This was an interesting article. The gist of the article is, cops can go either way depending on the culture of their department. Now what can we do to improve the culture of policing?
Amend the constitution and outlaw guns 100%. Police officers should not even carry guns.
Thanks. I passed it on to my 20 yr. old, who is thinking about becoming a police officer.
If you spend enough time with police that they talk to you more as an insider, you learn they have very strong feelings about bad departments, badly trained police, bad commanders and bad cops. They don’t like to share these feelings with us outsider civilians because that’s not their culture.
I find it very sad that they say only 15% of cops will do the right thing no matter what. We keep hearing that it is a small number that do bad but I would hope that the number who try to do right is higher. I understand that this is not a proven statistic but if this is the perception of those in law enforcement no wonder morale is bad.
I recently spent 6 weeks on a grand jury. Most of the witnesses called were police officers. By a comfortable majority, most seemed professional, competent, and trustworthy. However, several were clearly not. They showed little patience or respect for questions from grand jurors. They displayed annoyance at being called to testify. Some ADAs were obviously nervous at keeping police officers waiting, which led us to wonder who was really in charge in those cases. Two guys chewed gum. (Come on - really? None of the gang members who testified did that.)
I learned two things: if you’re going to be driving late at night in certain areas, make sure that every light is in working order, your registration and inspection certificate are current, and that you don’t roll through a stop sign or do more than 5 miles above the speed limit. Because otherwise you will be pulled over, and then a host of bad things might happen.
If you ever are pulled over, do exactly as the police officer tells you, and damned quickly, too. No arguing, no swearing. “Resisting arrest” has come to embrace a very wide definition.
That’s a very interesting article. I think it’s probably true that a large percentage of police officers (as well as just about any other group) are followers, and will be heavily influenced by those who lead (or who are allowed to set the tone for) the group.
Police officers will do better job when our politicians do better job.
The mayor, the city council, the DA, the police chief,… in the city government don’t have the trust of the people in town.
However, it may not be all that different for police officers than for any other group of people. I.e. take any group of people (not selected for honesty versus corruption or things like that), and it is likely that only a small percentage will do (or try to do) the right thing no matter what, but a much larger percentage will go with the flow. This can be visible in societies overall, where some societies have a high level of corruption that is sustained by most people going with the flow (participating in corrupt activities), and others have a low level of corruption that is also sustained by most people going with the flow (not participating in corrupt activities).
A relatively minor but obvious example would be how obedient car drivers are to traffic laws. Well, maybe not so minor considering the cost of car crashes.
@jackrabbit14 Why don’t we just outlaw criminal activity?
We should not expect that police officers will behave differently than the population from which they come. Police officers ( or any public official for that matter ) have the same moral aptitude and susceptibility to corruption that we all do. There is absolutely NOTHING special about police officers. They are not “YourTown’s best and brightest” more like “YourTown’s how else would I make 70k/yr”.
No ( law abiding ) American should fear an interaction with police, but we do because we know they hold enormous power with minimal accountability. That gun on their hip–is for their protection not yours.
None of them will admit that they are the bad cop. And even the ones who seriously think they are good cops will observe the mafia-like code of silence to cover up cop crimes.
I agree that it’s the same for any other group. I used to work for an accounting firm where the thinking was “what can we get away with”. They would push write offs to the extreme, bend rules and fudge whenever possible. I left. At our firm now, we are as honest as we can possibly be without putting a client at a disadvantage. I left the first because I felt pressured to go along and it is very hard to stand up for what’s right when all around you they consider that not doing well. Now I have total support is doing things the right way.
@MathMeany I’m pretty sure criminal activity is outlawed, hence the title criminal activity.
My comment was just directed at the apparent increase in cops shooting people which has dominated the news the last couple of years.
@jackrabbit14 Great, I’m glad it has been outlawed. Now I can leave my doors unlocked and let my kids go on car rides with strangers.
@MathMeany I’m not really following your rather poor attempt at (what I think is intended to be) humor, nor do I understand your reason for mentioning me
An ex police chief and now Episcopal priest who turned our local police department around has been talking about community policing for years. Yes, we had a shooting in the news, but the protests were carefully handled, though community opinion is mixed on the shooting. http://www.channel3000.com/news/retired-madison-police-chief-says-department-is-connected-to-the-community/32183446
And what shall we do about the 300 million guns that are already in the US. Do you think a round up would work? Only the law abiding citizens would turn in their guns and then only the criminals would have them. I’m sure the criminals would love to have more easy targets.
How to change the culture that supports police brutality?
Cameras and convictions.
There is a commonality in the callousness toward the injuries inflicted…
In this case, the officer is shown on video laughing and smoking a cigarette as she peers inside the car at the prisoner, who is hobbled and having trouble breathing.
“That ain’t a good sign.”
Similar to what is heard by the second prisoner in Baltimore who was taken in and booked while Gray was left to die in the van. What he overheard: “We got him. We gave him a run for his money.”