Nearly one in five undercover officers in the New York Police Department said they had been in confrontations in which they were mistaken for suspects by fellow officers — and found themselves suddenly staring down the barrel of a loaded weapon.
Officer Omar J. Edwards, left, who was off duty, was shot to death in May by Officer Andrew P. Dunton, who mistook him for a criminal.
In those situations, an overwhelming number of those officers said that the key to surviving was to remember a basic training lesson that can easily be forgotten in the heat of the moment: do not move a muscle.
As part of its comprehensive review after the shooting death of an off-duty officer by another officer in May, the Police Department surveyed more than 200 of its undercover officers in an attempt to gain insight into these type of confrontations.
Of those officers, 33 said that they had been involved in gunpoint confrontations with other officers. In more than 80 percent of those situations, the undercover officer’s decision to remain motionless was seen as the key to defusing the confrontation. However, many of the undercover officers said more training was necessary to ensure they were not shot.
The finding was perhaps the most telling in a 14-point plan to avoid officer-on-officer shootings laid out in a letter from Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly to Gov. David A. Paterson. The letter was an update on the department’s response to the death of Omar J. Edwards, an off-duty officer who was mistakenly shot by Officer Andrew P. Dunton, who had mistaken him for a criminal. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times on Monday.
In June, Governor Paterson formed a task force to examine confrontations between on-duty and off-duty officers and the role that race may have played. The task force held its first public hearing on Nov. 17 in Albany; it is scheduled to convene in Harlem on Thursday.
The Police Department did a historical analysis of the 10 instances since 1930 in which an officer died because of mistaken identity and found no pattern in the racial makeup of the officers involved, according to the letter. (Eight of the 10 officers were off-duty when they were shot.) The department has retrained all of its officers on how to avoid mistaken-identity incidents, the letter said. And the department has also hired an expert to study the effect of racial bias on its officers, and to develop new training methods.
Some police officials said it was not surprising that so many undercover officers had had guns pointed at them by uniformed officers, because those in undercover work are supposed to appear to be criminals. Undercover officers assume false identities to blend in on the street and often buy drugs and guns. They are different from plainclothes officers, who do not pretend to be criminals.
“With each passing day, the officers become better at perfecting the art of playing the roles of criminals,” said Eugene O’Donnell, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “The consequence of the officers becoming so good at blending in is that they are more likely to be mistaken for real criminals.”
All officers are taught that if another officer pulls a weapon on them, they should not move. Undercover officers are even instructed that if they are apprehending a suspect, they should let the suspect go if they believe that doing so will prevent the other officer from firing. The officers are also taught to not reach for their badges or guns, and to not turn their backs.
Tom McKenna, a former detective who retired in 2000, said that officers once pulled guns on him while he was trying to arrest a suspect. He said he was off duty at the time and wearing street clothes.
“I heard the sirens of the police car so I knew they were coming,” Detective McKenna said, recalling the incident, which he said took place on the Upper East Side in 1996. “I didn’t move. Why would I move? Who the heck moves when a cop has a gun pointed at you?”
Mr. McKenna added, “It was a nonissue. I was a guy in civilian clothes with my gun out. I had my back to them so I didn’t move. I simply told them where my shield was and I put my gun down.”
The letter said that the department sought input from fraternal groups like the Guardians Society and the Hispanic Society. The groups offered 36 recommendations, including a new badge holder that the department is developing. It will be made with reflective material so a plainclothes officer can be identified in low light.
In July, the department hired Joshua Correll, a professor at the University of Chicago, who studies racial bias in police decisions. He tested all the recruits who entered the Police Academy in July to determine their levels of racial bias. The recruits are scheduled to be measured again on Dec. 18, to determine what effect academy training has had on “shoot/don’t shoot situations.”
