent. The second officer who was wrong, then covers himself by saying if we tell you to do something you do it. At this point, he was given a directive, so Hill complies. The second officer then begins trying to escalate the situation. He tells Hill “Stop Crying”. He is trying to instigate the situation, and to get him to react. The second officer was wrong for this. You are trying to de-escalate the situation not escalate it.

At this time, they are able to get Tyreek Hill up and are moving him away from traffic. A third officer tells an SUV driver, to not park there, pointing to in front of Hill’s car. At that point, you can see the driver park there anyway.

It pans away and the officer is asking Tyreek Hill to sit down, he asks him twice, and Hill keeps saying hold on, hold on. That is when the same 2nd officer comes over and puts his arm around his neck and places him on the ground. Tyreek is saying he had surgery on his knee, before he sits down. That second officer seems to be a little intense, because Tyreek continues to play games instead of complying. You can tell the officer is still upset from him not rolling his window down. You can hear him say what a coincidence, and then he says something about the window from about 5 minutes earlier.

At this time, the second officer goes to the other man who parked in front of Hill’s car after being told not to. He is now raising his use of force scale. He is no longer complying, he is not listening. The officer tells him to move the car, while he is on the phone telling whoever he is talking to they are beating on Tyreek. (No one was beating on anyone in this situation however)

The officer was doing everything to de-escalate the situation asking the man to get into his car and move it because it was in the middle of the road. Another officer comes into the picture and he is pissed. He asks the man for his license and the man does not comply, he now is in the green stage. You can see one officer doing everything he can to keep the situation calm, while the other is barking out orders telling him he is going to lock him up.

The video then ends.

It is really simple, both parties were wrong. Tyreek Hill, the other man parking where he shouldn’t have, and the second officer. All were wrong, because all wanted to escalate the situation. This could have been avoided, but people let their emotions get the best of them. Hill should have complied, the officer needs to go back to study the use of force scale, and the friend needs to comply. It is simple. Many people can sit here and Monday Morning Quarterback a situation. That is what the police department will do, the NFL will do, and everyone else involved including lawyers. The thing is you do not know how hard it is to be in the officers shoes. I am not making excuses for an officer, but I can see how his spidey senses were raised.

I will leave you a simple thing to ponder on, what happens if Hill when he rolls up his window were to fire a gun at the officer? There is no way to tell what is happening at the moment. That is why you have to treat every situation like it is your last. Many people will never understand this, but this is the truth. There are many videos of officers getting killed in routine stops. This could have been avoided, but to say the officers should be fired is wrong too. I think both parties are at fault here. At the end of the day, this could have been avoided.