Im sorry I used the word "civilian" and hurt your feelings. Next time I talk about the review boards I will use the term "A person, male or female, who has no official duties with the Phoenix Police Department, The City of Phoenix, or any other branch of the local government entity."
But that would go against my feelings of Elite-ness. I mean god forbid I start actually interacting with these people outside of me arresting them. Then I would feel bad about using all my time to drum up more ways to knock on a random door and do an illegal search of the residence.
<RANT OFF>
Why is it that every time a thread comes up about a cop doing something wrong its bash the police time. Because you know every cop in America is a moron because some guy somewhere did something stupid. Oh and they can never be wrong. EVER!
We should take away medical licenses every time a doctor misdiagnoses someone and they get injured or die. Same with the RNs.
But we dont do that do we. Why? Because they are the people we turn to when things are going really bad. No situation is the same. Decisions have to be made, right now, with limited information under high stress. We ask them to do the best they can, with what they have at the time. They are not supermen, just your average joe with the urge to try and help other people.
All this can be true for the police officer out there. But its not. Society teaches people that police are always after you. Police are also Superman. They can never be wrong. If they ever mess up they should be fired.
I messed up once. I was driving during rush hour traffic to make a buddies back up for call. I was trying to answer my radio and was looking for the mic, when I rear ended a guy, pretty good. Luckily he wasnt seriously injured, had some whiplash. The department paid the guy an undisclosed amount and I was written a ticket.
Truth of the matter is folks, cops are just like every other person you know. They have families, friends and their kids go to school with your kids. Off duty most cops wont even carry their guns. Hell my department urges off duty officers to be good witnesses if they see a crime and to not get involved, unless its an emergency.
I have lots of friends and other people that say to me "man I dont know how you do your job, its so dangerous." And while I agree the job is dangerous I tell them thats not what makes the job hard. Its the mental aspect of seeing the worst parts of society day in and day out. Getting in a "Mexican standoff" with a guy armed with a 12 guage is a lot easier to stomach than asking a 15 year old girl to be as specific as possible when she describes how her uncle raped her. Then I got a lady who cant understand why Im being so stern with her about letting her 3 year old play outside in the apartment complex unsupervised. This just a couple hours after we pulled a toddler out of a pool, who thank god survived.
What Im trying to get at here in my long, its late, post is this. Cops are average joes. Some are a-holes just like every other profession. And just like in those professions, they arent liked by there peers and usually dont have very long careers. Cops will mess up from time to time. If you fired one every time they screwed the pouch you wouldnt have any cops. If you can go 20 years without ever getting into trouble, you obviously dodged calls and probably hardly ever solved a crime.
Invitation Here: Anyone that wants to and can swing it I will try and take on a ride along so you can see what the job is like.