Peace Officer is a 2015 American 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]

Peace Officer
Directed byScott Christopherson and Brad Barber
Produced byScott Christopherson, Brad Barber, Dave Lawrence
StarringWilliam 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
CinematographyBarber, Christopherson
Edited byRenny McCauley
Music byMicah Dahl Anderson
Release date
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

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 won the 2015 AML Award for film.

References

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  1. ^ Foshay, Karen (March 19, 2015). "When the SWAT team you founded kills your son-in-law". Aljazeera America.
  2. ^ Harvey, Dennis (March 18, 2015). "SXSW Film Review: 'Peace Officer'". Variety.
  3. ^ Donnelly, Matt (March 17, 2015). "SXSW 2015: 'Krisha,' 'Peace Officer' Top Film Festival Jury and Special Awards". The Wrap.
  4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b The Passionate Eye (29 November 2015). "Peace Officer". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
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