Midwest Theater presents "Peace Officer"

Peace Officer

Indie Lens PopUp, presented by the Independent Television Service (ITVS), Nebraska Educational Television, Humanities Nebraska & the Midwest Theater are excited to present this month's screening.

Winner of both the Grand Jury and Audience Awards for Best Documentary at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, Peace Officer is the story of William "Dub" Lawrence, a former sheriff who established and trained Utah's first SWAT team - only to watch in horror as the same unit killed his son-in-law Brian Wood in a controversial standoff years later.  Driven by an obsessive sense of mission, Lawrence uses his investigative shills to uncover the truth about the incident and other officer-involved shootings in this community, while tackling larger questions about the changing face of peace officers nationwide.  Peace Officer premieres on Independent Lens Monday, May 9, 2016 at 9/8c (check local listings) on PBS.

In the film, Lawrence's long-term obsession with bringing to light the truth behind Wood's killing is entwined with his investigations of other recent officer-involved shootings and SWAT team raids in quiet neighborhoods just miles from where his son-in-law was killed.  Several of these cases are related to aggressive no-knock search warrant laws typical across the country.  These events are contextualized within the growing problem of violent SWAT raids and governmental immunity laws established as part of the War on Drugs.  Officers in cities and small towns are routinely armed with military surplus weapons and equipment, backed by federal incentives to use what they are given.  These and other factors have led to a 15,000% increase in SWAT team raids in the United States since the late 1970s.  Peace Officers follows Dub as he doggedly picks apart these cases with the zeal of a rule-of-law detective combined with the grief of a victim.