Whats your opinion of the Police in your country?

[Hunter65416]

So I started thinking about this stuff after I went out walking with my dog - I was smoking a ciggerette (pre-rolled with the distinct orange bit on it) and this cop-car slowed down beside me for few seconds and he stopped to case me out a bit..he ended up checking my i.d even though smoking in the street isnt a crime and even if I wasn't 18 its still not a crime and checking that my dog was registered, anyway he eventually left me alone..I have a suspicion he was keeping and eye on me to see what I did with the butt after aswell..even though there are butts scattered all over the road-side anyway..I gave it a good squeeze and put it in my pocket.

Bloody hell..he clearly had nothing better to do..I think most cops are probably alright but many come across as thinking theyre local superheroes or something..its just the egocentric ones that ruin their public image.

Whats your opinion of the police in your country and do you have any stories?

 

[Thaluikhain]

I'd say reasonable good, from my personal PoV. Mind you, if I'd been born with different coloured skin, and/or lived in a different part of my country, I'd likely not give that answer.

 

[FilipJPhry]

I'd say the RCMP are pretty nice and fair most of the time. They even let me off more than a few times. I haven't been brutally beaten yet.

EDIT: Also, I'm half black and aboriginal.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

In Australia they seem pretty honest and fair. I respect them and the law and they respect me. They're just doing their job.

 

[JoJo]

UK police seems pretty decent, not that I've had much experience with them, but they generally do their job well and without being armed to the teeth like many other countries police are either. A guy I used to know became a policeman and he was pretty cool so yeah...

 

[DJjaffacake]

Well I'm from the UK, and the police I know are people I like. In my experience, they try to do their job, and generally do it well. The only part of the UK they are ever really dodgy in is NI because of the whole Catholic/Protestant, Nationalist/Unionist divide making many biased towards their side, but yeah, UK policemenofficers are generally awesome.

 

[TehCookie]

Cops are people just like everyone else, so they have a 90% chance of being an asshole. Tough I would appreciate them more if they stopped concentrating on speeders and payed more attention to burglars, vandals and murders.

 

[Dags90]

I think it's absolutely impossible to make any sort of generalization about the police in the U.S., given it's size and the autonomy of various police precincts. Outside of having to call the police, my encounters with them have been pleasant.

Fuck NYPD coming into NJ though.

 

[Terminate421]

Atlanta, GA

In my town: Tickets for so much as looking at them funny

In my country: Wow, they seem to be trigger happy all over the news.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I got nothing to be against with the police in the UK althought I have little interaction with them. Also one of my uncles is a police officier and one of my cousins want to become one aswell so I don't exactly have a negative view on them.

 

[Colour Scientist]

PIGS!

Nah, I actually have no strong feelings towards an Garda Siochana. They have their ups and downs, I suppose. Due to my Mom's job, I know a fair few of them personally and they're all relatively nice people. Like every police force though, they have their fair share of assholes.

 

[robot slipper]

I live in the UK, and the police here have always been good, as far as I have interacted with them (never on the wrong side!). I think it is a shame that there are lots of job cuts going on though. I have a friend who is a bobbie in the Met, and the government are trying to take away (among other things) their London weighting pay, as well as their free travel on public transport. I just found it so aggravating when the government initiated all these police spending cuts and cuts to police jobs, and then the riots happened and the government was displeased with how long it took the police to get things under control. What did they expect?? My friend, during that period, had to work back-to-back 16 hour shifts for something like 14 days straight.

 

[Esotera]

The majority of them are fine, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to be distrustful of any encounter, as there's always the chance you'll run into a bad one. I'm just thankful they're not as millitarised as US cops.

 

[ace_of_something]

The majority of them are fine, but I think it's perfectly reasonable to be distrustful of any encounter, as there's always the chance you'll run into a bad one. I'm just thankful they're not as millitarised as US cops.

Actually most departments in the united states have been attempting de-militarization for about 20 years now. Mostly because they found community relations helps public opinion which in turn helps... well pretty much everything. Not to nitpick but the united states has different departments based on local laws for every county in the country which is thousands, most larger cities have their own hierarchy, state troopers (which is different), federal departments. All with their own (though similar) codes of conduct.

Whereas the UK has one central governing body for all it's police, and is the birthplaces of modern materialization of police.

