Intentionally vague use of “emergency situation” to encourage people to share. If you handle emergency situations as a profession, what’s a particularly interesting one.
Intentionally vague use of “emergency situation” to encourage people to share. If you handle emergency situations as a profession, what’s a particularly interesting one.
Last week, as a part of my job, I was interviewing a suspect in order to write a pre-trial report for the courts in which I give my recommendations regarding parole and probation in case the suspect is found guilty. The interview was going great and the suspect was a really nice person. Suddenly, my personal safety alarm - which signals that there is a medical emergency or an ongoing assault - goes off and the display indicates that the incident is taking place just across the hall. I tell the suspect to stay put, I jump out into the hallway (first mistake), hastily pull open the door to the room in question (second mistake) and see that a colleague is having a seemingly normal conversation with a parolee. I look into my colleague’s eyes to read their needs and I immediately realize that they want the parolee out of there. I look at the parolee, who’s reeking of alcohol, with a kind smile and tell them, “let’s take a walk 🤗” and point in the direction in which I want them to go with my left arm. The parolee follows my instructions and I keep talking to them in a calming but firm fashion. While moving towards the exit, I also give them positive affirmation on how not everybody would’ve been able to follow instructions in such a calm manner in such a stressful situation.
After following up with my colleague who had sounded the alarm, and who had already been taken care of by our on-site counselor, I learned that the parolee had said to my colleague, twice, “I am going to
kill[some direct threat of bodily harm] you before this meeting is over”.Edit: I suddenly became unsure of whether they actually used the word “kill”, but at the very least, it was about harming my colleague in some way before their meeting concluded.
Why were those mistakes?
In addition to what @snowsuit2654@piefed.blahaj.zone pointed out, I also ran into spaces - during an ongoing incident - in which I had no idea what was going on. Behind every door that I hastily jerked open, there could have been hazards that could have jeopardized my safety. Not incidentally, this way of thinking is also a part of a well-established first aid rendering protocol: check your own safety before rendering aid. You are no good to the person in need of help if you yourself become incapacitated or lose your life during the rescue.
But coincidentally, your mistakes turned out to give the best results. Your colleague needed someone to step in as soon as possible. How long would it have taken you to guarantee your own safety before each of those steps? How would you even do that? You can’t know why the panic button was pressed without stepping into the room.
Also, I’m kind of wondering what happened to the suspect you were interviewing at the start. Did they stay put as you told them? Did they, as I expected when first reading your story, try to flee?
Good point(s)! Because no matter how much we practice these safety first protocols, when somebody is in danger, we act instinctively. My only thoughts were “eliminate threat 👿”. 🤣
No, the suspect stayed where I asked them to stay. Those that we meet in our offices are not detained and attend these pre-trial interviews on their own volition. We do of course interview detained people too, visiting them in jail. Or at least I do, my coworkers are lazy and just do it over the phone. 😅
Anyway, sometimes it doesn’t matter how hard I try to explain to people over the phone or in a written letter how much this interview could work in their favor, they still don’t show up. Sometimes, this can directly lead to me suggesting to the courts that they don’t go for probation, especially if the suspect has a couple of priors.
Because the person was threatening violence and any of these quick/loud actions could have triggered them to act. I think op is implying it would have been safer to be discreet and casually check the situation without alerting the person threatening their colleague.
People are the scariest animals on earth. Good job !