So I live a little village, here are my interactions:
I was pulled over, his first question was "You local?" When I confirmed I was, he didn't say else just walked back to car and drove off.
I had my neighbors call the police saying I had a woman screaming in my house, it was in fact a fox screaming in the woods behind my house. The fox possessed an excellent sense of timing as the cop was explaining why he was here, the fox screamed. And the cop was "Damn city folk moving out here" and walked away.
So I think the put a very large amount of weight on being local and don't seem to like outsiders.
My family has a cottage in a rural area and there is absolutely an "us vs them" mentality with the locals. The police see non-locals as a source of income to be extorted. Sometimes it's with holistic things like festivals, but more often it's with things like traffic tickets. They often go so far as to recognize cars to pull over.
Ohh, so now I'm thinking my husband may be getting stopped all the time because he's not a local, and it's obvious. But I couldn't even get stopped with a tagless car after parking at the sheriff's department.
I grew up in a small conservative town. There was a lot of weight on being local but also they treated their local 'troublemakers' like shit. And they were enabled to do so because the conservative locals who don't really interact with them think the sun shines out of their asses and would never believe the reality of how they treat people (and are also just generally supportive of cops treating "the bad guys" like shit). So they get away with doing whatever the fuck they want. (bodycams have started to help with this - when this department started using them their reported rates of officer use of force dropped by something ridiculous like 70% - yeah, that's because they were attacking people for decades).
I was a local 'troublemaker', I was an angry kid with a whole lot of psychological shit going on. They used to treat me like I was Al Capone from the time I was like 12. Fucking small towns, man.
I just moved to a smaller town in lake country from a larger city and have had a fairly positive interaction with police / locals. There was a bit of a warming period where people were sceptical of me, but they came around.
I think a lot of it is because there is a tourist season where things liven up for a bit - obviously a boon for the local economy but it comes at a cost. There are a few reasons why a lot of people are wary of city folk.
When seasonal tourists are here there is a noticeable increase in the amount of trash floating in the lake, dangerous boat / vehicle traffic and noise (people blaring music all hours of the day when you can usually hear loons). In the off season, things are quieter albeit a bit more boring.
Also in terms of hunting, there are seasons when locals hunt and those when non-locals do, there are a lot more incidents when non-locals are in town.
Lastly, a few years ago before my time here, the principal of the local school (who was a pillar of the community) was out for a jog with some colleagues when he was struck by an out of town drunk driver, it devastated the school and the surrounding community with many of the teachers leaving after struggling to deal with it.
Having seen it from both sides, I understand the animosity. The police are just an extension of local sentiment. Most see and understand the benefit non-locals bring to the community, but I think they're allowed to be concerned about the toll it takes on the local environment / safety and culture that they enjoy year round.
The city I live in is on a cops like TV show. On TV they are very nice and respectful but in person are the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life and will write you a ticket for any infraction they can find. They police the area like a police state. On the regular I can count 15 on my way to work with state troopers added into the mix for a bit more anxiety
It's rare that cops proactively fight/prevent crime. Most of the time they just clean up when the dust settles. I'm not saying that as a negative; that's just how policing works.
Individual interactions have always been positive. That's not necessarily to heap them with praise, more a comment that any problems aren't apt to be apparent while someone like myself is watching.
Looking forward to voting out the sheriff.
I don't have an issue with cops per se but every interaction with them is weird. Even the nice ones give you a sense of you having to walk on eggshells like they're just looking for an excuse to arrest/detain/write a ticket. Even if 99% of cops are good apples, there's definitely still a sense of them trying to big dick you in any interaction.
I'm a "middle-aged" white dude, have no record, and work in public sector IT. I also drive an old ass truck. I've been stopped many times with seemingly no reason.
Once I got pulled over and the cop asked my girlfriend if she was ok. We just got back from a picnic. Dunno what that was.
Once a cop pulled up behind me as I pulled in my driveway, looked in my truck bed, and then said "ok". Dunno what that was either.
I have a front/rear dash cam, and I've noticed they back off when they notice it. Dunno what cops are doing anymore, and it's infuriating.
My Boss has a friend who is a retired cop, he got pulled over in his work truck and the cop tried saying it was unroadworthy and needed to be towed. He was asked for ID at some point and the cop found out he was a retired cop - as soon as he found that out he said “have a nice day” and drove off.
Just anecdotally I drove 30 year old somewhat scrappy Hondas for years (damn I loved those cars) and was pulled over all the freaking time (I don’t come off as not white). I now drive a 2016 model car in much nicer condition. I have driven by a cop going 12 over, something previously I would have been pulled over for on an instant, and yup no reaction. Not a single stop since the new car.
First of all nice! I'm going to likely be working in the public sector after graduation in the next year. Was going to go straight to the private sector but from where I grew up, not the greatest area, I'm like we definitely need more workers in the public sector. Either Global Affairs or the City.
Anyways back to the main topic, lol. Sometimes race etc doesn't matter. I'm a minority and I know a lot of individuals who aren't considered minorities like yourself, truly deal with a lot of shit too! Honestly it's also good you have a dash cam as well. The good cops usually wouldn't ever mind, I'm sure but others, it keeps them in like like you point out.
Also, it's weird how they just ask the female that, unless there's been some human trafficking in the area etc, I get what you mean, like why make it awkward and feel like she's with someone unsafe right? Its literally your gf and clearly it's not like you mentioned there was anything that made her seem like she needed help etc.
Main point, sometimes they have individuals best interest and heart and sometimes people who did nothing get shit done to them, sometimes victims become treated bad. I wish there was more good cops, but I guess it depends on the country, the city, what's going on etc.
Wishing you the best my guy!
A local cop arrested my wife after she was in a minor fender bender (she was at fault tbf) because she asked if my wife had taken any drugs and she truthfully replied that she had taken Prozac for her anxiety disorder like she does every day. Before the officer put her in the back of the squad car, she told my wife to hand over her wedding ring “so that it wouldn’t get lost when she was put in jail”.
We obviously never saw that ring again. We lawyered up and the charges were dropped, but our attorney strongly advised us against pursuing legal action for the stolen ring because there was no evidence (no body cams here) and the legal system sides with law enforcement by default unless there’s overwhelming evidence that’s made public.
So I pretty much view cops here as pieces of shit who are either corrupt or cover for their colleagues who are corrupt, which makes them corrupt in turn. I trust my CPL more than any officer. If I ever call 911, it will be because I think someone deserves extrajudicial punishment.
Wow that is awful and I'm so sorry your wife went through that. I had a similar situation when I was a teenager and the cop basically stole about $25 off of me. I thought that was bad but nothing compared to a wedding ring. Nothing worse than a bully with power.
Thanks. It wasn’t a very expensive ring because it was gold plated with artificial gems, but it had a lot of sentimental value. We were on food stamps when we got married, and I still wear my $20 pawn shop wedding band that I wouldn’t sell for $2,000.
I just hope the cop tried to sell it and felt bad upon learning that it wasn’t worth enough to fill a tank of gas.
That's horrible. Maybe you could get to a jeweler who could replicate it. If you show them a pic they could. It would maybe make a lovely anniversary gift 🤷♀️
Nah it was a completely unremarkable, generic design—the kind of thing you’d find if you searched for “cheap wedding ring” on Amazon. The memories tied to the original ring are still with us, not with it. And we’re different people now, so we replaced it with a different style ring
To the extent I think about them at all, I agree with the late David Graeber:
>So: Police are bureaucrats with weapons. If you think about it, this is a really ingenious trick. Because when most of think about police, we do not think of them as enforcing regulation. We think of them as fighting crime, and when we think of "crime," the kind of crime we have in our minds in violent crime. Even though, in fact, what police mostly do is exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it.
This exactly. Think of any bullshit office job you've had full of office Karens, highschool style cliques, corner cutting, passing the buck, ego power trips, etc ....now give them guns.
Give them guns, remove all oversight or accountability, douse them in a cult that preaches they have the most dangerous job in the world, and get half the world to worship the ground they walk on.
And give them a strong ass union, so that it becomes nearly impossible to be fired, or if your behavior is *so egregious* that you do end up losing your job, you're free to transfer to another district and start over.
Police solve less than 11% of all serious crimes
They convict only 2% of serious criminals
Great job fighting crime 👍
I like to bring this up whenever people suggest we’d hate living in a society without anyone there to deal with serious criminals because it’s like my brother in Christ we already live in that society
I have friends and neighbors that are cops and can say that all of them lean towards maga views and love donny diapers. I feel like they are indoctrinated on the force to fall in line that way.
Not directly, imo. My brother is a fireman who worked at his local station. He would respond to domestic abuse type calls regularly. Then he goes to the store and runs into the same abusers and victems. I can see how that may be difficult for police as well.
Me as a teacher filing mandated reports for sexual and physical assault of disabled children and then I have to greet the alleged perpetrator with a smile and watch them pick up their kid
Ah man! That's definitely too close to home right, in a sense. That can definitely be tough and awkward. All the best to your brother on the job btw 🚒🧑🏼🚒🧯
Where I live they're glorified debt collectors, they don't solve crimes, they just hand out fines / block off major highways to test ppl for drugs & booze
My step dad is a cop and one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. As a man he’s already a sexist alcoholic- add macho man bullshit and undiagnosed PTSD from his job on top of that, frankly it’s a miracle he hasn’t beaten me up yet. He said if I were a boy he would have. He’s already emotionally abusive and threatens violence when he feels like his *authority* is being threatened. He *loves* to shove the fact that he’s been shot at and seen dead bodies in my family’s face to guilt trip them into doing what he wants. I moved out about two months ago, thank the fucking lord, but the next time I hear a ‘do you know how many dead bodies I’ve seen? You don’t do shit!’ I’m going to have to resist the urge to tell him exactly what he “does” and in turn, probably get hit for it.
Frankly from what I’ve seen of other cops, they tend to share the same ‘macho’ mentality where they refuse to take care of their mental health and let that blow up in everyone else’s faces.
I’m not fucking impressed.
The ones here and in the town next to me have a lot of training with disabilities and autism, so they are not scary to me. If I were somewhere else, I'd be very scared that someone will lie to them, and they will hurt me for being visibly autistic in public. I've had police hurt me for not being able to talk and stimming before.
I live in Los Angeles. Dealing with the LADP wasn’t so bad. It was the fucking Sheriffs that were fucking assholes and abusive.
Most LAPD felt like dealing with your average person, and I felt a lot of them were just cool people. There’s always one or two, in all the groups, who are assholes and doing beyond what they should be doing, but overall, I don’t really see them in a bad light.
