I respect law enforcement, I really do. How can you not respect those men and women in blue who go to work every day not knowing if they will come home to their families every night, and doing so for a salary that is remarkably low given the inherent danger involved. It is not a job for the faint of heart, as this author discovered after actually applying to our local county force and backing out of the process before it was final. I concluded that I just didn’t have whatever “oomph” it required to become a law enforcement officer (who couldn’t grow up watching ADAM-12 and not at least think about becoming a cop?).
Not that I don’t find it fascinating. Detective work looks as though it would be a challenging and rewarding career, as does forensics (I never missed an episode of QUINCY, either). Combine that with SWAT teams or other special divisions within the force and you are looking at a career that is rife with possibilities.
Unfortunately, to get there you have to work your way up through the ranks, and unlike other rank based organizations, such as the military, too many of the bad apples turn up and remain in those bottom ranks, namely, the street cops and others that interact most directly with the public. And this is where law enforcement as a whole gets a bad rap.
The last time I was pulled over was in Duluth GA, for speeding (45 in a 35 zone). I went to court in the vain hope that maybe the ticket could be reduced or thrown out. After meeting with the solicitor, it was agreed that I would pay the fine but that no points would be applied toward my record or insurance. I thought I had accomplished something, but when the judge came in and started hearing cases, it became obvious that everybody in the courtroom was offered the same deal. It was easy to conclude that all these tickets were given out in the name of generating revenue, not looking out for the safety of the town’s citizens.
Upon closer inspection I discovered that the road passing through town drops from 45 to 35 for a whopping half a mile, then goes back up to 45. The patrol units line up in literal hordes right there in that brief stretch and are able to nail “speeders” by the dozen. That half mile stretch was a veritable money machine for the town, more commonly referred to as a speed trap.
That said, I am not a huge fan of the radar gun. Despite being the victim of it a time or twelve, it just annoys me that we pay any salary at all for guys to sit in their cars by the roadside and shoot fish in a barrel, most often not somebody who was intentionally breaking the law, but rather increased their speed momentarily and accidentally. I used to drive around a lot during the day and I discovered something….if you spend any amount of time at all on the streets, you will see more than enough moving violations to satisfy anybody’s quota. Get out and do some work and stop spending your days lounging in your car by the side of the road like teenagers cruising back in the 80s.
I’ve also become a huge fan of dashboard cameras, as it does an admirable job of stifling questionable behavior. There’s just something about knowing you’re being filmed that makes you act your best. Now if they would only figure out how to put such cameras on motorcycles…that might have prevented my unfortunate run in with an officer who found it necessary to pull me over and make up a charge on the side of the road. I doubt he would have pulled such a stunt if he knew it would be on permanent record.
And then there was this morning, as I was driving to work; I was passed by a police unit, way out of his jurisdiction (obviously on his way to work), doing about thirty miles per hour over the posted speed limit. I don’t care if you drive fast, but if so you had better be on a call, as in displaying some blue lights…otherwise you are just breaking the law.
Clearly, law enforcement has its issues, namely with young largely uneducated officers who obtain a badge and a gun and instantly see themselves as their precinct’s answer to Dirty Harry or Lethal Weapon’s Martin Riggs.
Perhaps the notion of raising the standard for police officer candidates should be revisited. The number of officers on the street is important, but the quality of those officers means a great deal as well.
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