ASSAULTS ON POLICE OFFICERS
Hamilton
2011: 19
2012: 16
2013: 21
2014: 12
Middletown
2011: 19
2012: 15
2013: 21
2014: 40
Fairfield
2011: 12
2012: 7
2013: 5
2014: 6
Source: Individual police agencies
At a time when police locally and across the country are being criticized for their tactics, some local police chiefs contend people are more brazen about challenging authority, resulting in an uptick of assaults on police in one Butler County city.
Nationally, assaults against police officers are on the decline. Middletown, however, has seen an uptick in assaults on police officers.
Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw said people are constantly challenging authority and officers are under so much scrutiny that they are afraid of being second guessed.
“They are always concerned with doing too much or too little. When you are apprehensive, that means you get assaulted more,” Muterspaw said.
Officer assault numbers have been trending upward in the past few years in Middletown, from 19 in 2011 t0 40 in 2014.
No respect for authority
Fairfield Police Chief Mike Dickey agrees there are people who will challenge an officer solely because of their job, but adds that younger generations have less respect for any type of authority.
“I think (assaults on officers) are becoming more of a trend. I don’t know too many police officers who get through their careers without being assaulted,” Dickey said.
This past week in Fairfield, two adults and two juveniles, one of whom attacked police officers, were arrested following a large fight at the Fairfield Aquatic Center on Augusta Boulevard.
The fight began Tuesday afternoon after some individuals at the city-run pool became disorderly, according to Fairfield police Officer Doug Day. One of the city’s park rangers was also on site and tried unsuccessfully to break up the brawl before calling police.
“It was a big group with about eight people there,” Day said.
According to a police report, the juveniles had been asked to leave the pool due to their behavior. The mother of the juveniles, Krystal Dixon, 33, of Cincinnati, “aggressively confronted pool staff,” the report said. She was also asked to leave.
According to the report, Dixon pushed the officer, was warned again and still would not leave, so police arrested her. Another woman, Maya Dixon, 34, of Columbus, began striking the officer, and then several juveniles joined in, according to the report.
“At one point, Krystal Dixon called to a juvenile to get a Taser from her purse,” the report says.
In a 911 call obtained by the Journal-News, an employee at the Aquatic Center estimates as many as 10 people may have been fighting with officers.
When officers began to make arrests, the fight escalated, with people resisting arrest, according to Day, adding that a 12-year-old fought with an officer as he tried to arrest her mother.
Officers deployed pepper spray to subdue the group, he said. According to the 911 call, at least one person was transported from the scene after being pepper sprayed.
‘Skillful use of violence’
Some of the most serious injuries to officers happen during domestic situations, bar fights and any situation involving an intoxicated person, officials said.
“Bar fights can be very dangerous, because they are fighting each other, but none of them like the police so they both focus their attention on the officers,” Dickey said.
Teaching officers how to use enough force to defuse a situation or to make an arrest, but not get themselves or innocent people hurt, is a focus of training.
Middletown Assistant Police Chief Major Mark Hoffman said he often sites a quote he learned while training to be a police officer: “A police officer must be versed in the skillful use of violence.”
Training in the use of Tasers, pepper spray, take-down techniques and close quarters confrontation are all part of the arsenal designed not to resort to lethal force.
“The cop doesn’t want to get hurt, he sure doesn’t want to loose his gun and get someone else hurt,” Hoffman said. “Sometimes it is ugly and it is violent, often we are dealing with a person who is drunk or on drugs or both.”
Chief Deputy Anthony Dwyer of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office estimates that corrections officers in the county jail are assaulted more often than deputies, because inmates will resist when being moved and transported.
The average resident, he said, often cannot believe a person would advance toward an officer who has drawn a Taser or even a service weapon.
“But it happens,” Dwyer said, adding that if that person is unarmed, the deputy is expected to holster his or her weapon and use other force to make the arrest.
“It is a fast chain of events, and logic with these people goes out the window,” Dwyer said. “You hope the threat of force will be enough to stop someone, but that just isn’t the way it always happens and (deputies) get hurt.”
Policing one of many dangerous jobs
Officer assaults in Hamilton decreased last year with a total of 12 after creeping up in 2013 with 21.
Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit said, “our job is unique in one aspect, but not in another. There are a lot of jobs that have dangers associated with them, so in that aspect we are no different than construction workers or a factory worker. There are hazards in all those work places.
But what makes police work different is the intentional attacks from people.
In February 2014, Hamilton Police Officer Chad Stafford was shot in the head by a man who opened fire on him when he exited his cruiser to investigate a report of a man firing shots in a neighborhood. Stafford recovered and is again patrolling the streets.
“We want officers to be approachable and interact with individuals in our community,” Bucheit said. “But when the day is done and they are done protecting everyone else, we what them to go home safe to their families. In order to do that, we have to remain vigilant and on guard.”
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