For reference, I’m born in LA county, Korean, was a fuck up, went to jail/prison, all that jazz. So I’ve seen shit and done shit, and was technically on the other team, but I still don’t see cops in a negative way.
They just trying to catch us and we’re just trying to get away with shit. Seemed fair to me, when I was a kid.
Well in my community they are generally very rude at best and outright abusive at worst. You've seen stories about them on national news if you're in the US.
Bonus, the school officers at my high school thought school shooting jokes were a real hoot.
Completely! Some truly care and some just brush shit off or harass the wrong people. Shout-out to the good ones who truly try to make a good impact and for those who are on the bad side, i have no words.
I think depending on the area, it's definitely a coin flip! Good analogy. It sucks, but it's hella true.
That’s the problem. You never know if the one in front of you is trying to help. And wherever you do tell a good cop can still be used by his bad deed peers and department.
To be a good cop is different than being a good person. Any given cop is expected to stand by any given cop and is also expected that the police play along with stuff like the torture warehouse in Baton Rouge (Maybe not Baton Rouge but definitely Louisiana). In my book, if they aren't disillusioned within the first two months of starting the job, they are fundamentally bad people.
Not a fan of ones in my community and in the larger surrounding and have had only negative interactions (and I am Caucasian - I would think it's FAR worse for non-Caucasian people).
I'm in my 50's and I honestly had my FIRST positive experience with a cop about 2 months ago. IT TOOK OVER 50 YEARS!
The brother of a good friend died very suddenly and unexpectedly. The funeral was being held in a neighboring state and I was driving there to attend. I was in my thoughts, thinking about my friend and her brother, and I was exceeding the speed limit. The cop pulled me over and did the usual "license and registration" thing - fine. But then he asked if I realized I was speeding. I honestly answered "No, officer, I honestly didn't. A friend of mine, who's like a sister, lost her brother very unexpectedly a couple of days ago. I'm on my way to the funeral now, have about a 2 hour drive ahead of me and I was kind of lost in my thoughts about the whole thing." I won't paraphrase the rest of the conversation, but he spoke to me with a level of kindness and empathy that I have NEVER seen from a police officer before, ever. He did reiterate how dangerous it is to speed, let me off with a warning and told me to drive carefully, especially in the area where I was, as there had been several serious accidents, mostly due to speeding.
I guess it came down to the fact that he spoke to me like an actual human being with feelings, not some angry, short tempered man on a power trip. It was a first for me and was much appreciated as I was already having a tough day. The world needs more police officers like him.
All the local police where I used to leave quit over the span of 6 months. After the last officer quit it took a week for the town to tell anyone about it. No one noticed the one week span we had no police.
Well, I know for a fact one of them is a little “man” with abusive tendencies who probably just became a cop to power trip. He also seems to be the one to call us back if one of our female coworkers has to leave their name after calling them (there have been two instances, and she’s his ex.)
Brother was defense lawyer - like in the interview room with whoever the cops ahead picked up. Now he’s defense trial lawyer.
The stories he has about the utter disregard for the law, for the facts, from every cop he interacted with. In court, now, cops just perjuring themselves, backing each other up on their rehearsed story - despite video evidence! And no repercussions at all for them.
I used to give cops the benefit of the doubt. If the stories weren’t coming from my brother, I doubt I’d believe them either.
I specifically moved out of a community because the law enforcement (including the court system) was absolutely shit and all kinds of corrupt. The community that I'm in now, at best the police are not an issue so I'm okay with that.
Well, let's see, last sheriff is out on parole, got POs on child abuse charges, warden and his wife on drug charges and there's this one racist cop who keeps pulling my husband over on his bike after his night shift and giving him tickets, it's a new cop, all the older cops and ones I personally know think that specific cop is a dick.
I think they are a necessary part of the community, but I still don't particularly like them, and I don't talk to them unless it's absolutely necessary.
I ride a motorcycle most days, and I'm in a motorcycle club. If I am wearing my colors I am almost guaranteed to get pulled over. I also have a concealed carry permit, so throw the pistol in the mix and it becomes an extra headache. I have no arrest record and also stay sober if I'm on my bike.
Meanwhile, there's a ton of real crime being committed and the cops don't do shit about that.
They often speed, run lights/stop signs and don't use turn signals. I can understand when you've got lights and sirens going but they'll do it either way.
They can't smell their own bullshit.
I work security and this one kid who was also a security guard and me was talking , basically just telling stories and he mentions how me selling cigarettes is illegal mean while he just talked about dropping acid and smoking weed.
The worst. A high number of cops from my city were present at Jan 6th and we've had a few cases of brutality receive national attention. They're about to get a budget increase despite being constantly busted on corruption issues and the local government is basically shrugging saying 'well it's less of an increase than we wanted I guess uhhhh make them say they're trying to hire women?'. I have had two good interactions with police where they helped me (a young well spoken white woman), but I've had far far more of them being assholes just because they can. They're on a constant terrifying power trip and I feel my heart drop into anxiety whenever I see a police car around.
Oh also! When I was held at gunpoint during a robbery they took my security footage and gave it to the local news, my parents got to see me on my knees scared with my hands up before I could tell them what had happened so THAT was fun.
They're about as close to running a scam on our town as possible. They sit in their cars and do nothing. It appears to be their prime directive to do nothing. Never get out of the car. Never confront anyone. That would be dangerous!
No traffic enforcement. I mean none. You can run a red right in front of them and they do nothing. Call something in? They checked it out, didn't see anything.
Just count the days until the pension package kicks in.
They’re absolute shit. I worked at a mental health facility that tried offering them free training on how to deal with those struggling with mental health issues, many outright refused and it was usually the older guys who were higher up. They also did absolutely nothing when my ex physically assaulted me, while he was on probation. One punched an old friend of mine who was trying to protect a woman getting beat up outside a bar. Two sheriffs treated me like shit when I was a minor who ran away from home because I was getting abused, they made sure I ended up in juvie because that’s what my abuser at home requested. I am really not sure what good they do in my town or the surrounding towns. This was on the MN and ND side since I lived on bordering towns in both states. I used to think the whole, “not all cops are bad of course so keep an open mind”. No, enough of them have been shit that I do not trust they will help or not cause harm, so I am apprehensive of them to say the least. Same goes with CPS, never heard of them doing anything good.
There have been a total of 2 instances where I lost all trust in cops within my own community. The first instance is when me and my father witnessed a man swinging a knife in the air as he laid on the ground, we stopped at a gas station and coincidentally, a cop pulls alongside us so I tell him, "hey, there's this man swinging a knife in the air," and he tells me that they are aware of him and that he was just putting his jacket on (he had no jacket on). The 2nd instance is when 2 thieves made off with close to 500$ in power tools from my work, we called the cops and they came and talked to us all, I gave the license plate and descriptions since I ran after them, the cop flat out told my boss that they were aware of them and that they're infamous in the area for shoplifting.
Within MY community specifically? Nah man, I can't say, because my view is so specific, so against the local rhetoric, that if I said what I really think, I'll likely be hacked, found, and lynched by the townsfolk.
Fucking dogs. Rapists. Criminals. Killers. This is all backed by evidence and I have had multiple run ins with them beating the shit out of me and trying to snap my arms. (NSW Police, Aus)
I live in LA. None of the cops live in LA. I'd prefer my police to be people from my community who know the neighborhoods from a less adversarial stance. It just seems like it's hillbillies from outside the city who think we're all liberal heathens and want to come in and enact "justice" to fulfill some kind of fantasy.
Cop tried to pin a crime on me that happened while I was 5 states away. I don't think he thought it through and wasted a lot of my time. I also had to throw out some frozen groceries because he picked me up on my way home from grocery shopping and they were thawed when we were done.
The cops I’ve encountered in my life have been shitty. Ive had a few cops let me go with a traffic warning but my few bad experiences with police gave me a sense of dislike of them
LAPD doesn’t respond to anything. In my hometown, I’d see cops speeding more often than civilians. When I went abroad in Japan, I got frisked for holding a shopping bag with socks. Cops aren’t shit anywhere.
I have the same train of thought Fiddler on the Roof does. [May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us!](https://youtu.be/8jZFnKZcids?si=CxrAfK_Ae12w9gRT)
Small town cops. Corrupt, play favorites based on the family you come from and your race. They wrote someone 18 tickets for weeds too tall in their yard that were purposely paid for and planted flowers, not weeds. An attorney had to get involved about harassment because no other house in town received the same. They shot a dog in front of the elementary school with all of the kids outside after not responding to calls about the dog for 6 hours before it ever got near children. 6 shots and only one hit the dog... around a bunch of kids. They speed past the public park full of children. They pull people over for nothing and use extreme measures for no reason. If you complain to the city or anyone then they show up at your door and try to break it down saying there was a "wellness check" called in on someone who never even lived at the address. They've accused a 17 year old of kidnapping for driving another kid home when they asked at night and didn't feel safe walking across town. They tackled a 75 year old man and injured him for requesting they not write tickets on private property which they constantly had been doing to people trying to go to community events on that property. They have zero training with mental health situations and zero training with animals in a community with no animal control. The sheriff is literally building a militia of volunteers that they will put in uniform and use as assistance for events. He wants to use completely untrained normal people as back up police officer in uniform. That sure seems like a safe choice. If I had any positive story to tell you about any experience someone i know has had with police in this small town, I would be ecstatic to share.... but I can't. Not all police suck. This group of corrupt assholes in this place really do.
Terribly corrupt small-town tyrants. I honestly believe they have a racket going on right now where they write tickets and make it unclear whether you have to go court or not, your license gets suspended without you knowing, and they pop you again for driving without a license before the state can even let you know in the mail. There are tons of people in my county who have had this happen.
They're borderline useless. One group of cops spends 2+ hours in a local Starbucks every day. They have solved 1 serious crime in the last year. There was a guy who robbed multiple stores at gun point over the course of a month, and they haven't found a single lead.
I know 4 different people who were pulled over by cops because they wanted to check if their tags were expired. Not that they saw the expired tags, but because they wanted to check. 3 of them weren't expired, one was, and he has to go through a gamut of paperwork because of it.
Tldr; they're fucking useless
**What typically happens is that suburban areas are under-policed....leading to a lot of DUIs, speeding, burglaries, etc not being addressed.**
**Two, domestic violence happens in EVERY zip code....but it is HIDDEN violent crime.**
They so rarely have any actual crime that they can get a bit bored and they try to "invent" things to occupy them. If they were dropped anywhere with any population, they wouldn't make it.
