What Cops Do When No One Is Watching: The Truth About The Blue Code of Silence.
I am here to tell you there is a “code of silence”…but it is not what you think. The law enforcement profession has long been accused of maintaining a culture that practices a code of silence: an unwritten rule in which a person opts to withhold what is believed to be vital or important information voluntarily or involuntarily.
Each and every day in this country thousands of law enforcement officers go out and perform their sworn duty admirably. They respond to calls for service, they work long hours, and they often see the worst that society has to offer. Honesty, integrity, and transparency are the coin of the realm, but they do keep secrets.
Recent national events and the media’s focus on these events have called into question the current state of American policing. Some of the rhetoric has portrayed the police as illegitimate and acting outside the scope of their authority — jack-booted authoritarians who care nothing for the community and are engaged in secretive activities. I’ve been an officer in Salinas, California for over twenty years, and well, there are things cops do when no one is watching, and there are things that cops don’t talk about and I’m going to tell you what some of them are.
Salinas has two brothers who grew up in the tough neighborhoods of East Salinas. They are both Salinas officers now and patrol the very streets they called home. In 2014, during what was essentially a small riot in their East Salinas neighborhood, one of the brothers was attempting to save the life of a shooting victim by giving him CPR. Someone in the crowd threw a bottle and struck the officer in the head knocking him unconscious. He was rescued and pulled behind cover by his brother who was also working patrol that night. The shooting victim died.
What secrets do the brother’s keep? What do they do in their “hood” when no one is watching? The brothers have adopted a number of poor families. They use their own money and time to ensure the families have the things they need: shoes for the kids, clothes, and access to community resources. They do it because they care about the community and they remember how much small acts of kindness were appreciated when they lived in the neighborhood. They don’t talk about what they do, they don’t seek attention; they quietly do it because they want to make a difference.
The brothers are not alone. Each Christmas for over twelve years now, a Salinas officer has gone out and used his own money to fill the trunk of his patrol car with toys. He works on Christmas and spends time in the community’s poorest neighborhoods distributing gifts to the children of disadvantaged families. He seeks no adulation and nothing in return — he does it because he cares. His peers saw what he was doing but did they run to the press? No, they kept quiet and they joined him. Now there are several officers who quietly engage in this ongoing conspiracy each year.
Late one night two of our officers were searching for a wanted suspect in a city park and came across a homeless woman with small children sleeping in a tent. The officers felt they had to do something to provide the family with better cover. They paid out of their own pockets to put the family up in a hotel and arranged for social services assistance. A third officer heard what was going on and joined the cover-up. That officer paid for additional nights.
Just today as I write this, one of our sergeants told me he responded to back up a patrol officer who was contacting a homeless man downtown. After determining there was no crime the officer bought the man food from a nearby restaurant before sending him on his way. I’ve seen this myself time and again.
The thing is this type of selflessness goes on all the time in police work and it is certainly not unique to Salinas PD, it happens all over the country. It is not being done for the benefit of the camera, quite the contrary, the officers don’t seek attention at all. They do it because they care and it is virtuous to keep quiet about it.
These are the secrets officers keep, these are the clips that don’t often make it to YouTube and CNN, and these are the things officers keep silent about.
What does this have to do with homeland security? In recent years law enforcement has been facing significant scrutiny. The ability of police to successfully perform their duties is reliant upon the consent of the community. The police derive their power from the people they serve and when the police are viewed as uncaring or untrustworthy the public’s view of police legitimacy is called into question. Without the trust and support of the community policing becomes less effective impacting our nations security. The challenge for our police is that trust must be earned locally, but can be damaged by distant events beyond their control.
Homeland security begins in our home towns, and the truth about what our police do every day in their blue lives matters.
It’s our little secret.
