Reactions using their military training in civilian confrontations can be dangerous
MADISON, WIS.: For soldiers patrolling in Iraq and Afghanistan, death can come from a bomb hidden in a trash pile or an innocent-looking face in the crowd. Returning home alive can depend on the quick turn of a steering wheel or pull of a trigger.
Those heightened survival instincts don't always translate well when those soldiers come home to their jobs as police officers.
In interviews with the Associated Press and in dozens of anecdotes compiled in a survey by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Assistance, officers described feeling compelled to use tactics they employed in war zones after they returned to work in the United States and feeling less patient toward the public they serve...
