Cops are human beings capable of all the good and bad that human beings are capable of.
But the screening process and mental health screening weeds out the vast majority of the problem people who would intentionally do harm to innocents or commit crimes against the public.
That leaves,for the most part, human error as a problem to solve.
Some of that can be alleviated by training, supervison, and strong leadership.
It is also important to remember that there is more than one peraon involved in the relationship between the police and the public.
Everyone wants to jump on the video of the cop being rude or the video of a susoect getting shot and nobody in thhe public understands why it got to that.
Nobody sees the day to day disrespect and hatred spewed at cops.
Just 2 days ago I was at a crime scene and the suspect was in custody...getting sent to nail with his case directed to mental.gealth court due to his “issues.”
I was seated in my patrol car when 4 relatives of the suspect arrived in a car....two 20 somethings in front and two preteens in the back seat.
The adults go speak with the primary officer and then walk back past my patrol car.
I smile and nod my head in a common “how is it going greeting”
The adult closest to me flips me off with a look of disdain.
I leaned out of my window and said “Hey, what was that for?” He yelled Fuck You at me and the 9 y.o. in the back seat flipped me off while shouting “(insert name of agency) are punk bitches!”
Now I have never dealt with theae guys before....zero interaction previously...and its definitely not my fault that their relative threatened to kill people inside and burn down the community center.
All the bad words I wanted to say and they surely deserved cannot come out.....I must be respectful to a 9 year old who calls me filthy names and flios me off.
If I say even “back at ya buddy” when the suspects defense attorney reviews the video...here comes the complaint, 6 months investigation, and a few days off without pay.
So I was left with shouting “have a nice day, God Bless.”
There is still a chance I will get disciplined for that last commebt since in all likelihood the group worship a different god than I do so someone will try to call it religous based and then there is always the claim of racism which is as ubiquitous sunshine in the Soutb Pacific these days.
We (the police) are being asked to do a lot of social work along with law enforcement...we are working in real and perceived problems as it relates to relationshios with the community.
How about the other half of the relationship start doing some introspection and work on themselves.
We (the police) are being asked to do a lot of social work along with law enforcement..That’s the problem. When I was a Peace Officer, I never put up with the crap until a Social Worker was hired by the City gov;’t. We beat a guy on his legs during a disturbance? We were brought in to the social worker. When I threw a guy down his steps when beating his wife, and his wife jumped me from behind and we all went down the steps? I was blamed for hurting the woman. The world has stuttered, stopped and backed up in AMERICA.