Peace Officer (film)

Peace Officer
Directed by Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber
Produced by Scott Christopherson, Brad Barber, Dave Lawrence
Starring William J. "Dub" Lawrence, Liz Wood, Jerry Wood, Nancy Lawrence, Radley Balko, Kara Dansky, Sheriff Jim Winder, Sheriff Todd Richardson, Det. Jason Vanderwarf, Officer Derek Draper, Mike Stewart, Chris Shaw
Music by Micah Dahl Anderson
Cinematography Barber, Christopherson
Edited by Renny McCauley
Release dates
Running time
 109 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Peace Officer is a documentary film about police militarization in the United States. It won the 2015 Documentary Feature Competition Grand Jury award at the South by Southwest Film Festival.[1][2][3]

It was conceived when co-director Scott Christopherson, an assistant film professor at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, met retired police officer William "Dub" Lawrence at a baseball game and was invited to visit his hangar where he carried out his private investigations into incidents in which people were killed by police.[4] Lawrence, the central figure in the documentary, founded Davis County, Utah's SWAT team, the first in the state, in the 1970s as a sheriff.[5][4] He was motivated to begin investigating police killings after the same SWAT team he founded killed his son-in-law, Brian Wood, during a 2008 standoff.[4]

Much of the film focuses on the history of the SWAT teams that were formed in the United States after the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles and mythologized in popular culture by shows such as S.W.A.T.[4] The film follows Lawrence as he investigates his son-in-law's death as well as several other SWAT team raids.[5]

The film was nominated for an AML Award.

References

  1. ↑ Karen Foshay (March 19, 2015). "When the SWAT team you founded kills your son-in-law". Aljazeera America.
  2. ↑ Dennis Harvey (March 18, 2015). "SXSW Film Review: 'Peace Officer'". Variety.
  3. ↑ Matt Donnelly (March 17, 2015). "SXSW 2015: 'Krisha,' 'Peace Officer' Top Film Festival Jury and Special Awards". The Wrap.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Fleischman, Jeffrey (17 September 2015). "'Peace Officer' documentary looks at why police tactics seem to be getting more brutal". LA Times. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
  5. 1 2 The Passionate Eye (29 November 2015). "Peace Officer". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
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