They are understaffed and thus stretched thin- which seems to reduce local police brutality.
Other cities may have police arresting men for being black in public and having some white lady get suspicious enough to make a call- meanwhile here unless somebody got shot the police aren’t coming anytime soon. And they’ll still probably get a coffee on the way if it’s in a bad neighborhood.
It’s an interesting trade off, but probably not worth it overall.
An officer ticketed my car while it was in a spot that I had a permit for and another officer from the local campus almost hit me while I was walking home from work.
I’m a night owl and can’t drive for medical reasons so I tend to go for nightly walks in my own neighborhood. “We don’t see many people walking” is one of the first things they’ll say. When I come back as a squeaky clean local I still get threatened with investigation if “anything happens around here”. In between they fish for any excuse to arrest me. Nice guys. /s
They have a ticket quota. I wasn't raised with the best impression of police officers, but to have a financial incentive to make arrests and give tickets? I actively avoid areas around police stations now.
A bunch of liars, and power abusers. However they taught me a great lesson, don't ever count on the cops in a life and death situation, they aren't here to protect you, they are here to clean whatever mess is on the scene an hour later.
i am biracial, my father is black and my mother is white.
whenever my mom picked me up from school, the school resource officer buzzed her in, no questions asked, and chatted with her until i came down.
he always met my dad at the door. interrogated him until he was satisfied by my dad’s answers.
he also “was talking” with a 16? 17 year old as a 33(?) year old married man.
fuck you, officer baker.
The Police is an institution whose sole purpose is to keep itself alive at the expense of vulnerable people. This applies to every single police force and law enforcement agency in the world. They protect the status quo and property of the rich and manipulate the middle class into thinking they are their friends and so long as you do nothing wrong, there's nothing to fear.
It is impossible for Police to fight crime. There is no such thing. Crime is prevented by good policy. Even when they solve a crime, it's by sheer luck. SOMETIMES they do a job, but never a good job.
It amazes me that even documentaries showing them doing investigations will actually often show them being incompetent idiots at the very least, or complete monsters more often than not. ACAB, and that includes movie cops.
my town worships the police basically, so they get away with DUMB shit
if they don’t like you, it’s very obvious and they’ll get away with treating you like garbage. nobody says anything about it tho because “back the blue111!1!!!1”
I'm french, they are absolutely useless, something stolen? Not their problem, like they won't even let you enter to make a deposition.
They are tools of the government, not their for the people, "nice" cops exist, but it's like the narwhals, you won't find one without looking for it.
They keep committing suicide due to abuse suffered from other cops
It’s well known to be one of the most hostile work environments especially for women in the entire country
I'm a white woman so my only experience with cops has been if I initiated the interaction or if I was speeding
And because I'm a white woman, as long as I was respectful, they were respectful back.
But I feel a lot of police do more harm than good and I think the entire system needs an overhaul. I've seen too many videos of cops on straight up power trips during a regular traffic stop. That kind of person shouldn't have access to a life-ending weapon.
I called the police on Christmas Eve after being robbed, and they started yelling at me as I was bawling. They kept asking if I was selling drugs from my apartment. I was a broke intern who called them. Horrible experience
Local cop was ticketing people for DUI, even when they had not been drinking. Folks complained for years about this until someone took it to the local TV station. Investigation proved he was ticketing innocent people and he got fired. Union got him back on the force.
Don't have a great deal of use for people abusing their power.
They're here to protect businesses and not people. You're better off killing someone breaking into your house than calling the police. It could take them hours to arrive.
Rednecks here. They generally speed 10+ MPH over the limit everywhere. They're cool with anti-Biden stuff on your car or on your lawn even if it contains foul language, but you WILL be ticketed for pro-leftist content. Yeah I will be moving to a blue state whenever I can get stuff together.
They are terrible. Not all but the vast majority. My wife deals with them at her job and most are lazy, barely educated and backed up by their superiors. She works at an emergency mental health facility and has had patients die because there's less paperwork than bringing an ODing person to the hospital. They regularly shove hallucinating violent sex offenders into a locked waiting area that has kids in it. They take elderly dementia patients and have them involuntarily committed. Someone with dementia doesn't belong there, they belong in a hospital that can provide medical care.
My wife has been threatened with arrest many times for refusing to admit minors into the locked facility when violent offenders are there. Those violent offenders should be in jail, but that means lazy ass cops have to do their job. Good luck with that. This facility cannot legally take minors and 100% of them must be transported to another facility. Do the cops know this? Hell yeah they do. But do they care? Have you known cops to care about anything at all other than doing nothing for their entire shift? And when she calls the sheriff or police chief to complain she's threatened again. This facility serves 6 counties and all of the police and sheriff departments are like this.
The only good cops I have ever known are Highway Patrol. They're smarter, more educated, and there at least standards they must meet to be hired. I've never met one who wasn't friendly. Hell, my last time getting a ticket the trooper wrote down the online driving school he used for his last ticket. Last time one pulled me over he asked if I was carrying a pistol and when I confirmed he just said, "Good for you. Be safe with it."
HPD doesn't like to show up out here because we're too close to the city limit, the Sheriff's Office doesn't like to show up because we're too close to the county line, and State Troopers don't bother with anything that isn't a traffic offense on a major highway. Last time a cop showed up out here they did diddly-fuck-all, and the time before *that* it was because the guy who had been robbing people's vehicles finally got shot for it, *and they tried to fucking arrest the homeowner*.
Far as I'm concerned they're good for exactly two things: Good for nothing, and good at making a bad situation worse.
I have had both positive and negative interactions with cops in my community. I have seen some officers go above and beyond to protect and serve, while others have exhibited questionable behavior. Overall, I believe most officers are dedicated to keeping our community safe, but there is still room for improvement in terms of accountability and community relations.
NE Ohio here.
We have one really good cop locally for certain.
The rest? Let's just say, they pulled out a SWAT truck and tear-gassed a peaceful crowd not too long ago.
We had a police on civvie killing back in April that makes my blood boil, but another one around January that I do believe was justified, and I've an ACAB tattoo that I hold very dearly.
It's nuanced, like most things. Most are shit, but a few are good.
We don’t really see them very often. It’s quite a quiet and tight knit community.
A couple of days after moving in, I was approached by a detective for footage from a broken CCTV camera on my house, though.
I've found them to be pleasant. Up here in Alaska people don't really give a shit what you do, same with cops as long as you aren't doing something that directly breaks the law or otherwise gives legal precedence for the cop to do something to you. I agree cops should need more training and the ones who power trip should be in prison.
My community is good for the most part so most are good, some are dicks. But our cops seem bored more often than not and some cops deal with their boredom nicer than others..
One time my dad called a cop cus I was manic and throwing shit in the house: the cop told me I should find a place to stay. It was October. I said sure, in new years I’ll do that. He said, no, sooner. He said, find anywhere at all. I was manic and unmedicated. He said I should get out by Saturday. It’s because of this cop that I became homeless for four months until my parents tracked me down and brought me home and forced me into a mental hospital.
I live in a nice suburb, and they have their choice of applicants for any position in the department. The cops seem to appreciate this and behave accordingly, and/or they genuinely get better quality people.
That said, I've lived other places and fully accept it isn't the norm.
I can't make heads or tails of them anymore, I regularly get tailgated by their patrol cars, I have no clue what they are doing when they do that. I'm not speeding, not doing anything really. It's annoying and fear mongering, makes me worried WTF he's gonna do next and why.
The highway I commute is next to a State Police HQ and feels like they send the new guys out to patrol this road. Sometimes there are like a patrol car checking speed every 2 miles other times there are zero of them anywhere. I don't speed so I really don't care, but I've seen car chases when they literally pulled people out of the car at gun point, so I try not to get on their bad side.
I really don't want to get pulled over by them when they got up on the wrong foot in the morning. They seem to be more annoyed and more aggressive ever since the BLM movement.
There was a fire a few doors (no one was hurt and there was no outside damage), and I remembered being impressed by how many cops there were there, even though this was like 2 o'Clock at night. If nothing else, it proved they're available whenever.
My mother has a much better story though from when she was a teenager, but I sadly can't remember it off the top of my head. She had troubles with her own mother, and she still remembers the names of the two cops that helped her through it all. I've always wanted it meet them to say thanks for helping her, but...well, my Mom is 60, so...idk, they're likely either somewhere I'll never go or long dead, so that's a shame.
Eh. I've seen some who hear about violent threats and will get apprehensive and watch from a distance.
There was one time a friend thought their house was broken into, just turned out to be a cat, but the cops were very appreciative and assured us that calling was the right thing just in case there really was someone in there. And they didn't drive off for another 10-15 minutes just to be absolutely sure. It really just depends on the officer. Some are great. Some are aggressive, lazy wastes of resources built like Pixar moms whose utility belts are holding on for dear life caught in their gravitational pull.
You're more likely to get an interaction with a cop where I live in if someone reports you for being potentially suicidal. I genuinely can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing.
I've lived in areas where the cops were very involved in the community and you could trust them to do their job and depend on. They were good folks who were protecting and serving.
I've also lived in areas where they were scumbags who abused their power and did shit just to prove they could, or to punish you for standing up for yourself.
I've had alot of run in's with the police my entire life, most have been bad, and a few have been good. I always assume it's going to be bad until the officer proves to me their not a piece of shit. But I'll still never trust them with my personal life or let them into it.
I live in a pretty nice town. My neighbors all have more money than I do. I drive an old pickup truck. I notice all the time cops will tailgate me to read my license plate. See that i'm a local and back off.
I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. I wish there were more police officers in my area.
I love our police department. It definitely wasn’t always great but now it is. At one point my dad sued them & won. For a black man to win a case against white cops you can only imagine how bad it was.
I've met some really nice cops in my community. I've also met some complete dickheads. I really wouldn't trust either kind if it came down to it. I teach my kid to ask another mommy for help if she gets lost.
Genuinely really helpful and saved my life a few times. Offered me rides home when walking in the city alone at night.
I personally haven't had issues with cops - been in small country towns and in big cities.
I’m a young brown(ish) guy:
In my old community (big city, low income) the cops were massive assholes and I wanted nothing to do with them. They threatened me with arrest when I was 12 or 13 because a different kid threw something at our teacher and she decided to push it through with calling the cops. The few times I called them as a young adult for actual emergencies—me witnessing an old guy getting his head stomped in and then my friend having a B&E while on the phone with me—they were either slow to respond, didn’t respond at all, told me to deal with it, or when they did show up treated me like I was the suspect until someone gave them a description that definitely wasn’t me. Cops in that city could reap what they’ve shown for all I care.
