Quote:
Originally Posted by MPowering1
Okay, so now you're being honest enough to admit the entire law enforcement in many departments is corrupt, which is good. There should never be quotas. Cops find stuff that isn't there trying to meet an arbitrary number.
I think a lot of people don't really understand that many police departments are set up to foster corrupt behavior from the start.
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I don't understand the need for quotas. It doesn't reveal actual work. There's different ways to work the streets as an officer.
Officer Rambo is out there catching bad guys left and right. He joined because he actually cares about the community that he lives in, he is tired of the crappy people, and he wants the streets to be safer for families and their kids. He is an equal opportunity apprehender. At the end of the month, every single month, his stats look impressive for fighting crime.
Officer Donut is out there, on the streets, catching a few bad guys here and there. He joined because he said he wants to put bad guys away, and he, too, doesn't like crappy people and wants the streets to be safer for families and their kids. He is also an equal opportunity apprehender. At the end of the month, however, every single month, his stats look like he hasn't been doing jack all.
Chief decides it's time to put in some quotas. Officer Rambo need not worry, he exceeds the number all the time, he's that gung ho, that in to his job...he lives, eats, breathes "catching bad guys". Officer Donut needs to worry. He has to change how he works to meet the quota because based on past results, he will never meet it unless he makes changes.
Officer Rambo goes on as usual. Officer Donut now has to completely change his entire routine, and, quite possibly, his personality.
It's not that Officer Donut was lazy and didn't do any work, he simply chose a different way to try to bring peace to neighborhoods. Officer Rambo wants to cuff and stuff every bad guy he sees, and does so, which makes the Chief happy. Officer Donut prefers the more liberal policy (I don't mean political) of trying to talk to the people, get to know them, build rapport, gain trust of members of the community, build trust in the kids he sees out there on his patrols, go to schools and do speeches and demonstrations, volunteer for other duties that put him out there to show the community that cops can be your friend. He'll stuff and cuff when he has to, but would prefer to give people a break and give them a chance to do better in the future. Chief doesn't like that because Chief can't see the results, immediately.
Neither cop is wrong. But that doesn't sell papers or trust in the police from other members of the community...and that's what the Chief has to answer to...those other members of the community.
Now the quota thing has gotten out of hand. The only way for some to meet it is to cheat. Their life, or some punk's life...which one do they choose. They're jaded. Those people are all criminals anyway, they're all going to get caught with these drugs one day anyway...and the cop has a quota to meet...because those other members in the community insist on seeing instant results.
This can turn once good cops into bad cops. There are some cops who were bad all along - I saw that in the military. Even as an MP you could see that some people were never meant to be in any type of authority position.
I even questioned one who was training me when I first got to Germany.
There was construction going on at a housing area near a base, and it altered the route that the people were used to taking to get in and out of that housing area. They didn't like it because getting in and out of that housing area now took 3 times as long. So they would, often, just sneak down the street that they were used to, the wrong way, and hope they didn't get caught.
The MP I was training with would hide in order to catch them and give them tickets. He would lecture the people in their car, especially if they had kids. Lecture them about accidents, and putting their kids' lives in danger, and blah, blah, blah.
After seeing this for awhile, I asked him: "If you're so concerned about their safety, wouldn't it be better to make yourself very visible so that they
don't drive down this street the wrong way and get into an accident than to hide just so you can be the one who writes the most tickets this month?"
Yes. We also had an unmentioned quota. I never cared about that stupid quota. I did my job the best that I could. If it meant sitting there, visibly, to avoid people driving down that street and not have accidents, then that's what I would prefer over sneaking up behind someone, turning on the lights, and then telling them how they could have been in an accident were it not for me and the ticket I was about to give them.
Thankfully they got over their unmentioned quota phase after about a year....I think because a lot of new soldiers came in at the same time I did and none of us cared for their quota idea.
Anyway, putting the useless, bad cops aside who should never have been given the badge in the first place, having quotas may have started to ensure that all were working and doing something, but it has turned in to a giant mess, and yes I believe that, as you said, it corrupts people.
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