Today I’m going to try to do something a little different; I’m going to try to explain what it’s like to be a Police Officer. It’s not as simple as it sounds, because most Police Officers are very complex.
You really have three types of cops, the Idealist, the Bully, and the Paper Cop. Now, sometimes a Cop can begin as one type but wind up as another. A Cop can also be a combination two or more types. Let’s look at these three types individually.
The idealist happens to be my favorite kind of Cop; he believes that he is making a difference in the world just by doing his job. He is the type of officer that stops and talks to the store owners in his area. He is very proactive in traffic enforcement and takes every call he goes on personally. You find this trait more often in younger Officers. The idealist Officer, will stand taller, walk straighter, and go the extra mile to help anyone in need.
The idealist Cop is also harder on criminals; he takes it as a personal affront when crimes are committed in his area. He actively looks for drug dealers, thieves, and general “no goods”. He will be the one that is accused of “harassing” people because stops anyone who he suspects may be involved in a possible crime. He will also be praised by the more solid citizens in the area. This Cop wants to move up in the department, has a lot of ideas how to better his community and will repeatedly become frustrated if the administration ignores him. Sometimes he will vent his frustrations to the public.
The bully Cop is the guy that gives the rest of us a bad name. He uses his authority to humiliate and degrade people. He is the type of Cop that pulls a citizen over and not only gives them a ticket, but lectures them also. He tends to escalate situations instead of defusing them, and loves to get up in a person’s face.
A lot of the racist Cops (both black and white) fall into this category. They tend to use their power to further their agenda of hate. They also contribute to low morale within the department, starting trouble between different Officers purely for the purpose of sitting back and watching the show. This guy is dangerous, because like most bullies they are actually cowards at heart. They will lie to save face and will lie to alter an outcome so that it is advantageous for them.
The wanna-be cop also falls into this category, the wanna-be has many monikers given to him by his fellow officers. He is called super trooper, gung-ho, top cop, and is considered full of rookie juice. This type of cop feels like he’s doing the right thing but it translates into bad decisions. If someone argues with him, they go to jail. He nit picks on traffic stops, is oversensitive when dealing with the public, and has a “because I’m the law that’s why” attitude. Most wanna-be’s eventually turn into paper Cops if they stay in law enforcement. They become lazy after the excitement or “newness” wears off.
The third type of Cop is the paper Cop. This guy is interested in one thing, making a check and going home at the end of the day. He takes his calls, but no more, and will make a traffic stops only if pressured by his supervisors. This Officer is has a low impact attitude, the less you do the less chance of getting in trouble. He is not necessarily a bad Officer; he is just either burnt out or made a bad career decision. Not everyone is cut out to be a cop, but once you’ve started it’s hard to walk away from the paycheck. This type of Cop can be motivated and transformed into the idealistic Cop by his department if handled properly. However he is commonly overlooked and used simply to fill a spot. Since he doesn’t get into trouble supervisors generally leave him alone, however his potential is also frequently overlooked.
Now that I’ve explained the types of cops, let me explain why sometimes you may get the impression that all you ever see are the bullies and burnouts. Most people do not realize what a Cop goes through every day.
Let’s say that I’m Joe citizen going about my life from day to day. I have problems, everyone does, and I deal with them as they come along. How many times a day do I come in contact with a violent person, or someone who is under the influence of drugs? How many times a day do I have an adrenaline dump that causes my heart to race and my blood pressure to blow out the end of a cuff? Answer, hardly ever.
The average citizen may go his entire life without ever witnessing the death or major injury of a person. Police officers see these sights quite frequently. How would it affect you to walk into a house and see a child that had been physically or sexually abused? Or pull an injured person from a vehicle and listen to their pleas for help until the ambulance arrived. How do you react when confronted by a hysterical or violent person cursing you and threatening you? How would you feel to have someone call you a racist term and not be able to respond accordingly. I would imagine that if you have experienced just a few of these things throughout your life time they would stick in your memory. Now imagine that you have witnessed so many of these events with such frequency that you can’t remember them individually. This is the life of a police officer.
I recall speaking with young soldiers who relate their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. They tell of how scared they were when doing building searches and say things like “people just don’t understand the feeling of going through a dark building when someone could be in the next room with a gun waiting to kill you”. If those soldiers want a sympathetic ear all they have to do is find a cop that works the graveyard shift and he can relate.
The problem is that no one recognizes the stress that Police Officers are under every day, year after year. I’ve seen complaints filed by citizens that go like this. “I would like to complain about Officer Smith’s conduct when I spoke to him at a restaurant earlier today, I was simply trying to tell him about the teenagers going up and down the street in front of my house banging their music and he looked disinterested, and didn't even stop eating while I was speaking to him".
The lady did not realize that the Officer had been on shift for nine hours and had finally gotten ten minutes to eat. Already that day the Officer had been to a dead body call where the victim had been closed up in a house for four days before neighbors “smelled” something. He had taken two accident reports, one of which involved a three year old girl who had went into the windshield when her mother struck a parked car because she was talking on her cell and not paying attention and the child was standing up in the front seat. He had three domestic disturbance reports that he hadn’t even started on yet, and he had just been contacted by his supervisor and told that a complaint had been filed on him for driving fast. No one took into consideration that he was rushing to a burglary in progress call and trying to get there before the bad guy got away. Why was he not running lights and sirens you ask ? Because the bad guys tend to hear you coming when you make that much noise.
Officers deal with most people during moments of stress. No one calls the police when a situation is going well. This stress is transferred to the Officer when he arrives and stay with him after he leaves the call. Over time, this stress can bleed over into the Officers personal life if he allows it, and often he cannot prevent it. This is why the rates for alcoholism, high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke are so high in Officers. Divorce is also quite high in the law enforcement field as well.
I have almost twenty years experience in law enforcement and I can recall ever instant that I’ve been approached by a citizen for no other reason than for them to just say hello. The number of times are that few. The conversation always drifts to their problems and questions as to how I can solve them.
I hope that this has helped some people see a different side of Police Officers. Remember we are just as fallible as anyone else. We have feelings and bad days, and sometimes we lose our tempers. But believe me when I tell you, being a Police Officer is not a job, it’s not even a career, it’s our way of life.
To serve and protect…
No comments:
Post a Comment