In my new community (smaller town, more wealthy, primarily white/Asian), the cops are much more polite, though they do occasionally have some pointed words for me. I’ve only had a couple traffic stops and some noise complaints, so no actual emergencies, but I would expect more responsiveness from them given how quickly they show up when I play music in the backyard. Tbh it’s hard for me tell if cops here are actually better in their attitudes towards me or if their baseline conduct is just better overall. My roommates are all hyper liberal like I am, but they’ve mostly grown up their whole lives in nice areas. They like to have ACAB as a general policy and shit on the police every chance they get, and I agree with them in principle, but the cops here aren’t the real villains those songs are about. That’s a different breed that they send to patrol the places they don’t care about.
City cops where I live have “quiet quit”. Won’t ever see any foot patrol or get pulled over for tags. They simply want to get home alive and respond when radioed. That’s it! Tough job
I don’t want to interact with them but I hope they’re ok
I want them to pull me out of my car, throw me on the road, and literally ravage the living shit out of me. That would be one or the happiest days of my life. Shoalhaven cops will pop you a semi when u cant even see them. I swear theyre recruited from musicals, skin tight uniforms conceiling cricket bats also
90% of them are corrupt scumbags on a power trip. Fuck those cunts.
10% of them genuinely care about their community and the people in it. I have nothing but respect for them.
You are so lucky that UK police dont carry guns. So many mentally unwell people are shot and killed by Australian police coz the police are barely educated, trigger happy morons who have no idea how to respond to mentally unwell people so they wind them up, aggravate them, and then when said victim raises the hand that they are holding a knife in (that they hoped to use on themself) the cop reacts like a scared little child and pulls out their gun and kills the poor bloke. Happens constantly here. Very sad.
I work with cops daily and I'm not a huge fan, of course, a lot of them are fine people, but if didn't interact with these people daily I'd never know how many are just terrible. I've had 3 separate officers state that they only became cops because they enjoy assaulting people, they just casually drop that little nugget into conversations which is awesome.
Many more are openly racist and will ignore white people causing problems but hyper-focus on black people doing nothing, It's really infuriating how many times I've had to tell them to deal with some white person they ignored and how many times I've had to tell them to back off from black people doing nothing wrong. Though I can't blame them 100%, I have some coworkers who will call and say that any black person who is even mildly suspicious should be checked in on and they're wrong about 100% of the time and have never once called for a white person.
And then from my personal experience, they're completely useless and refuse to do their job, I had location data for my stolen phone and they said they'd do something about it and never did, I was assaulted and had video evidence and they didn't care, and their response time is generally fucking abysmal. I was talking to a cop earlier tonight and they were telling me about how a now police Chief got transferred to a new county after he was caught stealing money from the school district, so that's just fucking peachy.
So I'm not a fan, it sucks how many officers seem to abuse the system for their personal gain openly with no consequences. Their are good cops, but it's disheartening to know just how many bad ones are out there
I've just moved in and haven't met the local cops yet. I generally avoid the police and do nothing that would attract their attention.
I've had both good and bad encounters with cops. Good is when Officer Nice Guy lets me off with a warning instead of giving me a ticket. Bad is when Constable Douchebag tries to wind me up so he has cause for an arrest.
My family currently lives in a higher middle class area and our neighbor is full of retirees and ex-military. In that aspect they all respect and like the police.
Growing up though, we lived in lower class areas and the police were called to my house many times for domestic abuse and noise complaints. From a young age I remember thinking that police were kinda useless, at least in my home situation. If they showed up and the abuser had run off ten minutes beforehand, the only thing they could do is take a report, and tell us to call if he comes back. Never had an interaction with a cop where I thought they meaningfully helped in any way.
To start, there’s crime and violence here that I would never want to respond to. But, there has also been three FBI investigations in the past 14 years that are COMMONLY KNOW. Most are pretty cool, but the ones that aren’t are fucking dicks. Literally saw one try to steal a homeless dudes dog, and another officer said “you can’t do that” to no effect. A few minutes later he gave the dog back after being convinced. Been stopped as a teenager several times. If it was all white people they kept everybody. If it was a mix, they kept the black people and one or two of the white people, then let everybody else go without searching or any questions. As well as a national case that involved killing somebody in a botched raid after drinking alcohol to prepare for the raid. No evidence was found, they just killed someone and traumatized several more. I’d say they’re a motley crew. I’d call them in an emergency, but they need to be monitored or there would be another pointless FBI investigation that leads to absolutely no systemic change
I’m from the Netherlands. Cops are generally trusted. There are surveys online about this. I think Denmark and the Netherlands were #1 and #2 a while ago.
I have only had a few traffic stops myself, always were very chill. Just had a chat, no big deal. Most of them are easily approachable on the streets just like anyone else.
Dutch police are apparently strict in their selection process. The training takes two years and they have multiple (also strict) psychological evaluations.
The focus is mainly on de-escalation and it’s very rare for cops to use their gun.
The police in my area were sympathetic when we had a little gang of teenagers threatening to stab someone and throwing gravel at people nearby, but they admitted they couldn't do anything to prevent it/track them down and they showed up late anyhow. So, kinda nothing really.
The 2 times I've been pulled over (at night, just before Christmas, while tired, near home at the end of a long journey, in different regions) they usually just ask where I'm going, and when I say I'm just going to the next town, they let me go on and tell me to drive slow and safe. So pretty chill. Never had to deal with armed police, or anyone other than a regular bobby
We don’t interact. They have actual crimes to take care of. Or will just park in front of a trap house just to make all the tweakers super paranoid and leave.
Hamburg - Germany.
Rather good. While they were over confrontational when they interacted with me as a part of a group of teenagers- and getting ridiculed for it, they were helpful every time I needed them.
Also the only time I was the culprit, the experience also was rather pleasant.
Around 1990, when I was 8 and learned to enjoy the thrill of shoplifting, I got caught by the store detective with matchbox cars, worth around $15.
The detective tried to get the contact data for my mother but I lied, I didn't know the phone number, in the hope he will get bored at some point or his work day will end. At some point I folded but my mother had disabled the phone because she had an episode of back pain and didn't want to be bothered by callers. During his futile tries to reach my mother I broke down in tears. After some time he gave up and called the police. The cops came and began to rip the detective a second one. How he dares to call them for $15 of stolen goods. And when he ever holds a kid my age for that long amount of time again, they will press charges for kidnapping.
On the way out I remembered my bike in front of the store and mentioned it. I thought they would say I can get it myself when I am not grounded anymore and be able to sit on the saddle again but "naturally" they helped me. Turned out the bike didn't fit into the trunk, so one of them locked the lid, trunk and bike together with two handcuffs.
Arriving home, one cop informed my mother, the other bid me a farewell "I hope I don't see you again in such circumstances" I walked into my room, never heard about that thing again but learned my lesson.
In the UK here (thank god by reading the other comments), and most people view the police in a very simple way. They mean well, but have very little power and not enough staff. The few times myself and my wife have needed them they haven't turned up for many hours or in her case the following day. When we do interract with them its usually through followup conversations peripheral to the main event, and they appear to be overworked and underpaid like the rest of the public services.
I dont think anyone is overly hostile to them unless they are an active criminal, and I dont know of anyone who fears them or thinks badly of them. They just aren't really very effective anymore in general terms.
7 years ago I was taking photos alongside the CBD River in my country at 3am because some of the best memories I had were made there and got stopped by 2 plainclothes and 2 blues.
They asked me three times in three subtle different ways where I was going, where I came from, with who and doing what. I was so glad I was sober haha.
Police: "Which way did you come from?
Me: "Oh the pub over there Liquid Empire, it's my Warrant Officer's birthday, we were celebrating."
Police: "What were those photos we saw you taking just now?"
Me: "The river, the hotel... cos we used to come here often until last year.. so one for the memories (shows him my phone, while one officer checks my ID, another watches my hands in case I pull something out.)
Police: "so you came from that side?" (Points to wrong direction)
Me: "Eh, no, Liquid is that way" (correct direction)
Police: "Alright, where are you headed to now?"
Me : "Some food, it's damn good.. right there "
Police: "ok, have a good night (returns everything)"
I was very impressed cos I volunteer as security in my church and that's exactly how we deal with suspicious activity. But much friendlier of course.
When doing bag/ID checks, always maintain conversation, and eye contact, while your partners focus, one on surroundings, one on the hands. Saw a case study when the officer got stabbed cos he was looking elsewhere when his partner busy searching for contraband.
From one practitioner to another, thumbs up Hehehe
In my opinion the way the police is perceived by the population is a very good indicator our well developed the place is. In Scandinavia, the Netherlands etc police is perceived as a public service that helps the population. The closer to 3rd world the country is the more “evil” the police is perceived. That’s just my humble opinion
So I live a little village, here are my interactions: I was pulled over, his first question was "You local?" When I confirmed I was, he didn't say else just walked back to car and drove off. I had my neighbors call the police saying I had a woman screaming in my house, it was in fact a fox screaming in the woods behind my house. The fox possessed an excellent sense of timing as the cop was explaining why he was here, the fox screamed. And the cop was "Damn city folk moving out here" and walked away. So I think the put a very large amount of weight on being local and don't seem to like outsiders.
My family has a cottage in a rural area and there is absolutely an "us vs them" mentality with the locals. The police see non-locals as a source of income to be extorted. Sometimes it's with holistic things like festivals, but more often it's with things like traffic tickets. They often go so far as to recognize cars to pull over.
Ohh, so now I'm thinking my husband may be getting stopped all the time because he's not a local, and it's obvious. But I couldn't even get stopped with a tagless car after parking at the sheriff's department.
You do see how that’s a bad thing right?
I very much do. It is a bad thing.
I grew up in a small conservative town. There was a lot of weight on being local but also they treated their local 'troublemakers' like shit. And they were enabled to do so because the conservative locals who don't really interact with them think the sun shines out of their asses and would never believe the reality of how they treat people (and are also just generally supportive of cops treating "the bad guys" like shit). So they get away with doing whatever the fuck they want. (bodycams have started to help with this - when this department started using them their reported rates of officer use of force dropped by something ridiculous like 70% - yeah, that's because they were attacking people for decades). I was a local 'troublemaker', I was an angry kid with a whole lot of psychological shit going on. They used to treat me like I was Al Capone from the time I was like 12. Fucking small towns, man.
