New POLICE motto: To Punish and Intimidate

Four Reasons police misconduct is up:

If it seems like you are hearing more and more stories about police misconduct lately, it is because police misconduct is up and the police seem to be less interested in protecting and serving the public, unless that means suiting up in battle gear and busting down your door. Before you stop reading, believing this is an anti-cop rant, please keep an open mind…..and consider the possibility that policing is not without flaws, and just like any business or organization, should be in a constant state of self evaluation and improvement. In lieu of that, I will offer some evaluation…..below are some possible explanations for why even ordinary citizens are becoming afraid of the local PD.

Bastardization of the Thin Blue Line: Originally the thin blue line logo and concept was meant to represent things such as the thin line police officers walk daily between life and death, the role they play in separating the good from the bad, as well as a memorial symbol for fallen officers. These are all respectable and worthy of representation, however lately the thin blue line has taken a turn for the worse, and become somewhat of a mafia symbol instead of a camaraderie symbol. Examining the reason for putting a sticker on your car becomes a bit disturbing. Presumably an officer would put this logo on his or her private vehicles to identify him or herself as a police officer, which would invoke some “professional courtesy” . If you know what that means (cops giving cops breaks) then you already know it is goes against everything the police claim to stand for…..why would such a thing exist? Why wouldn’t a law ENFORCER be the picture of a law abiding citizen, after all, he or she wouldn’t hold average citizens to a standard that they themselves cannot maintain, would they? Ergo, a law enforcement officer would (should) be totally opposed to “professional courtesy.” Furthermore, this professional courtesy is expected, and if not offered, officers are taking the risk of being alienated, or harassed, or worse.

Constant exposure to criminals: If you are a beat cop, arresting criminals (spouse abusers, drug pushers, thieves, prostitutes, etc.) on a daily basis then for sure you will learn to doubt humanity, and likely even begin mistreating this element of society. In fact, it is probably difficult to trust anyone, when you are constantly dealing with liars and criminals. I believe this is hazardous to the “protect and serve” spirit of police, and causes conflict between police and law-abiding citizens. It is reasonable for a law-abiding citizen to question why they are being pulled over, but instead there is a possibility you will receive the same treatment as a drug dealer. A law-abiding citizen doesn’t understand why they would be treated as a criminal since he or she has no intent to deceive the police. Unfortunately this is a difficult problem, but it should be up to the policing community writ large to solve. For example, maybe you take away the option to be a “beat cop” for a 20-year period, and require rotations of duty in order to relieve the psychological burden that comes with dealing with constant criminal interaction.

Sudden prioritization of “officer safety” over citizen’s safety: I don’t want to minimize the danger, or…potential danger (not guaranteed danger) of being a police officer, but the fact is, it is not even in the top 10 most dangerous jobs. Almost as many fatalities occur in normal traffic accidents, as shootings, so is it as dangerous as we are led to believe? Furthermore, like soldiers….Police officers take their job by choice. The choice is to be part of a profession that MAY require you to put yourself in danger. This is very respectable, but it seems recently officers have been citing officer safety as a reason to tase a citizen, or shoot someone’s dog, or the person themselves. In what way does putting your own safety over that of your fellow human being fit into a police officers oath? It is in fact, a direct violation of that oath. Police officers have every opportunity to protect themselves using defensive means. Since I am not aware of any such thing such as preemptive defense (oh wait, that’s offense!) it seems difficult to justify shooting a dog that “might be aggressive” or shooting an unarmed person, etc. in the name of officer (the protector of others) saftey. “Officer safety” has morphed from defensive items such as bulletproof vests and tasers (in order to minimize officer injury AND perp injury) to offensive items such as machine guns and assault vehicles.

Internal Investigations: no punishment for behaving badly. For this one I will say also, see…the thin blue line….and offer a personal story. Several years ago, in our small town, my wife filed a formal complaint against an officer who was behaving badly, and was basically a disgrace to the badge. She spent hours documenting the complaint (oh and hours trying to figure out how to file the complaint, and was almost told that they don’t accept complaints…) for the sole purpose of informing the Sherriff’s department that they had a rogue officer…..(they would want to know that right?) that was menacing to law-abiding citizens. I was teleworking at the time and received a call from the sherriff’s office asking if my wife was home, I told them she was at work, but I could have her call them..and the officer said…”nope that’s not necessary, I just have to check the box that I tried to contact her about her complaint”. Click…..we receive a letter a few weeks later saying that complainant was unreachable, and the complaint was found to be without merit.

So if you made it this far in the post, you probably don’t need to hear this, and those that do, stopped reading along time ago, but here goes.

I am well aware that it is likely a minority of police causing these outrageous stories, but it is important that the “system” acknowledge, recognize, and address the problems of abuse of power. I hear it in my profession too…that’s just one guy giving us a bad reputation….but the difference with policing is, when that “one guy” wears a gun and a badge and presumable is judge, jury, and executioner all in the blink of an eye, he BETTER be the right guy, and he BETTER get it right. This industry doesn’t get to say “only a few guys are bad apples”, it is too important to society that they all be good apples.

I work very closely with many of the good apples from all walks of life, and respect them and what they do very much. So much so that I hope they are not offended by these comments. As the landscape changes, and homeland security takes to the forefront, I hope that that the good apples will take appropriate steps to ensure the right people are doing the job (not just continually addressing symptoms. “Cops with cameras” doesn’t solve the problem, it just means they might refrain from bad behavior due to the fear of getting caught). I am rooting for the good apples in this industry to take a stand and continue to improve the system until it is above reproach.