Reason Hit & Run directs our attention to Officer Matthew J. Lyons of the Oceanside, California police department. Lyons runs into a few issues that usually send other officers scrambling for their handguns and threats: an openly-carried weapon and a camera.
However, Lyons handles the situation in a professional, cordial manner, even as the person filming the encounter declines to show him any ID or provide a last name. Even better, he commends him for exercising his rights.
In just under three minutes, Lyons puts together a superb primer on how to handle interacting with the public, one that should be required viewing for law enforcement members everywhere.
You know how you always hear police unions say something like “We’re professionals and exhibit the utmost of professionalism?” Well, they don’t, at least all the time, but Matthew Lyons, a police officer from California, and the one shown in the video here, is an exemplary officer. He doesn’t panic, get nasty, or swing his genitalia around to prove his is bigger. He just does his job even when the person being questioned is kinda being a jerk.
This should be in every police training video across the country, as Techdirt says.