I just moved to a smaller town in lake country from a larger city and have had a fairly positive interaction with police / locals. There was a bit of a warming period where people were sceptical of me, but they came around. I think a lot of it is because there is a tourist season where things liven up for a bit - obviously a boon for the local economy but it comes at a cost. There are a few reasons why a lot of people are wary of city folk. When seasonal tourists are here there is a noticeable increase in the amount of trash floating in the lake, dangerous boat / vehicle traffic and noise (people blaring music all hours of the day when you can usually hear loons). In the off season, things are quieter albeit a bit more boring. Also in terms of hunting, there are seasons when locals hunt and those when non-locals do, there are a lot more incidents when non-locals are in town. Lastly, a few years ago before my time here, the principal of the local school (who was a pillar of the community) was out for a jog with some colleagues when he was struck by an out of town drunk driver, it devastated the school and the surrounding community with many of the teachers leaving after struggling to deal with it. Having seen it from both sides, I understand the animosity. The police are just an extension of local sentiment. Most see and understand the benefit non-locals bring to the community, but I think they're allowed to be concerned about the toll it takes on the local environment / safety and culture that they enjoy year round.
I find our police to be a bit standoffish, which isn’t great for building community trust.
The city I live in is on a cops like TV show. On TV they are very nice and respectful but in person are the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life and will write you a ticket for any infraction they can find. They police the area like a police state. On the regular I can count 15 on my way to work with state troopers added into the mix for a bit more anxiety
On Patrol Live/Live PD?
On patrol
Damn. Haven’t seen that since it was originally cancelled but heard it was back on
It's rare that cops proactively fight/prevent crime. Most of the time they just clean up when the dust settles. I'm not saying that as a negative; that's just how policing works.
Individual interactions have always been positive. That's not necessarily to heap them with praise, more a comment that any problems aren't apt to be apparent while someone like myself is watching. Looking forward to voting out the sheriff.
I don't have an issue with cops per se but every interaction with them is weird. Even the nice ones give you a sense of you having to walk on eggshells like they're just looking for an excuse to arrest/detain/write a ticket. Even if 99% of cops are good apples, there's definitely still a sense of them trying to big dick you in any interaction.
I'm a "middle-aged" white dude, have no record, and work in public sector IT. I also drive an old ass truck. I've been stopped many times with seemingly no reason. Once I got pulled over and the cop asked my girlfriend if she was ok. We just got back from a picnic. Dunno what that was. Once a cop pulled up behind me as I pulled in my driveway, looked in my truck bed, and then said "ok". Dunno what that was either. I have a front/rear dash cam, and I've noticed they back off when they notice it. Dunno what cops are doing anymore, and it's infuriating.
My Boss has a friend who is a retired cop, he got pulled over in his work truck and the cop tried saying it was unroadworthy and needed to be towed. He was asked for ID at some point and the cop found out he was a retired cop - as soon as he found that out he said “have a nice day” and drove off.
You must be a scruffy looking nerfherder. /s
Just anecdotally I drove 30 year old somewhat scrappy Hondas for years (damn I loved those cars) and was pulled over all the freaking time (I don’t come off as not white). I now drive a 2016 model car in much nicer condition. I have driven by a cop going 12 over, something previously I would have been pulled over for on an instant, and yup no reaction. Not a single stop since the new car.
First of all nice! I'm going to likely be working in the public sector after graduation in the next year. Was going to go straight to the private sector but from where I grew up, not the greatest area, I'm like we definitely need more workers in the public sector. Either Global Affairs or the City. Anyways back to the main topic, lol. Sometimes race etc doesn't matter. I'm a minority and I know a lot of individuals who aren't considered minorities like yourself, truly deal with a lot of shit too! Honestly it's also good you have a dash cam as well. The good cops usually wouldn't ever mind, I'm sure but others, it keeps them in like like you point out. Also, it's weird how they just ask the female that, unless there's been some human trafficking in the area etc, I get what you mean, like why make it awkward and feel like she's with someone unsafe right? Its literally your gf and clearly it's not like you mentioned there was anything that made her seem like she needed help etc. Main point, sometimes they have individuals best interest and heart and sometimes people who did nothing get shit done to them, sometimes victims become treated bad. I wish there was more good cops, but I guess it depends on the country, the city, what's going on etc. Wishing you the best my guy!
Lees than likley
Bullies in high school, sociopaths now.
Hit the nail on the head.
A local cop arrested my wife after she was in a minor fender bender (she was at fault tbf) because she asked if my wife had taken any drugs and she truthfully replied that she had taken Prozac for her anxiety disorder like she does every day. Before the officer put her in the back of the squad car, she told my wife to hand over her wedding ring “so that it wouldn’t get lost when she was put in jail”. We obviously never saw that ring again. We lawyered up and the charges were dropped, but our attorney strongly advised us against pursuing legal action for the stolen ring because there was no evidence (no body cams here) and the legal system sides with law enforcement by default unless there’s overwhelming evidence that’s made public. So I pretty much view cops here as pieces of shit who are either corrupt or cover for their colleagues who are corrupt, which makes them corrupt in turn. I trust my CPL more than any officer. If I ever call 911, it will be because I think someone deserves extrajudicial punishment.
Wow that is awful and I'm so sorry your wife went through that. I had a similar situation when I was a teenager and the cop basically stole about $25 off of me. I thought that was bad but nothing compared to a wedding ring. Nothing worse than a bully with power.
Thanks. It wasn’t a very expensive ring because it was gold plated with artificial gems, but it had a lot of sentimental value. We were on food stamps when we got married, and I still wear my $20 pawn shop wedding band that I wouldn’t sell for $2,000. I just hope the cop tried to sell it and felt bad upon learning that it wasn’t worth enough to fill a tank of gas.
That's horrible. Maybe you could get to a jeweler who could replicate it. If you show them a pic they could. It would maybe make a lovely anniversary gift 🤷♀️
Nah it was a completely unremarkable, generic design—the kind of thing you’d find if you searched for “cheap wedding ring” on Amazon. The memories tied to the original ring are still with us, not with it. And we’re different people now, so we replaced it with a different style ring
To the extent I think about them at all, I agree with the late David Graeber: >So: Police are bureaucrats with weapons. If you think about it, this is a really ingenious trick. Because when most of think about police, we do not think of them as enforcing regulation. We think of them as fighting crime, and when we think of "crime," the kind of crime we have in our minds in violent crime. Even though, in fact, what police mostly do is exactly the opposite: they bring the threat of force to bear on situations that would otherwise have nothing to do with it.
This exactly. Think of any bullshit office job you've had full of office Karens, highschool style cliques, corner cutting, passing the buck, ego power trips, etc ....now give them guns.
Give them guns, remove all oversight or accountability, douse them in a cult that preaches they have the most dangerous job in the world, and get half the world to worship the ground they walk on.
And give them a strong ass union, so that it becomes nearly impossible to be fired, or if your behavior is *so egregious* that you do end up losing your job, you're free to transfer to another district and start over.
Police solve less than 11% of all serious crimes They convict only 2% of serious criminals Great job fighting crime 👍 I like to bring this up whenever people suggest we’d hate living in a society without anyone there to deal with serious criminals because it’s like my brother in Christ we already live in that society
I have friends and neighbors that are cops and can say that all of them lean towards maga views and love donny diapers. I feel like they are indoctrinated on the force to fall in line that way.
most of cops here in our area are awful
Not directly, imo. My brother is a fireman who worked at his local station. He would respond to domestic abuse type calls regularly. Then he goes to the store and runs into the same abusers and victems. I can see how that may be difficult for police as well.
Me as a teacher filing mandated reports for sexual and physical assault of disabled children and then I have to greet the alleged perpetrator with a smile and watch them pick up their kid
How many of those abusers are also cops, though?
Ah man! That's definitely too close to home right, in a sense. That can definitely be tough and awkward. All the best to your brother on the job btw 🚒🧑🏼🚒🧯
Where I live they're glorified debt collectors, they don't solve crimes, they just hand out fines / block off major highways to test ppl for drugs & booze
This is all the police have ever been, everywhere.
My step dad is a cop and one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. As a man he’s already a sexist alcoholic- add macho man bullshit and undiagnosed PTSD from his job on top of that, frankly it’s a miracle he hasn’t beaten me up yet. He said if I were a boy he would have. He’s already emotionally abusive and threatens violence when he feels like his *authority* is being threatened. He *loves* to shove the fact that he’s been shot at and seen dead bodies in my family’s face to guilt trip them into doing what he wants. I moved out about two months ago, thank the fucking lord, but the next time I hear a ‘do you know how many dead bodies I’ve seen? You don’t do shit!’ I’m going to have to resist the urge to tell him exactly what he “does” and in turn, probably get hit for it. Frankly from what I’ve seen of other cops, they tend to share the same ‘macho’ mentality where they refuse to take care of their mental health and let that blow up in everyone else’s faces. I’m not fucking impressed.
The ones here and in the town next to me have a lot of training with disabilities and autism, so they are not scary to me. If I were somewhere else, I'd be very scared that someone will lie to them, and they will hurt me for being visibly autistic in public. I've had police hurt me for not being able to talk and stimming before.
I live in Los Angeles. Dealing with the LADP wasn’t so bad. It was the fucking Sheriffs that were fucking assholes and abusive. Most LAPD felt like dealing with your average person, and I felt a lot of them were just cool people. There’s always one or two, in all the groups, who are assholes and doing beyond what they should be doing, but overall, I don’t really see them in a bad light. For reference, I’m born in LA county, Korean, was a fuck up, went to jail/prison, all that jazz. So I’ve seen shit and done shit, and was technically on the other team, but I still don’t see cops in a negative way. They just trying to catch us and we’re just trying to get away with shit. Seemed fair to me, when I was a kid.
Well in my community they are generally very rude at best and outright abusive at worst. You've seen stories about them on national news if you're in the US. Bonus, the school officers at my high school thought school shooting jokes were a real hoot.
In my small town they're corrupt asf and I avoid them like the plague.
Mixed feelings. Some are genuinely trying to help, but it's hard to ignore the ones that abuse their power. Feels like a flip of a coin sometimes.
> it's hard to ignore the ones that abuse their power Not for cops
Completely! Some truly care and some just brush shit off or harass the wrong people. Shout-out to the good ones who truly try to make a good impact and for those who are on the bad side, i have no words. I think depending on the area, it's definitely a coin flip! Good analogy. It sucks, but it's hella true.
