Does police culture create bad people or are bad people more likely to become cops? (government, jobs)

[juneaubound]

Originally Posted by gladhands

40% of police families experience domestic violence.

National Center For Women and Policing

The National Center for Women and Policing is a division of the Feminist Majority Foundation, The Feminist Majority Foundation donated $104,600 to various candidates during the 2016 election cycle. 100% of that money went to Democratic candidates. 0% of that money went to Republican candidates:

https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pac...cmte=C00377168

I floated around the National Center for Women and Policing a bit. Stopped after reading a sentence where their position was that women were under-represented in law enforcement due to discrimination, and that under-representation leads to increased police brutality. Both positions are a crock.

[Floorist]

My brother is a cop and I had an uncle who was. I know many of the other cops here. Many have been divorced 3 or 4 times. A bunch are alcoholics. And almost all are arrogant. It is a tough job and many people are cops who should not be.

[desertdetroiter]

Originally Posted by Speleothem

An unintended consequence of the "War on Cops,"
is that fewer of the people that would make good
cops will wanna sign up for the abuse.

Nonsense. There is no war on cops.

There's only a war on the crap that cops have traditionally been able to get away with for decades until the advent of ubiquitous recording technology.

[OnOurWayHome]

Originally Posted by LordBalfor

I'm reminded of something Joseph Wambaugh (policeman turned author) wrote many years ago. He said (and he should know) that police work is not so much physically dangerous as it's emotionally dangerous. Being around such much ugliness and evil all the time tends to make you jaded and sour on life and humankind - the result is that it's very easy for cops to end up sliding into that type of behavior themselves. It's the main reason cops have these kinds of domestic problems.

Being a cop is a VERY TOUGH job. Like being a combat soldier, it takes a terrible toll on one's psyche that ironically enough can often lead to criminal behavior.

Ken

This makes sense to me.

My very limited experiences with cops have overall been negative. And I'm a polite, well-spoken middle-aged white woman. One in particular who pulled me over for a lane change scared the hell out of me , screaming until spittle was flying out of his mouth. I said nothing more than yes sir and no sir and prayed silently for it to be over.

My other experiences have been when I was the victim of a robbery or vandalism or involved in a car accident. Some of the cops were ok, some nasty, some indifferent.

I'm sure it is one of the toughest jobs out there and that it changes people. My takeaway is to avoid police whenever possible.

[Brave New World]

The Police need proper oversight, and all serious complaints should be dealt with by an independent organisation totally seperate and without any connection to the police and also seperate to any undue influence.

The emphasis must be on the police themselves upholding the very same laws that they expect others to uphold and to adhere to the highest standards and ethos of public service, and any crime committed by an officer should be dealt with in the same manner as any other member of the public.

New technology such as body cameras will offer greater insight in to events, as will increased mobile phine and CCTV footage of events.

[T0103E]

I'll say what I said in another thread about government in general: Bad people are attracted to positions of power over others, and good people are usually corrupted by it.

Even in the case of relatively honest police (I'll never say "good" government police by nature of the job itself), they are usually pressured to go along with any dishonest things their "brothers and sisters" do.

It really is a gang mentality in every sense. You join the gang and protect each other, whether good or bad, or else you're the black sheep. The incentives are all there to just go along with it.

[jertheber]

Being a Police Officer is no picnic, period. The fact of criminals becoming more brazen when confronting police, and the use of firearms against police is reason enough for good and decent people to stay away from policing in general, but they do apply for the position every day. I've known some police to be jerks, arrogant and hostile, but others have been just the opposite.

Back in the seventies the LA police force was harboring a "siege mentality" which produced a mindset among police as an occupying army in the Watts area and other areas of poverty and gang activity, this phenomenon grew among the police in America's large cities. Today we see the police being called on their brutality, their collusion with criminals, and their public demeanor in general, but the numbers of bad officers is certainly outweighed by the good ones.

"Bad people"aren't more apt to become police officers, but, as that is generally true, it can't be ignored when we see police officers using bad judgement, or worse, committing acts of unwarranted violence no matter the provocation. I see way too many ex military people in the police force today, their urban combat experience carries with it the notion of a superior position when confronting civilians, a very dangerous thing in a democracy. The everyday police business is fraught with violence and confrontation, requiring a ton of patience, clear thinking, good defense skills, and most of all, being able to make split second decisions about forearms use. Who wants to sign up?

[Vegabern]

Personal experience: My father in law and former police officer beat my husband when he was a child.


Take it as you will.


And for the record, he was corrupt as hell on top of it.

[Dane_in_LA]

Some US police departments seem to skimp on training and selection, and the results are predictable. The average time for police academy training is 19 weeks(!), which seems very low indeed. Obviously, this short training means that on-the-job training is needed - and that opens the door for bad practices to become part of institutional memory. ("That's just how it's done here, rookie.")

Compare and contrast with the UK, for instance, where training takes years - practice and theory combined, certainly, but with a central governing authority overseeing the theoretical training curriculum to make sure there's uniformity. Makes for predictability and a very respected police force. And UK police spends a lot of time practicing interacting with people, to defuse situations.

US police - at least from my European perspective - seems very focused on approaching most situations from a perspective of immediately gaining and maintaining dominance. Where the European police I've encountered have been much more focused on keeping the situation from becoming confrontational in the first place. Not that it's not clear that force is readily available, if necessary - just that there's no reason to lead with it.

For a while back in Europe, I rode a motorcycle without technically having the correct stamp on my driver's license and managed to get busted, twice. Both times with an almost sympathetic vibe - as in "Yeah, this sucks, but you know you're not allowed to, it's my job to see that you don't, let's not make this into a drama as we're both adults, and nice bike, by the way." Sure, it was very much a taught behavior on their side, they knew exactly what to say and I felt myself responding to it for it, but the point remains that I left without having felt threatened or even belittled. (Annoyed about the fine, the hassle and my own negligence in failing to secure that license, sure. But that was the point.)

I've encountered US police while riding over here, and let's just say that's not their MO. For people with less control of themselves and those with short tempers, I can see where the US approach can lead to confrontations.

[zzzSnorlax]

Sociopaths are more likely to be drawn to fields where they can exercise power over others. Outside of politics, hard to think of a field where the everyday grunts have more power than police work.