The Shield's Newest Rook

Paula Garces is new this season, playing Officer Tina Hanlon who is being trained by Julian as her FTO.

I have to say that I am impressed and gratified to the writers of this show...they provided some very strong women that were/are good cops. CCH Pounder (Detective Wyms), Officer Danny Sofer (Catherine Dent) and Captain Monica Rawlings (Glenn Close) all portrayed women that had pride in their work, made sure that they did the job and did it well, yet were still able to maintain the fact that they are women and can still act like it.

Now, with Season 5, Officer Tina Hanlon comes along to show us an example of someone that just doesn't quite get "it". She seems to look at the "barn" as being a singles bar or meat market, using her feminity as coin to trade on instead of buckling down and learning to be a capable officer. As a result, she is putting off a vibe that she is expecting to have certain things "let slide" because she is cute. Unfortunately, she is placed with an FTO that is immune to her charms and is only worried about making sure she can do the job right and not get herself or another officer injured or killed.

Tina had been warned by Danny about the officer safety issue of wearing jewelry on the job. There's a good reason for that advice and Tina learned the hard way in tonight's episode. No, there's never a guarantee that a suspect is going to automatically rip out an earring or use your long hair to control you...but, the women that have gone ahead of you and forged that path have already learned the lesson the hard way, some of them by making the ultimate sacrifice. When our advice falls on ears that will not listen, it can be frustrating. But, I know that most veteran female officers will still continue to be there to guide.

Danny proved this point in tonight's episode when she strongly suggested to Julian that it was his duty to address Tina's overuse of force in a different manner. Was Tina guilty of excessive force? You are damn right, she was! She was so caught up in getting even that she forgot the important rule: Only enough force to overcome resistance, and when that resistance stops, so does the force used!

It was interesting because I watched this with the husband. His immediate comment was that the asshole deserved it. This is just one more clue that we are not compatible. In all of my time as a police officer, I have never used force to get back at someone. In fact, I made it a personal point of honor that I would use the least amount that I could...especially when someone had assaulted me. Don't get me wrong, I'm the first one there to jump in with another officer to go toe-to-toe. But, I've always brought my prisoner back to the station without having taken a few "licks" to teach them a lesson. When we do that kind of thing, we lower ourselves to their level.