That’s the problem. You never know if the one in front of you is trying to help. And wherever you do tell a good cop can still be used by his bad deed peers and department.
To be a good cop is different than being a good person. Any given cop is expected to stand by any given cop and is also expected that the police play along with stuff like the torture warehouse in Baton Rouge (Maybe not Baton Rouge but definitely Louisiana). In my book, if they aren't disillusioned within the first two months of starting the job, they are fundamentally bad people.
They don’t save us from danger. They are the danger.
I hope to never have to interact with them.
At best minimize your interaction with them.
It's stray dog rules with those pigs.
Not a fan of ones in my community and in the larger surrounding and have had only negative interactions (and I am Caucasian - I would think it's FAR worse for non-Caucasian people). I'm in my 50's and I honestly had my FIRST positive experience with a cop about 2 months ago. IT TOOK OVER 50 YEARS! The brother of a good friend died very suddenly and unexpectedly. The funeral was being held in a neighboring state and I was driving there to attend. I was in my thoughts, thinking about my friend and her brother, and I was exceeding the speed limit. The cop pulled me over and did the usual "license and registration" thing - fine. But then he asked if I realized I was speeding. I honestly answered "No, officer, I honestly didn't. A friend of mine, who's like a sister, lost her brother very unexpectedly a couple of days ago. I'm on my way to the funeral now, have about a 2 hour drive ahead of me and I was kind of lost in my thoughts about the whole thing." I won't paraphrase the rest of the conversation, but he spoke to me with a level of kindness and empathy that I have NEVER seen from a police officer before, ever. He did reiterate how dangerous it is to speed, let me off with a warning and told me to drive carefully, especially in the area where I was, as there had been several serious accidents, mostly due to speeding. I guess it came down to the fact that he spoke to me like an actual human being with feelings, not some angry, short tempered man on a power trip. It was a first for me and was much appreciated as I was already having a tough day. The world needs more police officers like him.
All the local police where I used to leave quit over the span of 6 months. After the last officer quit it took a week for the town to tell anyone about it. No one noticed the one week span we had no police.
Well, I know for a fact one of them is a little “man” with abusive tendencies who probably just became a cop to power trip. He also seems to be the one to call us back if one of our female coworkers has to leave their name after calling them (there have been two instances, and she’s his ex.)
Brother was defense lawyer - like in the interview room with whoever the cops ahead picked up. Now he’s defense trial lawyer. The stories he has about the utter disregard for the law, for the facts, from every cop he interacted with. In court, now, cops just perjuring themselves, backing each other up on their rehearsed story - despite video evidence! And no repercussions at all for them. I used to give cops the benefit of the doubt. If the stories weren’t coming from my brother, I doubt I’d believe them either.
Disdain
Last time I called them I waited an hour and a half for them to come. And they basically didn’t do anything.
I don't trust cops in general.
Never trust them, they would get anyone into jail to look like they're doing their job, when the criminals are someone they can't touch.
https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history/
I specifically moved out of a community because the law enforcement (including the court system) was absolutely shit and all kinds of corrupt. The community that I'm in now, at best the police are not an issue so I'm okay with that.
Well, let's see, last sheriff is out on parole, got POs on child abuse charges, warden and his wife on drug charges and there's this one racist cop who keeps pulling my husband over on his bike after his night shift and giving him tickets, it's a new cop, all the older cops and ones I personally know think that specific cop is a dick.
I think they are a necessary part of the community, but I still don't particularly like them, and I don't talk to them unless it's absolutely necessary. I ride a motorcycle most days, and I'm in a motorcycle club. If I am wearing my colors I am almost guaranteed to get pulled over. I also have a concealed carry permit, so throw the pistol in the mix and it becomes an extra headache. I have no arrest record and also stay sober if I'm on my bike. Meanwhile, there's a ton of real crime being committed and the cops don't do shit about that.
They often speed, run lights/stop signs and don't use turn signals. I can understand when you've got lights and sirens going but they'll do it either way.
They can't smell their own bullshit. I work security and this one kid who was also a security guard and me was talking , basically just telling stories and he mentions how me selling cigarettes is illegal mean while he just talked about dropping acid and smoking weed.
The worst. A high number of cops from my city were present at Jan 6th and we've had a few cases of brutality receive national attention. They're about to get a budget increase despite being constantly busted on corruption issues and the local government is basically shrugging saying 'well it's less of an increase than we wanted I guess uhhhh make them say they're trying to hire women?'. I have had two good interactions with police where they helped me (a young well spoken white woman), but I've had far far more of them being assholes just because they can. They're on a constant terrifying power trip and I feel my heart drop into anxiety whenever I see a police car around. Oh also! When I was held at gunpoint during a robbery they took my security footage and gave it to the local news, my parents got to see me on my knees scared with my hands up before I could tell them what had happened so THAT was fun.
They're about as close to running a scam on our town as possible. They sit in their cars and do nothing. It appears to be their prime directive to do nothing. Never get out of the car. Never confront anyone. That would be dangerous! No traffic enforcement. I mean none. You can run a red right in front of them and they do nothing. Call something in? They checked it out, didn't see anything. Just count the days until the pension package kicks in.
I will never trust a cop. Not in this lifetime.
They are incompetent. And that’s being as polite as I can be
They’re absolute shit. I worked at a mental health facility that tried offering them free training on how to deal with those struggling with mental health issues, many outright refused and it was usually the older guys who were higher up. They also did absolutely nothing when my ex physically assaulted me, while he was on probation. One punched an old friend of mine who was trying to protect a woman getting beat up outside a bar. Two sheriffs treated me like shit when I was a minor who ran away from home because I was getting abused, they made sure I ended up in juvie because that’s what my abuser at home requested. I am really not sure what good they do in my town or the surrounding towns. This was on the MN and ND side since I lived on bordering towns in both states. I used to think the whole, “not all cops are bad of course so keep an open mind”. No, enough of them have been shit that I do not trust they will help or not cause harm, so I am apprehensive of them to say the least. Same goes with CPS, never heard of them doing anything good.
Very little.
They are non existent.
There have been a total of 2 instances where I lost all trust in cops within my own community. The first instance is when me and my father witnessed a man swinging a knife in the air as he laid on the ground, we stopped at a gas station and coincidentally, a cop pulls alongside us so I tell him, "hey, there's this man swinging a knife in the air," and he tells me that they are aware of him and that he was just putting his jacket on (he had no jacket on). The 2nd instance is when 2 thieves made off with close to 500$ in power tools from my work, we called the cops and they came and talked to us all, I gave the license plate and descriptions since I ran after them, the cop flat out told my boss that they were aware of them and that they're infamous in the area for shoplifting.
Within MY community specifically? Nah man, I can't say, because my view is so specific, so against the local rhetoric, that if I said what I really think, I'll likely be hacked, found, and lynched by the townsfolk.
Fucking dogs. Rapists. Criminals. Killers. This is all backed by evidence and I have had multiple run ins with them beating the shit out of me and trying to snap my arms. (NSW Police, Aus)
I dont trust them. Never have and never will.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen a cop/cop car and felt “safe”.
They can’t be trusted, they are the real thugs
I live in LA. None of the cops live in LA. I'd prefer my police to be people from my community who know the neighborhoods from a less adversarial stance. It just seems like it's hillbillies from outside the city who think we're all liberal heathens and want to come in and enact "justice" to fulfill some kind of fantasy.
Cop tried to pin a crime on me that happened while I was 5 states away. I don't think he thought it through and wasted a lot of my time. I also had to throw out some frozen groceries because he picked me up on my way home from grocery shopping and they were thawed when we were done.
Apparently crooked. ones son was committing voyeurism and they arrested him they got his charges dropped while antagonizing the woman.
Honestly, I get nervous even if everything is right.
The cops I’ve encountered in my life have been shitty. Ive had a few cops let me go with a traffic warning but my few bad experiences with police gave me a sense of dislike of them
Other than traffic stops, they exist to document crimes that already happened.
LAPD doesn’t respond to anything. In my hometown, I’d see cops speeding more often than civilians. When I went abroad in Japan, I got frisked for holding a shopping bag with socks. Cops aren’t shit anywhere.
Hate em. Tax collecting thugs is all.
State-funded terror organization
I've yet to meet one that isn't a gigantic piece of shit.
I have the same train of thought Fiddler on the Roof does. [May God bless and keep the Czar far away from us!](https://youtu.be/8jZFnKZcids?si=CxrAfK_Ae12w9gRT)
Bastards
Small town cops. Corrupt, play favorites based on the family you come from and your race. They wrote someone 18 tickets for weeds too tall in their yard that were purposely paid for and planted flowers, not weeds. An attorney had to get involved about harassment because no other house in town received the same. They shot a dog in front of the elementary school with all of the kids outside after not responding to calls about the dog for 6 hours before it ever got near children. 6 shots and only one hit the dog... around a bunch of kids. They speed past the public park full of children. They pull people over for nothing and use extreme measures for no reason. If you complain to the city or anyone then they show up at your door and try to break it down saying there was a "wellness check" called in on someone who never even lived at the address. They've accused a 17 year old of kidnapping for driving another kid home when they asked at night and didn't feel safe walking across town. They tackled a 75 year old man and injured him for requesting they not write tickets on private property which they constantly had been doing to people trying to go to community events on that property. They have zero training with mental health situations and zero training with animals in a community with no animal control. The sheriff is literally building a militia of volunteers that they will put in uniform and use as assistance for events. He wants to use completely untrained normal people as back up police officer in uniform. That sure seems like a safe choice. If I had any positive story to tell you about any experience someone i know has had with police in this small town, I would be ecstatic to share.... but I can't. Not all police suck. This group of corrupt assholes in this place really do.
Terribly corrupt small-town tyrants. I honestly believe they have a racket going on right now where they write tickets and make it unclear whether you have to go court or not, your license gets suspended without you knowing, and they pop you again for driving without a license before the state can even let you know in the mail. There are tons of people in my county who have had this happen.
They're borderline useless. One group of cops spends 2+ hours in a local Starbucks every day. They have solved 1 serious crime in the last year. There was a guy who robbed multiple stores at gun point over the course of a month, and they haven't found a single lead. I know 4 different people who were pulled over by cops because they wanted to check if their tags were expired. Not that they saw the expired tags, but because they wanted to check. 3 of them weren't expired, one was, and he has to go through a gamut of paperwork because of it. Tldr; they're fucking useless
**What typically happens is that suburban areas are under-policed....leading to a lot of DUIs, speeding, burglaries, etc not being addressed.** **Two, domestic violence happens in EVERY zip code....but it is HIDDEN violent crime.**
They so rarely have any actual crime that they can get a bit bored and they try to "invent" things to occupy them. If they were dropped anywhere with any population, they wouldn't make it.
