PORT ANGLES – In a time when police officers are taking a lot of heat for the actions of some of their colleagues in other cities, it’s important to highlight the men and women of local law enforcement when they demonstrate the high level of training and professionalism we enjoy here in Clallam County.
Wednesday was such a case when Joseph Imler of Port Angeles was being sought for suspected felony harassment and theft, both associated with domestic violence incidents.
Officers located Imler driving in the 700 block on S. Chambers and found him to be highly agitated, possibly under the influence of drugs and delusional. For his safety and the community’s safety officers thought it best to secure the scene by eliminating any escape routes, and Officer Luke Brown put his crisis negotiating skills to work to keep the situation under control.
Meanwhile, Officers Sean Ryan, JJ Smith and Corporal Clay Rife maintained distance and tactical advantage and Port Angeles Fire Department Paramedics were staged in case they were needed for a medical emergency.
Imler, while still suffering from extreme anxiety, eventually told them that he would surrender to federal agents, including anyone from Homeland Security or US Border Patrol. Two Border Patrol Agents responded to the scene and were able to take him into custody without the use of force and no one was injured in the process.
Police report the homeowner where the subject’s vehicle was parked witnessed the incident and was exceedingly thankful that the situation ended the way it did.
Police Chief Brian Smith, clearly proud of his officers, boiled it down to this:
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“In any situation involving human beings there’s an area where we don’t control and the more agitated somebody is the more, let’s say, delusional or under the influence, the less we can be guaranteed that they’re going to respond, you know, in a positive way to our efforts. So, as in the situation you’re covering, things worked out pretty well and our officers, the Border Patrol agents, firefighters, all put a lot of effort into making that successful. But we don’t control all the variables, so we can’t guarantee outcomes in every situation that will be as good as that, because the person could choose to do something different. And that’s true of any situation when people do with the police, that they choose to be cooperative, compliant, or they choose not to. So it’s a less than perfect world. We apply all the best practices and techniques and things that we’ve learned to situations, and we’re a learning organization and we learn new things all the time. And this was just an example of I think great teamwork, but also applying, you know, sort of, modern best practices and how to work through a situation like this.”
Chief Smith wants to express his sincere thanks to our US Border Patrol for their immediate assistance and their professionalism.
He says this was a challenging situation for the officers, agents and firefighters involved, describing the suspect as highly agitated and potentially violent, and the scene as a tense and rapidly evolving situation.
Smith highlighted the actions of Officer Luke Brown, a specially-trained Crisis Negotiator and part of an inter-agency crisis response team, and Corporal Clay Rife who served as incident command. The incident consumed the entire on-duty PAPD officer resources.
(PAPD photo)