Police misconceptions comp
"The police are militarizing to keep us under control"
I'll tackle this one first because it's a big one in the news and in anti-government blogs. People who don't understand weapons or tactical equipment get scared at the sight of boys in blue wearing big armour and toting heavy guns.
The truth is police do not carry these weapons. Tactical officers do, that's your SWAT your ERT your SRT, with the exception of road sergeants carrying shotguns or carbines in their vehicles. BUT in this day and age that equipment is necessary. Nobody needs to pour powder down a barrel to shoot you anymore, and anybody can get their hands on guns if they need them. If an officer approaches a house and is met by automatic fire he has no chance with a standard issue handgun. You need to be able to match the suspects level of force if you hope to take him down safely. Hollywood isn't real, cops don't go on Bruce Willis manhunts through buildings hunting bad guys with a handgun.
The black body armour and big black guns might be scary but it's there to help protect the officers that are there to protect you.
"Cops are all rude and mean"
This is one of the sad realities of policing. It is a job that wears out your temperance to a fine thread. You have to realize that the officer you are dealing with doesn't just deal with you. He/she has dealt with hundreds of people before you majority of which were yelling or swearing at them. Eventually they just stop trying to be nice to people because they realize nobody is going to have anything nice to say to them.
On top of that they respond daily to traumatic instances that will linger in their mind forever. They see all the evil in the world that you at home are hidden from. They see small children crushed in cars from drunk driving collisions. They see homes torn apart from abusive parents or spouses. They see pedophiles and child molesters that have accumulated home videos of children they've kidnapped.
And it sure doesn't help to be working shifts 5 to 5 everyday. By the end of the day you're a zombie that just wants to hit the pillow, you don't want some jack off telling you all about how much of an asshole you are.
It's a tough job to handle psychologically, sure they should be mentally prepared for it going in but there's a certain level you can't prepare for. So just keep in mind when you get pulled over the officer you're dealing with has likely seen some **** so don't be offended when they aren't nice or polite. It is just how society has conditioned them through their career.
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"Wearing my seat belt is none of the police's business, why should I get a ticket?"
I'll tell you why, because police are there to protect the community. They are public servants tasked with keeping everyone safe. You not wearing your seat belt is a danger to yourself and therefore makes you NOT SAFE. That makes it the police's business. If you're flying down the highway and you lose control you're either going to wish a cop told you to put your seat belt on or thank the officer that did. Seat belts take 2 seconds to put on, don't be an idiot because cops don't like picking your pieces off of the road.
Why do you get a ticket though? Because its deterrence, if police issued a regulation to enforce seat belts with no punishment nobody would listen to it.
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"The cops didn't have to shoot him, they carry tasers"
Another argument made by people who don't understand weapons or equipment. They've watched movies where tasers are deployed and the bad guy is down and out.
No.
Tasers are designed to temporarily immobilize a suspect. It works by firing two pins out of a cartridge. The pins are connected to the taser by wires that conduct a shock. For the taser to work successfully both pins need to make contact with the suspects skin, if it catches in his jacket or his shirt it's useless. Once they connect both pins need to be far enough away from each other that they can effect a large muscle grouping. If the pins land too close together the shock will be minimized and may not work. Finally your suspect needs to fit the right physical category for the taser to be effective. Sometimes it's impossible to tell who can take it and who can't. Sometimes you hit them with the taser perfectly and it does nothing.
In addition to the unreliability of the taser, it has one shot. One shot before needing to be reloaded. You fire that shot into a suspect with a knife you better hope to god it hits him because that guy is coming at you with the force of 1000 suns.
The firearm is the only reliable way to subdue a suspect safely. If the suspect has chosen to act aggressively with an officer then he can expect to be met with aggression. Tasers are unreliable and should never be used in potentially fatal situations.
"Just shoot the guy in the leg, that will stop him"
It might, maybe. But are you willing to take the chance in a potentially fatal scenario? Officers are trained to shoot for the center of mass. They are shooting to kill their target. Nobody intends to shoot to wound someone that stuff is from movies. If an officer draws his gun it means he feels his life or the life of people around him is threatened. He will not give you a warning shot, the gun is used to kill.
I'm not sure how many of you have actually fired a handgun outside of a video game, but it's not easy. It takes practice before you can start hitting small targets. If you open fire on a center of mass you are still likely to miss a few shots, now size that down to a leg. An individual moving around in a high stress situation, you're not going to hit his leg and if you miss he's going to try and stop you from shooting again.
Finally, police use what is called a "use of force model" to decide how to respond to a situation. The wording is if a person is attempting, committing, or capable of causing grievous bodily harm or death you are to respond with LETHAL FORCE. Not shoot for leg force, not ask him to talk about his feelings force, lethal.
Policing is not like movies, it never will be. Don't gather your opinions from there.
"Cops have quotas"
Sort of true, but not really. Police officers (in Canada at least) do not have physical quotas they need to fill. Expecting a quota from your officers automatically implies that the public are committing traffic offenses, which really isn't fair. The staff sergeant will not give an officer a number to fill by the end of the month, but they do expect officers to get work done.
Staff sergeants are like managers. They like to see their staff working and being productive. So when you report back to them you should have a decent list of things that you've done for the day. If you were running service calls all day then your staff sergeant won't expect tickets, but if you haven't responded to many calls and have no tickets he's going to wonder what you were doing all day.
The quota isn't a physical thing, it's just a term for proving to your boss you're doing your job. HOWEVER, some services in the US may use quotas. They do things a little differently down there.
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"Police force"
It's a little thing but I thought I'd point it out. They used to call it a police force, back when policing was reactive. Police officers were against the public in place to keep everyone in line, hence FORCE. They were a force against crime. Also the name just sounds aggressive. Now policing has evolved, it is not longer reactive but proactive. Police are now in place to not only handle crime but prevent it. The term has since been changed to "police service"
"You wrote my name wrong on the ticket, I don't have to pay"
Everything on a ticket can be amended in court. The officer simply needs to inform the judge that the information is wrong and the judge will change it. Can't get out of a ticket that easy.
"Police are corrupt"
That's a goddamn broad statement. Believe it or not most officers out there today are doing what they do because they believe in keeping people safe. But yes, there are some that overstep their power and become indulged in their authority. But what can you do? Every single profession on this planet has corruption in some form, there is no way to weed out the bad eggs until they show themselves. So just relax, the good officers of your community are just as annoyed as you are that bad cops exist.
"Police target black people"
It's been massive in today's media, white cops killing black people. But it's just not true, most services today have heavy affirmative action to encourage different ethnicity and sexual orientations to swear in.
Police don't "target" anybody except for people involved in situations that require police.
This list could probably go on forever so I'll stop it here. Thanks for taking a look at this stuff and if you want me to keep this up let me know. Maybe give me suggestions on what common problems with cops I should cover.
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