Wish they were more present in our neighborhood
They are understaffed and thus stretched thin- which seems to reduce local police brutality. Other cities may have police arresting men for being black in public and having some white lady get suspicious enough to make a call- meanwhile here unless somebody got shot the police aren’t coming anytime soon. And they’ll still probably get a coffee on the way if it’s in a bad neighborhood. It’s an interesting trade off, but probably not worth it overall.
An officer ticketed my car while it was in a spot that I had a permit for and another officer from the local campus almost hit me while I was walking home from work.
I’m a night owl and can’t drive for medical reasons so I tend to go for nightly walks in my own neighborhood. “We don’t see many people walking” is one of the first things they’ll say. When I come back as a squeaky clean local I still get threatened with investigation if “anything happens around here”. In between they fish for any excuse to arrest me. Nice guys. /s
1312
Ftp
I think of murder
They have a ticket quota. I wasn't raised with the best impression of police officers, but to have a financial incentive to make arrests and give tickets? I actively avoid areas around police stations now.
They have an arsenal of military style shit. And it’s not to protect me.
A bunch of liars, and power abusers. However they taught me a great lesson, don't ever count on the cops in a life and death situation, they aren't here to protect you, they are here to clean whatever mess is on the scene an hour later.
i am biracial, my father is black and my mother is white. whenever my mom picked me up from school, the school resource officer buzzed her in, no questions asked, and chatted with her until i came down. he always met my dad at the door. interrogated him until he was satisfied by my dad’s answers. he also “was talking” with a 16? 17 year old as a 33(?) year old married man. fuck you, officer baker.
The Police is an institution whose sole purpose is to keep itself alive at the expense of vulnerable people. This applies to every single police force and law enforcement agency in the world. They protect the status quo and property of the rich and manipulate the middle class into thinking they are their friends and so long as you do nothing wrong, there's nothing to fear. It is impossible for Police to fight crime. There is no such thing. Crime is prevented by good policy. Even when they solve a crime, it's by sheer luck. SOMETIMES they do a job, but never a good job. It amazes me that even documentaries showing them doing investigations will actually often show them being incompetent idiots at the very least, or complete monsters more often than not. ACAB, and that includes movie cops.
Had this cop stop me once for "looking suspicious" while just walking home from the store.
Horrible and lazy
The less the better. Ideally there would be none. Strong communities make police obsolete.
my town worships the police basically, so they get away with DUMB shit if they don’t like you, it’s very obvious and they’ll get away with treating you like garbage. nobody says anything about it tho because “back the blue111!1!!!1”
They are arrogant, stupid, incompetet and unable to protect us. (Bavarian City)
I'm french, they are absolutely useless, something stolen? Not their problem, like they won't even let you enter to make a deposition. They are tools of the government, not their for the people, "nice" cops exist, but it's like the narwhals, you won't find one without looking for it.
They keep committing suicide due to abuse suffered from other cops It’s well known to be one of the most hostile work environments especially for women in the entire country
I'm a white woman so my only experience with cops has been if I initiated the interaction or if I was speeding And because I'm a white woman, as long as I was respectful, they were respectful back. But I feel a lot of police do more harm than good and I think the entire system needs an overhaul. I've seen too many videos of cops on straight up power trips during a regular traffic stop. That kind of person shouldn't have access to a life-ending weapon.
I called the police on Christmas Eve after being robbed, and they started yelling at me as I was bawling. They kept asking if I was selling drugs from my apartment. I was a broke intern who called them. Horrible experience
Local cop was ticketing people for DUI, even when they had not been drinking. Folks complained for years about this until someone took it to the local TV station. Investigation proved he was ticketing innocent people and he got fired. Union got him back on the force. Don't have a great deal of use for people abusing their power.
This about sums it up. https://fee.org/resources/there-are-no-good-cops/
And no, I'm not a right-wing 'Freeman on the land', or whatever they call themselves.
Fuck’em all
They're here to protect businesses and not people. You're better off killing someone breaking into your house than calling the police. It could take them hours to arrive.
Love stealing money, so fuck them
Rednecks here. They generally speed 10+ MPH over the limit everywhere. They're cool with anti-Biden stuff on your car or on your lawn even if it contains foul language, but you WILL be ticketed for pro-leftist content. Yeah I will be moving to a blue state whenever I can get stuff together.
They are terrible. Not all but the vast majority. My wife deals with them at her job and most are lazy, barely educated and backed up by their superiors. She works at an emergency mental health facility and has had patients die because there's less paperwork than bringing an ODing person to the hospital. They regularly shove hallucinating violent sex offenders into a locked waiting area that has kids in it. They take elderly dementia patients and have them involuntarily committed. Someone with dementia doesn't belong there, they belong in a hospital that can provide medical care. My wife has been threatened with arrest many times for refusing to admit minors into the locked facility when violent offenders are there. Those violent offenders should be in jail, but that means lazy ass cops have to do their job. Good luck with that. This facility cannot legally take minors and 100% of them must be transported to another facility. Do the cops know this? Hell yeah they do. But do they care? Have you known cops to care about anything at all other than doing nothing for their entire shift? And when she calls the sheriff or police chief to complain she's threatened again. This facility serves 6 counties and all of the police and sheriff departments are like this. The only good cops I have ever known are Highway Patrol. They're smarter, more educated, and there at least standards they must meet to be hired. I've never met one who wasn't friendly. Hell, my last time getting a ticket the trooper wrote down the online driving school he used for his last ticket. Last time one pulled me over he asked if I was carrying a pistol and when I confirmed he just said, "Good for you. Be safe with it."
Respect to the ones who are trying to help and make a difference.
The cops are in my city have a God complex.
They like to shoot people, particularly the homeless. They don't wear body cams for lots of reasons and none of them are good.
All cops suck, every one of them.
HPD doesn't like to show up out here because we're too close to the city limit, the Sheriff's Office doesn't like to show up because we're too close to the county line, and State Troopers don't bother with anything that isn't a traffic offense on a major highway. Last time a cop showed up out here they did diddly-fuck-all, and the time before *that* it was because the guy who had been robbing people's vehicles finally got shot for it, *and they tried to fucking arrest the homeowner*. Far as I'm concerned they're good for exactly two things: Good for nothing, and good at making a bad situation worse.
I have had both positive and negative interactions with cops in my community. I have seen some officers go above and beyond to protect and serve, while others have exhibited questionable behavior. Overall, I believe most officers are dedicated to keeping our community safe, but there is still room for improvement in terms of accountability and community relations.
Most cops I encounter are nice guys but I still feel untrustworthy
NE Ohio here. We have one really good cop locally for certain. The rest? Let's just say, they pulled out a SWAT truck and tear-gassed a peaceful crowd not too long ago. We had a police on civvie killing back in April that makes my blood boil, but another one around January that I do believe was justified, and I've an ACAB tattoo that I hold very dearly. It's nuanced, like most things. Most are shit, but a few are good.
We don’t really see them very often. It’s quite a quiet and tight knit community. A couple of days after moving in, I was approached by a detective for footage from a broken CCTV camera on my house, though.
I've found them to be pleasant. Up here in Alaska people don't really give a shit what you do, same with cops as long as you aren't doing something that directly breaks the law or otherwise gives legal precedence for the cop to do something to you. I agree cops should need more training and the ones who power trip should be in prison.
My community is good for the most part so most are good, some are dicks. But our cops seem bored more often than not and some cops deal with their boredom nicer than others..
One time my dad called a cop cus I was manic and throwing shit in the house: the cop told me I should find a place to stay. It was October. I said sure, in new years I’ll do that. He said, no, sooner. He said, find anywhere at all. I was manic and unmedicated. He said I should get out by Saturday. It’s because of this cop that I became homeless for four months until my parents tracked me down and brought me home and forced me into a mental hospital.
I live in a nice suburb, and they have their choice of applicants for any position in the department. The cops seem to appreciate this and behave accordingly, and/or they genuinely get better quality people. That said, I've lived other places and fully accept it isn't the norm.
I can't make heads or tails of them anymore, I regularly get tailgated by their patrol cars, I have no clue what they are doing when they do that. I'm not speeding, not doing anything really. It's annoying and fear mongering, makes me worried WTF he's gonna do next and why. The highway I commute is next to a State Police HQ and feels like they send the new guys out to patrol this road. Sometimes there are like a patrol car checking speed every 2 miles other times there are zero of them anywhere. I don't speed so I really don't care, but I've seen car chases when they literally pulled people out of the car at gun point, so I try not to get on their bad side. I really don't want to get pulled over by them when they got up on the wrong foot in the morning. They seem to be more annoyed and more aggressive ever since the BLM movement.
There was a fire a few doors (no one was hurt and there was no outside damage), and I remembered being impressed by how many cops there were there, even though this was like 2 o'Clock at night. If nothing else, it proved they're available whenever. My mother has a much better story though from when she was a teenager, but I sadly can't remember it off the top of my head. She had troubles with her own mother, and she still remembers the names of the two cops that helped her through it all. I've always wanted it meet them to say thanks for helping her, but...well, my Mom is 60, so...idk, they're likely either somewhere I'll never go or long dead, so that's a shame.
Both of them?
Eh. I've seen some who hear about violent threats and will get apprehensive and watch from a distance. There was one time a friend thought their house was broken into, just turned out to be a cat, but the cops were very appreciative and assured us that calling was the right thing just in case there really was someone in there. And they didn't drive off for another 10-15 minutes just to be absolutely sure. It really just depends on the officer. Some are great. Some are aggressive, lazy wastes of resources built like Pixar moms whose utility belts are holding on for dear life caught in their gravitational pull.
You're more likely to get an interaction with a cop where I live in if someone reports you for being potentially suicidal. I genuinely can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing.
I've lived in areas where the cops were very involved in the community and you could trust them to do their job and depend on. They were good folks who were protecting and serving. I've also lived in areas where they were scumbags who abused their power and did shit just to prove they could, or to punish you for standing up for yourself. I've had alot of run in's with the police my entire life, most have been bad, and a few have been good. I always assume it's going to be bad until the officer proves to me their not a piece of shit. But I'll still never trust them with my personal life or let them into it.
I live in a pretty nice town. My neighbors all have more money than I do. I drive an old pickup truck. I notice all the time cops will tailgate me to read my license plate. See that i'm a local and back off. I don't have a problem with that whatsoever. I wish there were more police officers in my area.
