Border Patrol Agents handle law enforcement actions differently for a set of reasons.
Written by a former Border Patrol Agent
Somehow, people misunderstand the thinking prevalent in the field Border Patrol Agent and it relates to the environment they operate in as opposed to the environment they and other law enforcement officers operate in day in and day out. Training and field experience is key to an agent's approach to ANY situation. (Complete the law enforcement action expeditiously is the goal.)
An agent's training: Lethal force incidents, you have about 1.5 seconds to read and react and the event is then over in less than 6 seconds.
(Field experience indicates that six seconds ends up being closer to 3 seconds. Any subject within 10 yards is a potential imminent threat.)
Agent field condition parameters: Frequently operate in remote areas without reliable cell or radio communications. Back up is usually more than an hour away, if at all, and medical assistance two hours away. That means on site medical intervention and transport back to hospital may total 5 hours or more even in air-evacuation situations. These factors form a baseline for officer conduct in order to survive. Hesitation can be deadly.
Subject contacts: Any direct apprehension "requires/demands" a take and maintain control of the situation immediately if not sooner.
Contacting any group, size 1 to 100 individuals, alone or with insufficient members requires a command presence demanding nonresistance. Therefore, any resistance is dealt with instantly to ensure further resistance is quelled. A strict no nonsense tolerated approach must be conveyed. The level of force applied is intended to dissuade others from interfering/resisting. The agent fully understands the negative consequences that can impact them should they fail to control the situation. Agent survival is hard wired into their approach. Resisting arrest will invite sufficient force necessary to affect the arrest and detention.
People should expect that once they cease being peaceful demonstrators and become hostile agitators, it is that behavior that will be viewed as a direct threat to Agent safety/survival and may be dealt with in a manner to encourage immediate deescalation OR increased measures will be applied. That OR qualifier does not involve a limiting factor.
