"How does that feel?"
"About eight months late."
Marcus smiled.
"Fair."
The old man had become good at keeping Marcus humble. One rainy November evening, Marcus was finishing paperwork when a rookie officer named Leah Grant knocked on the open office door.
"Captain, can I ask you something?"
"Come in."
Grant was twenty-four, six months out of the academy, and looked nervous enough that Marcus set down his pen.
"I made a traffic stop tonight. Driver had an expired registration and a cracked windshield. He got upset and said I was targeting him because of the car he drove."
"Were you?"
"No."
"Camera on?"
"Whole time."
"Report accurate?"
"Yes."
"Then what's the question?"
Grant hesitated. "I kept thinking about your first day. About how Reigns used a traffic stop. I don't want to become afraid of enforcing anything because somebody might complain." Marcus leaned back.
This was the other danger. A department afraid to use lawful authority could fail the public just as surely as one that abused it.
"Did the driver actually have expired registration?"
"Yes. Four months."
"Cracked windshield?"
"Yes."
"Did you explain the reason for the stop?"
"Yes."
"Did you treat him respectfully?"