'Time And Distance' New Mantra For Bay Area Cops Dealing With Armed, Mentally Ill Suspects
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- More and more, police departments in the Bay Area are adopting the mantra of "time and distance" in their dealings with people in crisis who are armed and potentially dangerous.
Last week, it was an hours-long standoff with an armed and unstable man in San Francisco.
"Time is our friend. The longer we delay these situations, the better they end." San Francisco Acting Police Chief Toney Chaplin said.
Chaplin said that the use-of-force incidents that lead to protest are often the ones that unfold quickly.
This week in Sunnyvale, another armed man who reportedly told his wife he wanted police to kill him ended up in the hospital instead. Deputy Chief Dave Pitts told KPIX 5 that rubber bullets brought the man down as he charged officers with a knife. And in this case, too, time was their friend.
