The Tyreek Hill Incident

There's been a lot of attention around the Tyreek Hill incident with the Miami police on Thursday night football and while we are not condoning the behavior of anyone during this incident, the issue is much more complicated than a viral video and a few talking points from a press conference. Incidents such as this one calls on a transformational dialogue that addresses the perspectives of all parties involved including the individuals, the organizations, and society at large.

Individual Perspective:

For Tyreek Hill, this incident represents more than just a one-time confrontation. As a public figure with a significant platform and influence, his actions and responses have wide-reaching implications, not just for his career but for the broader public perception of authority and accountability.

Hill has admitted to making mistakes in this incident and is no stranger to criminal allegations of violence in the past, but it is strange that his admitted mistakes are absent of any self-accountability and appear to be discounted as he calls for the termination of the officer involved.

Just as a law enforcement officer must be aware of the consequences of their actions, what about a high-profile athlete publicly calling for the termination of an officer, who makes 0.5% of his annual salary, to be fired? What if Hill was subject to his own standards and demands? He would have been fired from the NFL years ago and while Hill, like so many athletes before him, will get a pass, for his rhetoric, there is a responsibility that comes with fame and Hill has failed.

A Missed Opportunity

Let’s be honest with this situation. Tyreek Hill is an adult, and he knows how to act around authority. It’s doubtful that he would ever act in that manner around his coaches so why do it around a law enforcement officer after travelling 120 mph in a 40 mph zone?

Hill kept his window up when an officer approached, and the officer knocked on the window for him to roll it down. The anger began with Hill as he repeatedly complained about the officer knocking on his window, but it was Hill that forced that option for law enforcement. After briefly rolling the tinted window down, along with an additional verbal onslaught, Hill rolled the window back up.

Hill refused several commands by officers to roll the window down before being removed from the car (after refusing to exit the car) and his behavior and outrage afterwards does nothing but perpetuate a culture of contempt toward law enforcement that unfortunately encourages others to engage in confrontational behavior instead of following a "comply and complain" approach.

Officer Perspective

Unlike the public today, the officers had very little information when they observed a vehicle traveling three times the legal speed limit and they certainly didn’t know who the driver was or the color of their skin. Law enforcement is trained to operate under a baseline as to normal and abnormal behavior and no one with any logic can argue that if Hill would have rolled his window down, handed his driver’s license and insurance to the officer, that we would even be talking about this.

But that isn’t what happened.

Hill acted outside the norm and the officers initially reacted as every officer in America is trained. Windows, especially tinted, need to be rolled down. This is not just for officer safety but for the safety of the driver. The more information the officer knows, the better the decision.

But Hill did not provide the officers that luxury.

We could show you a dozen videos of similar traffic stops where cops were shot and non-compliance is typically the first anomaly observed before those tragedies occur so the initial mindset of the officers, would have been filled with concern. There’s been plenty written about Hill’s concern as a black man being stopped by law enforcement but if he was concerned, he didn’t act like it.

He was contempt, abrasive and confrontational.

De-escalation is definitely real, but it is not a one-way street. Hill was given ten chances to comply before he was removed from the vehicle and by the time that occurred, Hill’s disdain was matched by the officers.  

We aren’t making excuses for the officer’s verbal behavior in the aftermath of this incident but to judge the officer without the context of Hill’s initial escalation and refusal to comply (refusal to de-escalate) is short sighted.

Emotional regulation is a critical skill for anyone in law enforcement and this incident provides an opportunity to understand the importance that we must place on that training.

The consequences of a single public mistake can be severe for officers and their organizations. This speaks to the individual need for continuous personal development in emotional intelligence and stress management, a shared burden of the officer and their organizations.

Organizational Perspective

From an organizational standpoint, the incident highlights the systemic challenges facing law enforcement agencies across the country, culture and recruitment and retention issues. The disparity in public perception of accountability—where athletes like Hill can maintain their careers despite significant personal mistakes, while officers can lose their livelihoods over a single public misstep—reflects broader societal tensions. This imbalance in accountability demoralizes law enforcement officers, contributing to burnout and a lack of trust in their institutions. Officers must be judged not from isolated incidents but from a whole-officer approach. Far too often officers are thrown under the bus for political expediency rather than looking at the larger context. How much expertise, training, and other investments are organizations wasting by being emotional themselves?

Sometime government agencies forget the first point of public money- "from and for the public."

Furthermore, law enforcement agencies must recognize that policies and academy training alone are insufficient to prepare officers for the realities of the field.

Repeated exposure to negative interactions shapes an officer’s mindset, leading to a reinforcement of negative behaviors.

As research on brain science indicates, what we repeatedly experience shapes our neural pathways. Thus, agencies must invest in ongoing emotional regulation training and cultivate work environments promoting positivity and well-being, not just at the individual level but organizationally.

Long-term solutions involve creating a supportive culture where officers are equipped to handle stress constructively and are encouraged to engage with the community in positive ways.

Broader Reflection

The broader issue raised by this incident involves the societal and cultural expectations placed on different professions. Athletes, movie stars, and other celebrities are often forgiven for significant missteps, whereas public servants like police officers face harsher scrutiny for isolated incidents. This imbalance invites deeper conversations about accountability, fairness, and the societal values that we endorse.

For both law enforcement and the public, this situation is a reminder- incidents like this are not isolated events but part of a larger ecosystem of behaviors, attitudes, and structural realities in need of reform.

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Travis Yates is the co-author of “The Courageous Police Leader” and has been training risk management and leadership for over two decades that have spanned thousands of students and 48 states. After dedicating over 30 years to the law enforcement profession, he is now working full-time consulting and training law enforcement leaders across the country.

Brian Ellis is a retired law enforcement lieutenant with over 25 years of service. He is the co-author of “The Theory of Magnus Ovea”, and his dedication to the theory of leadership led him to the National Command & Staff College, where he and his colleagues launched MAGNUSWorx, an education and data analytics platform dedicated to peak performance and wellbeing. Brian is a speaker, coach, and trainer for government and private organizations, dedicated to promoting leadership, high-performing teams, and providing others with actionable information for personal preparedness and resilience. His work has been featured in various media outlets, including numerous articles, book chapters, and podcasts.