Blog 2: Being a Police Officer
How difficult is it to be a police officer? I think it is worth really thinking about. This website is likely to post a lot of criticism of police practices over time, but before all that, we should set a little context.
First, let’s think about confronting a possible crime. Many of us have seen something happening, something bad, and, although blissfully protected from the duty to intervene, we probably still got nervous. I once saw a woman just shrieking, abusively at her child. I was like a deer in the headlights. What should I do? On another occasion I saw some local youths “playing” at having a fight. It was escalating and I pulled my car over and, like the old-lady-in-your-neighborhood when you were growing up, I told them to settle down. I then drove home. If we hear neighbors fighting, and it sounds bad, what do we do? We call the police and they are duty-bound to do something. They have to go there. If things get rough, they have to physically grab and subdue people, or even use a weapon. I can only imagine what the adrenaline feels like in some of these situations. I’m surprised we don’t hear about more panic attacks, frankly.
More commonly, the police have to deal with people and some of the people they have to deal with are not easy to deal with. I sometimes think it should be a requirement of some kind that all Americans spend time volunteering in a mental hospital. I have done this in the past. In my opinion it would mostly serve to take away the fear that many people have of those who develop serious mental illnesses and behave erratically. It would also serve to provide a much greater empathy for those who suffer from these diseases. The police, most of whom do not have extensive training and experience with mentally ill persons are usually called when things go very wrong. We complain when they mishandle the situation, which is a topic for another blog, but most people would have no idea what to do. Even trained professionals find crisis intervention trying. Some of the people with whom the police must physically engage are not clean. I have heard some disgusting stories. Some of them are wasted on drugs or alcohol. Some are unable to communicate in a way that an ordinary person can understand. Sometimes police enter a household to find that animals and children have been criminally abused or neglected. Most of those reading this will have compassion for these individuals and I, personally, ache for their humanity, but please don’t oversimplify the situation. If you are honest with yourself you know that you would not be fully empathetic with someone who is shouting curses at you, swinging at you, throwing up in your squad car. Those in the helping professions have a different relationship with troubled individuals than the police usually do and get to see people on their best behavior as well as training in dealing with the specific behaviors that come with mental illness and substance abuse.
The police have extensive training to do their jobs, of course, but no police academy could possibly prepare you for that first instance when you have to chase someone down, or restrain someone. That first situation where a person who hasn’t showered in a while spits in your face. Like anything, it probably takes practice to get it right. Some officers will have had experience with the physical by playing football, or practicing something like judo. Nowadays, it is unlikely that most police officers will come to the job already having had many physical fights, something I heard lamented a bit at a policing symposium I attended a number of years ago where one Canadian fellow remarked that their police used to be prepared for the fisticuffs because they had played hockey.
The point is, the job is not easy. Further, for most officers around the country, none of the really difficult situations come up every day, or even every year so they don’t have a ton of practice. When they do face a high-stress situation, they have to put themselves into it; they can’t just let it happen. It is remarkable that so many people are willing to do this when the pay is not that high. We should all remember to be grateful that some people are willing to become a police officer and do this kind of work for us.
Something that many of us forget when we see the latest viral video of a police officer dragging a school child out of a chair is the context of this event. All day, every single day, there are thousands of police officers out there, on the job, at the ready, doing a good thing, and we never hear about it. Once I posted a FaceBook comment about police brutality during the George Floyd protests and a lady who was our neighbor when I was growing up sent me a link to a story about her son, a police officer, being recognized for saving the life of a teenager. We rarely hear about the good things. I don’t mean the barbecues and that stuff, I mean the day to day, so-and-so broke up a fight; so-and-so was called to the scene of a domestic disturbance and had to forcibly separate the parties; officer so-and-so is still recuperating from an injury incurred when...; one officer had to go through a 6-month HIV protocol after being bitten by a prostitute; 30 officers in your town sat in the office, drove around, rode their bikes, used their segues, and waited for you to call–all day, every day. Most of us live in places where the police do respond when we call. Most of us know that if the shit goes down, we can call and we will call and we don’t have to confront our drunk neighbor, or even the teenagers down the way who have their music on too loud. A good police department is a great service to have and not all countries have police who will come to help without expecting a bribe.
I have taught many students over the years who have wanted to be a police officer. With only one memorable exception, I have felt very good about their prospects for becoming good police officers. They have been good kids, nice kids, usually healthy and athletic, some of them of the Eagle Scout variety, others from law enforcement families where they want to emulate a highly respected family member. In future blogs, where we will be highly critical of certain police practices, behaviors and policies, there is no intention to malign the individuals that take on the profession. I am eminently grateful to them and have the utmost respect for good police officers.
