How much do you trust the police?

I trust the police in my area, I have always found them to be on my side. That being said, there are many cases where they haven't been good, they have in fact displayed downright despicable behavior. The difference is we don't have guns here, but I have seen people beaten with night sticks for no reason and all sorts. I think there are good police officers and bad ones, just like there's good and bad people in every single job there is.

 

When I worked security cameras we were encouraged to profile. Officially the store didn't profile. When it came to shoplifter's we (unofficially) did it all the time. I think the police go for the

suspect whether or not it's the right one.

 

The ones around are usually cool and know my family(take this how you want, lol) but we've had or fair share of crooked ones who seem to just want to stir up trouble, so it varies.

We have ones who will pull you over and show slight signs of things like racism(subtler but you pick up on which ones)

...then we have ones who are pretty cool. A while back I was with my cousin and his gf at Taco Bell and this cop came in. We cracked some cop jokes and my cousin's gf was all embarrassed lol. When we left out shortly after she was laughing and saying the next time we tried to be funny, she was gonna be like 'help, these two black guys won't leave me alone'(in a joking way). Funnily enough she actually acted it out as she said it and the cop happened to be coming out right as she started. We saw him behind her while she didn't notice and started cracking up. The cop started cracking up because of how ridiculous she looked, and then she cracked up even more when she realized what was going on. We all had a good laugh. XD

 

I have lost all trust in the police force at all. They by and large to NOT honor their oaths to the state and federal constitutions. Even the good ones are mum on police misconduct and disregard civil rights when it is expedient. This is coming from a military veteran with three police officers in his family.
The reason people have stopped trusting the police is by and large the blue shield sticks together and fails to deal with the bad apples. This makes the good cops just as guilty as the bad in my eyes.

 

I have an active distrust of police. Never gotten along with them, never done anything wrong but they have threatened me with breach of the peace countless times. Also been punched by police a few times when i was trying to speak to them....

Especially with mental health cases too, they just couldnt care less. Suicide attempt, theyll leave u to it...

 

I don't. The town I grew up in had a population of 6,000, and aside from the first murder in the previous 112 years, the worst that ever happened was a group of serial mailbox smashers who wreaked havoc on people's mailboxes for a couple weeks before they got caught. That was it. So the 30 cops they had on the force were nothing but revenue generators who sat at every speed trap and pulled over as many people as possible.

But then there's the issue of police brutality. In most cases, nothing would ever happen to an officer for beating/tasing/murdering, or even on two separate incidents in the NYPD, sodomizing a suspect. So no, I don't trust the police, and nor do I feel safe around them.

However, the departments do go through the motions. I happened to be driving by as an officer was berating someone he'd pulled over for speeding, walking around the car screaming at the top of his lungs and making the "gun" sign with his hand. Later that night, I left a voicemail for the City Chief of Police, and got a call back the next day and based on the description of the officer, he said that "he knew exactly who it was and that we had a talk about being professional with people." He should have gotten a little more than just a talking-to, IMO.

---------- Post added 9th Jan 2014 at 10:57 PM ----------

The other thing I hate about American police these days is the way they treat protesters. In December of 2012, the Republicans in the Michigan Legislature rushed to pass Right to Work before the new Legislature convened in January, when they wouldn't have the votes to pass it. Huge crowds of protesters gathered outside the capital, and people who were laying on the floor were arrested on felony charges punishable by up to 5 years in prison. One former Michigan Congressman and a current candidate for Governor later this year, Mark Schauer, was maced by officers just for standing in the front of the crowd as officers on horses pepper sprayed the crowd.

Also, all you have to do is look at the brutality of the illegal arrests of Occupy protesters all over the country, who had done nothing illegal by simply being there, and yet especially in New York, the NYPD beat, tased, and arrested thousands on trumped-up charges when the actions of the protesters were explicitly permitted by the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

 

Don't care for them:

- traffic tickets from petty speed traps, though not many, when I drive like an old lady and one of them was an outright lie on his part, given to me in the dusk on a rural highway in the middle of nowhere and for which I would have had to have gone to another (distant) county to fight it
- had a female neighbor I ignored and her way to get at me was to call the cops 3 times, and wasting taxpayer money, when I was remodeling a small condo within the hours allowed by the condo guidelines - 2 of them saw through the situation, but 1 of them was nastier to me than the other 2 because, having more testosterone, I must have been at fault and he probably had issues
- a good number of jerks from high school went on to law enforcement, and a couple of them were homophobes who were inept at sports, but I guess they can climb a wall after training for that long enough
- the corruption among police in many large cities, and that's probably the tip of the iceberg (while we've got a Titanic thread going)
- why are we subsidizing their donuts?