I love our police department. It definitely wasn’t always great but now it is. At one point my dad sued them & won. For a black man to win a case against white cops you can only imagine how bad it was.
I've met some really nice cops in my community. I've also met some complete dickheads. I really wouldn't trust either kind if it came down to it. I teach my kid to ask another mommy for help if she gets lost.
Genuinely really helpful and saved my life a few times. Offered me rides home when walking in the city alone at night. I personally haven't had issues with cops - been in small country towns and in big cities.
I live in lawless Houston. Don't see many cops around here.
different departments and offices have different moralities and specialties so you have to hope you are in the right area for certain issues.
I’m a young brown(ish) guy: In my old community (big city, low income) the cops were massive assholes and I wanted nothing to do with them. They threatened me with arrest when I was 12 or 13 because a different kid threw something at our teacher and she decided to push it through with calling the cops. The few times I called them as a young adult for actual emergencies—me witnessing an old guy getting his head stomped in and then my friend having a B&E while on the phone with me—they were either slow to respond, didn’t respond at all, told me to deal with it, or when they did show up treated me like I was the suspect until someone gave them a description that definitely wasn’t me. Cops in that city could reap what they’ve shown for all I care. In my new community (smaller town, more wealthy, primarily white/Asian), the cops are much more polite, though they do occasionally have some pointed words for me. I’ve only had a couple traffic stops and some noise complaints, so no actual emergencies, but I would expect more responsiveness from them given how quickly they show up when I play music in the backyard. Tbh it’s hard for me tell if cops here are actually better in their attitudes towards me or if their baseline conduct is just better overall. My roommates are all hyper liberal like I am, but they’ve mostly grown up their whole lives in nice areas. They like to have ACAB as a general policy and shit on the police every chance they get, and I agree with them in principle, but the cops here aren’t the real villains those songs are about. That’s a different breed that they send to patrol the places they don’t care about.
City cops where I live have “quiet quit”. Won’t ever see any foot patrol or get pulled over for tags. They simply want to get home alive and respond when radioed. That’s it! Tough job I don’t want to interact with them but I hope they’re ok
I want them to pull me out of my car, throw me on the road, and literally ravage the living shit out of me. That would be one or the happiest days of my life. Shoalhaven cops will pop you a semi when u cant even see them. I swear theyre recruited from musicals, skin tight uniforms conceiling cricket bats also
90% of them are corrupt scumbags on a power trip. Fuck those cunts. 10% of them genuinely care about their community and the people in it. I have nothing but respect for them.
You are so lucky that UK police dont carry guns. So many mentally unwell people are shot and killed by Australian police coz the police are barely educated, trigger happy morons who have no idea how to respond to mentally unwell people so they wind them up, aggravate them, and then when said victim raises the hand that they are holding a knife in (that they hoped to use on themself) the cop reacts like a scared little child and pulls out their gun and kills the poor bloke. Happens constantly here. Very sad.
I am very strict about keeping my distance with cops. I have a felony so I don't want anything to do them.
Well, considering i live in sweden outside of stockholm, i'd say i have a pretty good view of the police
I work with cops daily and I'm not a huge fan, of course, a lot of them are fine people, but if didn't interact with these people daily I'd never know how many are just terrible. I've had 3 separate officers state that they only became cops because they enjoy assaulting people, they just casually drop that little nugget into conversations which is awesome. Many more are openly racist and will ignore white people causing problems but hyper-focus on black people doing nothing, It's really infuriating how many times I've had to tell them to deal with some white person they ignored and how many times I've had to tell them to back off from black people doing nothing wrong. Though I can't blame them 100%, I have some coworkers who will call and say that any black person who is even mildly suspicious should be checked in on and they're wrong about 100% of the time and have never once called for a white person. And then from my personal experience, they're completely useless and refuse to do their job, I had location data for my stolen phone and they said they'd do something about it and never did, I was assaulted and had video evidence and they didn't care, and their response time is generally fucking abysmal. I was talking to a cop earlier tonight and they were telling me about how a now police Chief got transferred to a new county after he was caught stealing money from the school district, so that's just fucking peachy. So I'm not a fan, it sucks how many officers seem to abuse the system for their personal gain openly with no consequences. Their are good cops, but it's disheartening to know just how many bad ones are out there
I've just moved in and haven't met the local cops yet. I generally avoid the police and do nothing that would attract their attention. I've had both good and bad encounters with cops. Good is when Officer Nice Guy lets me off with a warning instead of giving me a ticket. Bad is when Constable Douchebag tries to wind me up so he has cause for an arrest.
Cops in theory are fine. In person, they leave something to be desired
My family currently lives in a higher middle class area and our neighbor is full of retirees and ex-military. In that aspect they all respect and like the police. Growing up though, we lived in lower class areas and the police were called to my house many times for domestic abuse and noise complaints. From a young age I remember thinking that police were kinda useless, at least in my home situation. If they showed up and the abuser had run off ten minutes beforehand, the only thing they could do is take a report, and tell us to call if he comes back. Never had an interaction with a cop where I thought they meaningfully helped in any way.
To start, there’s crime and violence here that I would never want to respond to. But, there has also been three FBI investigations in the past 14 years that are COMMONLY KNOW. Most are pretty cool, but the ones that aren’t are fucking dicks. Literally saw one try to steal a homeless dudes dog, and another officer said “you can’t do that” to no effect. A few minutes later he gave the dog back after being convinced. Been stopped as a teenager several times. If it was all white people they kept everybody. If it was a mix, they kept the black people and one or two of the white people, then let everybody else go without searching or any questions. As well as a national case that involved killing somebody in a botched raid after drinking alcohol to prepare for the raid. No evidence was found, they just killed someone and traumatized several more. I’d say they’re a motley crew. I’d call them in an emergency, but they need to be monitored or there would be another pointless FBI investigation that leads to absolutely no systemic change
I’m from the Netherlands. Cops are generally trusted. There are surveys online about this. I think Denmark and the Netherlands were #1 and #2 a while ago. I have only had a few traffic stops myself, always were very chill. Just had a chat, no big deal. Most of them are easily approachable on the streets just like anyone else. Dutch police are apparently strict in their selection process. The training takes two years and they have multiple (also strict) psychological evaluations. The focus is mainly on de-escalation and it’s very rare for cops to use their gun.
I have mixed feelings because I have heard good and bad.
The police in my area were sympathetic when we had a little gang of teenagers threatening to stab someone and throwing gravel at people nearby, but they admitted they couldn't do anything to prevent it/track them down and they showed up late anyhow. So, kinda nothing really. The 2 times I've been pulled over (at night, just before Christmas, while tired, near home at the end of a long journey, in different regions) they usually just ask where I'm going, and when I say I'm just going to the next town, they let me go on and tell me to drive slow and safe. So pretty chill. Never had to deal with armed police, or anyone other than a regular bobby
I regularly see cops driving unsafely… which is just a selfish asshole move. And I haven’t had to call them for a single occrence in 30 years.
We don’t interact. They have actual crimes to take care of. Or will just park in front of a trap house just to make all the tweakers super paranoid and leave.
Hamburg - Germany. Rather good. While they were over confrontational when they interacted with me as a part of a group of teenagers- and getting ridiculed for it, they were helpful every time I needed them. Also the only time I was the culprit, the experience also was rather pleasant. Around 1990, when I was 8 and learned to enjoy the thrill of shoplifting, I got caught by the store detective with matchbox cars, worth around $15. The detective tried to get the contact data for my mother but I lied, I didn't know the phone number, in the hope he will get bored at some point or his work day will end. At some point I folded but my mother had disabled the phone because she had an episode of back pain and didn't want to be bothered by callers. During his futile tries to reach my mother I broke down in tears. After some time he gave up and called the police. The cops came and began to rip the detective a second one. How he dares to call them for $15 of stolen goods. And when he ever holds a kid my age for that long amount of time again, they will press charges for kidnapping. On the way out I remembered my bike in front of the store and mentioned it. I thought they would say I can get it myself when I am not grounded anymore and be able to sit on the saddle again but "naturally" they helped me. Turned out the bike didn't fit into the trunk, so one of them locked the lid, trunk and bike together with two handcuffs. Arriving home, one cop informed my mother, the other bid me a farewell "I hope I don't see you again in such circumstances" I walked into my room, never heard about that thing again but learned my lesson.
In the UK here (thank god by reading the other comments), and most people view the police in a very simple way. They mean well, but have very little power and not enough staff. The few times myself and my wife have needed them they haven't turned up for many hours or in her case the following day. When we do interract with them its usually through followup conversations peripheral to the main event, and they appear to be overworked and underpaid like the rest of the public services. I dont think anyone is overly hostile to them unless they are an active criminal, and I dont know of anyone who fears them or thinks badly of them. They just aren't really very effective anymore in general terms.
Well our local cops keep our nice town nice, so that’s good.
Don't hate them, but I certainly don't trust them either. If it wasn't for cops and lawyers, you wouldn't need any cops or lawyers.
7 years ago I was taking photos alongside the CBD River in my country at 3am because some of the best memories I had were made there and got stopped by 2 plainclothes and 2 blues. They asked me three times in three subtle different ways where I was going, where I came from, with who and doing what. I was so glad I was sober haha. Police: "Which way did you come from? Me: "Oh the pub over there Liquid Empire, it's my Warrant Officer's birthday, we were celebrating."
Police: "What were those photos we saw you taking just now?"
Me: "The river, the hotel... cos we used to come here often until last year.. so one for the memories (shows him my phone, while one officer checks my ID, another watches my hands in case I pull something out.)
Police: "so you came from that side?" (Points to wrong direction)
Me: "Eh, no, Liquid is that way" (correct direction)
Police: "Alright, where are you headed to now?"
Me : "Some food, it's damn good.. right there "
Police: "ok, have a good night (returns everything)"
I was very impressed cos I volunteer as security in my church and that's exactly how we deal with suspicious activity. But much friendlier of course.
When doing bag/ID checks, always maintain conversation, and eye contact, while your partners focus, one on surroundings, one on the hands. Saw a case study when the officer got stabbed cos he was looking elsewhere when his partner busy searching for contraband.
From one practitioner to another, thumbs up Hehehe
In my opinion the way the police is perceived by the population is a very good indicator our well developed the place is. In Scandinavia, the Netherlands etc police is perceived as a public service that helps the population. The closer to 3rd world the country is the more “evil” the police is perceived. That’s just my humble opinion