He believed that hesitation encouraged defiance.
His patrol supervisor, Lieutenant Grant Weller, generally approved of his assertive style.
Weller was fifty-four, with a thick neck, silver-streaked hair, and a reputation for rewarding officers who produced high enforcement numbers.
He had spent nearly three decades in law enforcement.
Younger officers called him old-school.
Critics called him inflexible.
Weller called himself practical.
In his office, a framed photograph showed him accepting a departmental award fifteen years earlier. Beside it hung a certificate recognizing the unit for exceptional productivity.
To Weller, productivity meant arrests, citations, traffic stops, and visible enforcement.
He was less interested in how residents described their encounters.
When complaints arrived, he often asked whether the officer had technically violated policy.
If the answer wasn't clear, he closed the matter.
He had trained Derek.
He had recommended him for specialized assignments.
And several months earlier, he had helped Derek avoid formal discipline after a disputed traffic stop.
Derek respected him more than any other supervisor.
That Sunday morning, Derek had received a message from Weller shortly before beginning patrol.
Watch your assigned district. Dispatch may send you a priority suspicious-person call. Handle it firmly.
The message had not seemed unusual.
But after the incident on Marcus's porch, Derek read it differently.
He sat inside his cruiser and stared at the screen.
His radio crackled.
"Unit Twelve, supervisor responding. Maintain your location."
Derek lifted the microphone.
"Copy."
He looked toward the house.
Marcus stood behind the living room window, holding his daughter.
The sight made Derek uncomfortable.
For the first time, he realized how the encounter might look to anyone who watched the recording.
A Black father sitting on his porch.
A colorful toy.
A police officer kicking a chair.
A teenager filming.
And a child watching her father being threatened outside the family home.
He had not considered any of that when he arrived.
He had considered only the complaint.
And the way Marcus had questioned him.
Derek told himself he'd been following orders.
Then he remembered something Weller had once said.
If you let people talk, they'll control the encounter.
Derek had believed it.
He had repeated it.