Peace Officer Movie Review

2/15/2016, 8:30 a.m.
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This 2015 documentary movie challenges the need for SWAT teams in the United States. Sometimes uncomfortable to watch, Peace Officer (2015) follows former Utah SWAT commander “Dub” Lawrence as he struggles to understand the death of his son-in-law at the hands of the very SWAT team he created. From film directors Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber, it was initially released in March of 2015.

Receiving high scores and praise across the board, the story arc in the documentary film isn’t as strong as it could be. It became obvious very early on in the movie that there was an agenda, and once the viewer knew what that was, there wasn’t much motivation to watch the later 60 minutes of the film. Agree or disagree with the former sheriff and all-around likable guy “Dub,” I felt the film had made its point in the first 25 minutes and spent the next hour working to support it.

However, there was an interesting turn hinted at towards the midsection of the movie when Dub’s investigations into violent SWAT raids across the country took him to Ogden, Oregon. Working relentlessly to recreate the scene of drug search warrant serving gone wrong, he makes an allegation. He suggests that one of two things could have happened at the bloody scene of gun battle. At this shootout several police officers and one suspect were seriously wounded, and one officer was killed. He states that either the CSI were incompetent during their forensic investigation or there was a police cover up of a friendly fire incident.

I felt that the film makers were going somewhere with this. Somewhere dark and sinister. Like an ace up their sleeves. They were building to a mind-blowing climax at the end of the film, where they would have revealed that cops in question had in fact murdered one of their own. A snitch, or a rat, perhaps. But this did not happen, although, during the film’s epilogue, the door is left open to several of the other cases that were featured in the film.

Peace Officer is a topical film. It takes a high road when looking at the subject of police brutality, and has virtually no mention of race or racial tensions is in the film. All the cases in the film feature white on white violence. There are brief nods to Ferguson, Mo, and historical raids on the Black Panthers. There is nothing too scary to talk about, and that is what Dub is doing. Bringing his voice to Utah and the United States about the opinions of militarized police forces. Peace Officer is a documentary film that is provocative and could be a catalyst to “open the doors” to discussion, as Dub Lawrence says.

Website: http://www.peaceofficerfilm.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/peaceofficerfilm
Twitter: peaceofficerdoc
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