There was a time when cops parked their squads and walked their patrol areas. They met with the residents. Had a coffee or tea with them. Got to know them and their relatives. Helped them with their problems. Need a fuse changed or your car won't start. Cops helped you. The kid acting up. Have a talk with him. Cops attended funerals, weddings and graduations. That was being a COP! No longer. Military vehicles, high powered weapons and isolating yourself from the public. Let's get back to basic policing. Just my opinion.
To much paranoia at the police these days in certain areas. Im sure if it was a small town with little diversity it still happens.
We're scared of large groups of people? Not enough training? Budget cuts? The list could go on, or maybe it's not a real problem at all. Maybe it's just our perception of it. Remember the cop that gave $150 boots to some homeless guy?
It's a shame. Line officers seem to want to isolate themselves in their squads. They're missing the wonderful opportunity to interact with the citizens that they serve. The police need to stop reacting and instead interact with the community that they serve.
The first thing I'll have to admit is that I'm only 26 and my reference size is small. That being said I would hazard a guess that the sort of things you are talking about started disappearing when we started all of these culture "wars", the war on drugs being the major offender in this case. When you have to declare war on such an obtuse thing people start always being on the offensive. The war on "Terror" is just as bad. Which leads me to my next point; after 9/11 it showed the United States that it's nose can be bloodied and this caught a lot of people flat footed. Since then the DoD has been essentially giving away military surplus to local police departments increasing the mentality that they are not here to police but to occupy and be on the offensive. So to summarize, it started with the war on drugs the was kicked into overdrive with the ease of access to military surplus and encouragement of the DoD. Edit: Kranes56 also brings up a valid point that affects this conversation but ripples through news media in general. It's very easy to report on a piece that makes you afraid. It's very hard to report on things that are good because they are generally slower moving and not very noticeable. For instance we always hear about murders and assaults so it's natural to think it's more dangerous than ever, but the opposite is true, we are less likely than ever to be randomly attacked.
residents in ferguson are half way to prison fatherless, most of the time, mostly on drugs or selling them. nothing in common with cops.
All those rioters and looters and burners of cars and buildings who think they've gotten away with it apparently do not realize that the majority of them were caught on camera and that sooner or later facial recognition software will begin putting names to faces. Many of them will as a result see their lives ruined simply because instead of applying either rational thought or disciplining their emotions they LISTENED to the cynical manipulations of a left leaning Mainstream Media industry that deliberately painted the Police Officer as a murderous racist based on no meaningful facts whatsoever, using as gospel the assertions of a fellow who turned out to be the co-perpetrator in the assault on the officer and the co-suspect in a robbery. They ruined their lives because the MSM WANTED to create a racist story line. So . . . it . . . goes.
We also recruited cops from that same neighborhood. You knew which guys to keep an eye on, which guys had a good heart, and which didn't... because you grew up with them all.
they got to come in for the food stamps welfare sooner then later, they can just nab them like bate on a hook, and ship them off to some camp, in the new Mexico desert never to heard of again..arrg!
It is still around in some places in smaller numbers. The Clinton 100,000 new cops thing made a real difference but it was a grant program so when the grants ran out, most places did away with the jobs. My city kept it for awhile, but now the community police officers have been replaced with a street crimes unit which is like SWAT lite and not so well liked in the communities they harass...I mean patrol...regularly. It is ridiculous how adverse it has become. I live in a relatively poor minority majority city and as best as I can recall, it has been about 10 years since a cop died on duty and it was because the dumbass was going like 100 down this crooked, poorly lit 25mph road and clipped a telephone pole and lost control when responding to a call about a business burglar alarm going off.
Actually instead of jail time I plump for making them work in order to pay back the business owners. Meaningful restitution . . . what a concept!
Possibly but at least it will be physical effort that they didn't want to engage in . . . and thus a first for almost all of them. Yah gotta start somewhere.
better bring back the ball and chain because they will high tail it to there girlfriends house,oh i mean hoes house, in a new york minute
los angeles has been making efforts to get back to that which is probably why they didn't have riots recently, when a cop there, shot an unarmed person but what has happened in many places is that money has become more important to the police departments than justice your posts make you look like a white supremacist that's trying to instigate a race war
I was a police officer for thirty years and lived through neighborhood policing. Neighborhood policing was popular with competent police officers and popular with the public. It was unpopular with the police union, some police officers, and liberal politicians.
