It should be no surprise that officers view the people they initiate contact with with suspicion as well. They have to. Untill the person does demonstrates that they are not a threat to them. The trick is not painting the entire public with one brush...like some freepers do with cops. I have been a cop for 22 years. I am proud of my service. That being said, cops my age are noticing that police work is heading in a direction we are not comfortable with. The only thing we can do is train new officers in “old school” values. We are seeing young people get into police work that have different values than we do. Different ideas of what’s police should or should not be able to do. (no family values ...public schools?) I have three years to go till I can get out...i pray I make it.
“It should be no surprise that officers view the people they initiate contact with with suspicion as well. They have to. Untill the person does demonstrates that they are not a threat to them. The trick is not painting the entire public with one brush...like some freepers do with cops”....It’s exactly that attitude I have been concerned about. You are a trained ‘public servant’, armed, under color of authority. You just admitted that you view the entire public as a threat until proven otherwise. You have forgotten who serves whom. Caution is one thing, suspicion is something else entirely. A citizen has the power of himself for the most part, you on the other hand have the power of an entire government apparatus behind you....who should be displaying caution and who should be suspicious???