45 Things Police Officers Want You To Know
We don’t want to fire our guns
When we shoot somebody, even if it’s justified, you better believe it’s tearing us up inside. Some officers can’t even come back to work after that. Remember, most of us never have to take a shot during our careers.—Nakia Jones
We care about the people we serve
Every time I teach a policing class, I ask who in the classroom has ever reached into their pocket while on duty and given someone money for food, gas, or shelter. All of the hands go up. —Rex Caldwell, of the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission; retired police chief of Mukilteo, Washington
For every negative police story, there are more positive ones
There are thousands of stories of officers doing wonderful things to interact with their communities. For example, in Iowa, an officer bought a single mother a car after hers was totaled. —Sue Rahr
Most people don’t hear about the good officers
There are officers of all races doing good deeds every day, things that the public doesn’t see or hear about.—Nakia Jones
We believe that people are good
Kids wanting to get inside the squad car to run the lights and siren. A parent thanking us for bringing their kid home. A victim thanking us for writing them a report even though they’re the one getting bandaged up at a hospital. These are the things that restore our tattered faith in human nature. —Chicago police officers who blog anonymously
The justice system is bigger than one bad department
We can’t say the American criminal justice system is broken because there’s not one system: we exist as 18,000 different departments. There are departments doing it right, and departments doing it wrong. —Mike Davis
Don’t assume our actions are biased
When someone is caught with a small amount of marijuana, our officers can either make an arrest or issue a ticket/notice to appear. The legal criteria for giving a ticket (as opposed to an arrest) is that they have stable employment, ties to community and assurances they’ll show up in court. The reality is, if you live in a lower socioeconomic area, you are less likely to meet those criteria. So is that cops being biased or is it because the laws as written disproportionately affect those in lower socioeconomic conditions, many of whom happen to be black? —Bob Gualtieri, Sheriff of Pinellas County, Fla.
We acknowledge that racism does exist on the force
When white people don’t comply or make threats, police officers follow through on their training and try to talk them down. With African Americans, it seems to me that my colleagues don’t always use the same tactics. They just go right in. It frustrates me when I hear officers say, “Well, he didn’t do what we said from the beginning.” Fine, but that doesn’t give you the right to plug him.—Eric Quarles, PhD
We are not all the same
When I became a police officer, I was that person who wanted to save the world. Now, so many people hate us. It doesn’t matter if we’re black or white; they say, “You all wear blue.”—Nakia Jones
Most cops support body cameras
Body cameras? Most good officers are like, bring it on. We want to put them on so the community can see what we go through and how hard our jobs are. —Nakia Jones
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