 

I generally trust their intentions, but not their methods. As one who's trying to become one, it's a hard job with many demands and stress from all angles. You have to basically be a Jedi. And humans are fallible.

So with that, I'd try to work with them however possible, as well as understand that they could make mistakes that don't favor the public, and that should be addressed.

 

Absolutely love em

There are police who do things poorly or just plain wrong

But...out of the millions of cops in the US, are we really set to judge them all because of a few hundred who are bad and because of the anecdotal stories of some?

I've yet to have a single problem EVEN when I did things like speed, shoot illegal fireworks

I literally shot a bottle rocket over a fence, it accidentally bled up ON TOP of the police car...he was still calm

Foxface

 

Most police officers are competent and ethical, but I guess the old saying that one bad apple ruins the whole bushel is true in this case. I trust the police enough to be able to call them if need be, but I also realize that police brutality is a very serious problem in the US.

My solution? Make all cops wear small head cameras, and if need be, leak bad officer actions to the public eye. Complaints against good officers would go down, and the bad officers would either have to straighten up or face the music. If they turn off the camera on duty, it would be a $500 fine.

 

It's a damned hard job. In order to subdue people, you have to deal with a bunch of people who know nothing about the situations you are in calling you a corrupt brutalizer. Most of your actions will be second guessed. People constantly insult and lack trust in you because of a few shitty comrades, but if you try to come down on the shitheads you often end up not being trusted because you are a "rat". You constantly have to deal with the crazy, drugged up, violent and stupid. You see things that'll haunt you for life. You get to deal with all sorts of disgusting bodily functions. A lot of times you want to bust a domestic abuser and can't. You never know when you will end up in a fight. If you have to chase someone or rush to a scene, you are in a situation that is more likely to kill you than a shootout. For all this, you get paid shit.

Yea, cops get a little pissy and rude with people. Looking at the above, I can't really blame them. The job is one of the most miserable ones I can think of.

 

Quite a bit.

 

I would recommend vest cameras, not head cameras, but in the long run this would almost certainly make things a lot better for both cops and civilians, so long as both cop and civilian have access to the video on demand. It would give civilians video record of any allegations they make, and give cops proof to use to defend themselves. It won't solve everything, but it's certainly a great step.

 

Really, it depends on where I am at. My hometown police have been busted for corruption, and the officers have been involved in many legal battles. Most of them have left now, but still, the whole thing did not leave a good taste in my mouth. Plus, when people were putting signs gay bashing me on my property, they did nothing. It was when it escalated that they decided to do something about the problem.

When I am at college, they are better. I can actually trust the cops there. They actually do their jobs.

 

not at all

 

Agreed. It would be a gigantic step.

 

Ok, fine, it's a hard job ... physically and mentally. The toll it takes on a person as they go through their career is probably harder than a lot of other occupations.

There are some people who are cut out for this type of work - they want to see what's wrong made right, they are agile, they like working outdoors and in varied conditions requiring a lot of movement, and they have the physical constitution for it. With my Myers-Briggs, this is a typical occupation for my type. The reality is that it isn't for me. At all. OTOH, there are people who do it because they enjoy the power it gives them, it can go with an already a-hole personality, and, for some people, they sort of end up there, because that's what their parents did or it went with being in the service or in sports.

My answer was based on my experiences with them, which have been few. Those experiences were not good, given that I keep to myself a lot and am low maintenance. May I also add that I once had a theft from my car and a witness gave me the license plates of the person who perpetrated the theft, and the police didn't do anything about it. Well, that's part of big city living, I guess.

 

In my local area? No.

They are too lazy to do anything. We usually have to wait a good 3-4 before they even show up. If they do.

 

For their treatment of others? Not at all.

For the treatment of a white teenage male? Entirely safe.

That said, in the ACT we have the Australian Federal Police, who are notably well-behaved and professional. They're probably (well, certainly) the best in the country, but police in other parts of Australia can be very sleazy. Queensland police are generally political agents of the state government or even personally of the attorney-general, and are quite literally are the backs of a police state within Queensland. They even have quasi-military patrols and go in large, threatening groups. They also have a record for extreme brutality (by Australian standards) and ridiculously extensive corruption.

The Finnish police (the only non-Australian police force I've ever been able to observe) are the very antithesis of the "evil cop." At least they are in Helsinki and Oulu.