Unless you mean how our cops have better gear/weapons. In which case you're totally right.

Cops are people just like everyone else, so they have a 90% chance of being an asshole. Tough I would appreciate them more if they stopped concentrating on speeders and payed more attention to burglars, vandals and murders.

Sorry this one is always a pet peeve of mine.
The cops that catch speeders are different than the detectives that do all the other things you listed. It's not like they're pulling detectives off duty to set up speed traps.
My personal caseload is about 7-18 at any given time depending on the seasons (crime goes up in warm months) If they had maybe one or two more detectives on each shift that would be great cut my load down in half. I don't think we'd need 40+ people that are out on patrol at any given moment. Someone's gotta respond to those 911 calls.

Not to mention my brother was killed by a person speeding. So I'm a touch sensitive to the idea that enforcing laws of the road isn't important.

Fuck NYPD coming into NJ though.

You've piqued my curiosity. Not being from this area I've gotta ask what you mean by that?

 

[Muspelheim]

The Swedish police is... No doubt filled with loads and loads of people who try their best to do their jobs well, and most I've met have been wonderful people. They do their job.

With that said... It can be horribly inept at times. And some divisions (mainly the Malmö police department, for some reason) tend to be needlessly brutal and rude. Many, many crimes that doesn't seem to pick their appetite goes unsolved, and the policemen themselves aren't monitored properly. If they ever are investigated for improper conduct or criminal activity, the investigation seems to be carried out exclusively by their mates. In short; you can get away with anything as a policeman, and there's sadly many policemen who use that perk reguraly, be it to cover wife beatings, theft of confiscated items at the station, the odd bribe...

Also, whatever they say is true is true, no matter if there's photographic evidence that casts a few doubts. If something happened, it happened their way.

They also have a tendency to support the employer or corporation over the union or the protesters during strikes and labourconflicts. Which they aren't allowed to, since they're supposed to be neutral... Ah, sod it, I'm rambling again.

Tee-ell, dee aaar, loads and loads of good people in the blue (well, black, really...), but the violent wankers are still there and aplenty. They've just got way too much of a leash to do what they please.

Buuut then again... They do have a pair of fasces on their logotype, halfway hidden behind the shield. Suppose things could be worse then, couldn't they?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Polisen_vapen_bra.svg

 

[TehCookie]

Cops are people just like everyone else, so they have a 90% chance of being an asshole. Tough I would appreciate them more if they stopped concentrating on speeders and payed more attention to burglars, vandals and murders.

Sorry this one is always a pet peeve of mine.
The cops that catch speeders are different than the detectives that do all the other things you listed. It's not like they're pulling detectives off duty to set up speed traps.
My personal caseload is about 7-18 at any given time depending on the seasons (crime goes up in warm months) If they had maybe one or two more detectives on each shift that would be great cut my load down in half. I don't think we'd need 40+ people that are out on patrol at any given moment. Someone's gotta respond to those 911 calls.

Not to mention my brother was killed by a person speeding. So I'm a touch sensitive to the idea that enforcing laws of the road isn't important.

I don't mean after the break in, I mean patrol the neighborhoods to deter anyone from breaking in. I live in-between two cities and both follow fallout rules (Flint and Detroit, you may have heard of them), you'll need more than a few cops with flashlights to restore order but they shouldn't completely ignore the bad areas. Also in my area people getting murdered is more common than someone dieing from someone speeding so I have some personal bias too.

 

[Esotera]

Actually most departments in the united states have been attempting de-militarization for about 20 years now. Mostly because they found community relations helps public opinion which in turn helps... well pretty much everything. Not to nitpick but the united states has different departments based on local laws for every county in the country which is thousands, most larger cities have their own hierarchy, state troopers (which is different), federal departments. All with their own (though similar) codes of conduct.

Whereas the UK has one central governing body for all it's police, and is the birthplaces of modern materialization of police.

Unless you mean how our cops have better gear/weapons. In which case you're totally right.

Yeah I was referring to weaponry, I'd hate having our police walking around with guns and tasers as something that is pretty much the norm. I hadn't ever really considered that America has a load of separate departments, I suppose there's quite a bit of variation in them.

 

[Popadoo]

After seeing the riots last year, the UK police need to be more forceful. It's a shame that people can call pretty much anything police brutality nowadays, because that means all the officers are afraid to do anything lest they get sued.