A police officer's contradictory role...

[UncleJoseph]

As someone who believes very strongly in individual rights, the U.S. Constitution and personal freedom, I often wonder why I got into law enforcement. Having been a police officer for about 12 years now, I've had many opportunities to examine my role in society, and how I've affected people's lives. Most in my profession do not reflect on their careers or question themselves much. But I constantly evaluate my actions in relation to my beliefs.

As a police officer, one of my most fundamental roles is to uphold my state and country's constitutions. To pare this down to the simplest of terms, my most fundamental role is not to violate anyone's rights. Because of the nature of my job, the people who I have the most contact with either were victimized, or were the suspects in a crime. The needs and desires of the victims to have the suspects brought to justice is seen as a major driving force in how my career functions. The oath of office that I swore to doesn't speak much about bringing criminals to justice...it mainly speaks about upholding the constitution. Yet, very little of my job is actually devoted to upholding the constitution. Most of my job is about investigating crimes and bringing the bad guys before the court.

So the actual nitty-gritty of the job is about gathering facts, making judgments about the situation and making arrests (or writing tickets, etc.). When it comes to accomplishing these goals, the state and federal constitutions are always in my path and often hinder an investigation. I am obligated by law to investigate and bring people to justice to the best of my ability...yet I am also obligated by law to protect the rights of all individuals under the constitution.

Victims of crimes often don't care or want to hear that suspects have rights. Victims of crimes often say that the suspects have more rights than they do (not true...everyone has equal protection under the law [at least, when it's applied properly they do]). I have had numerous victims demand that I circumvent the legal protections set forth in the constitution in order to bring someone to justice. Many MANY victims of crimes want me to act solely on their word that something happened in a particular fashion. They don't understand that I cannot simply jump at the snap of their fingers. Many victims believe that a police officer is somehow their employee, who should act and do as told by the "employer." Much of the reason I run into these attitudes from victims is due to the media (both fiction and news).

What often limits my ability to carry out justice is the constitution. I cannot simply put the guilty party in jail without going through an investigation and protecting the accused person's rights in the process. I am a firm believer in the legal process (yes it has some problems), with regard to individual rights. But those rights often hinder my ability to bring justice to the guilty. Many guilty people go free because the government cannot make a case against them. There are many cases I've been involved in where the suspect has committed dozens of crimes, but slips through our fingers due to his/her legal protections. But then I've also seen the problems associated with bending or breaking the rules of the constitution...

It's an interesting job, with many strange angles. The older and more experienced I get, the more firmly I try to make my job about upholding the constitution and less about statistics and numbers (i.e. quantity of tickets/arrests). I suppose you could say I focus more on quality than quantity. But it seems that the two primary goals of my job are at odds with each other. It's a pickle.

[Raygun]

Must be pretty frustrating. Victims feeling angry and violated, perpetrators who know how to work the system... It's a tough spot to be in. Sometimes it makes me wonder how cops just don't form off-duty brute squads and deal with things that way on occasion. I mean, I vaguely remember hearing of that happening somewhere not terribly long ago (in the US, I mean), but I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Good for you for taking the whole constitutional angle seriously, though. Sure doesn't seem like many people do anymore.

[UncleJoseph]

And while I firmly believe in constitutionally protected rights, the one Amendment I have the most trouble with is the 5th Amendment...your right not to incriminate yourself. As a Libertarian, police officer and person who is all about people taking personal responsibility for their actions, we have this amendment that basically says you don't have to admit to doing anything wrong...ever. How is that taking personal responsibility for your actions, if you never have to admit to wrong-doing?

Of course, I completely understand the spirit of the 5th Amendment, and why it came about...the government should be the ones responsible for making the case against you...not the other way around. But as someone who investigates crimes and attempts to protect those whose rights have been violated, it seems silly that you don't have to own up to your own wrong-doings. If the case against someone is really weak, but we know her or she did it, we're left with a lack of evidence and not bringing that person to justice. That is, they get away with whatever they did. There's no justice in that.

Realistically, however, it would be impossible to have a law that compelled you to testify against yourself anyway...how would we force you to admit you did something (aside from chemicals, torture, brainwashing, etc.) and still have that confession/testimony be accurate?

But in the grand scheme of things, if I did something wrong, shouldn't I own up to it and take my medicine? I guess ideals are only appropriate for an ideal world.

[Bonefish]

You know, everytime I wanna cuss out a cop, I think of you, Joe. I don't know if this makes you smile, or feel a bit creeped out, but every Cop i ncharlotte is riding around with an UncleJ face taped on him. You remind me that they are real people, real people who have decided that the unsavory task of upholding the law is theirs.

You keep on doing your job, and don't let assholes like me give you too much shit.

[UncleJoseph]

You know, everytime I wanna cuss out a cop, I think of you, Joe. I don't know if this makes you smile, or feel a bit creeped out, but every Cop i ncharlotte is riding around with an UncleJ face taped on him. You remind me that they are real people, real people who have decided that the unsavory task of upholding the law is theirs.

You keep on doing your job, and don't let assholes like me give you too much shit.

Thanks. I suppose one of the reasons I feel compelled to talk about my job is that public support for law enforcement is really, really low right now. Sensationalism and fictional television have done more to hurt our public image than the actual bad stuff cops do sometimes. Everyone seems to have a bad cop story (although many of the bad cop stories I've heard really boil down to the fact that the person telling the story was fucking up). I even have my own unpleasant cop stories. But I think the true problem is the lack of understanding about what it is we're legally able to do, what we're supposed to do and what we have the ability to do in many situations. Add in the fact that we're people, just like everyone else, who can have a bad day, make bad judgment calls , mistakes, etc., and you end up with a public that has an ever-worsening opinion of cops. The really ironic part is that cops are more educated than ever before.

In decades past, a lot of cops became cops because they weren't qualified to do anything else, or simply needed a job and police work was hiring...similar to some folks who enlist in the military. Cops nowadays usually come from the ranks of folks who are driven to make a career out of law enforcement. Many have higher education (and thus, understand the laws and civil rights much better than those in the past), and strive for professional excellence. Yet, the public continues to see us as brutish authoritarians with little regard for civil rights even when the occurrence of those types of violations are much less than they used to be.

Of course, I'm not saying there aren't some brutish authoritarian cops out there. Plus, there are plenty of folks in law enforcement who feel like there's something to prove, and who have a very aggressive personality. This profession attracts that, and you also have to have some of that kind of personality to survive the job.

Our culture nowadays can't stand authority, doesn't want to listen to authority, and doesn't think that the laws apply to them in many cases. So the cops get blamed for a lot of stuff that has its roots much higher up in the chain than the beat cop, because the beat cop is the one most people will deal with directly. Cops have to enforce bad laws, have to write traffic tickets, have to make arrests, have to catch the "bad guys" and have to try to do the best they can with an ever-increasing number of restrictive (and sometimes unconstitutional) laws.

But in the end, most cops really do want to protect the innocent, bring the lawless to justice, and just do their job and go home at the end of the day. Rarely does the public see things from a police officer's point of view. Most of the people who have done a ride-along with me have really expressed that they had no idea what things were really like from my side of the story. A lot of people with serious misconceptions and anger toward police for being power-hungry civil rights violators had a change of opinion after riding along with me. Some people will never get over their opinion of police, no matter what I might say or show them, but many reasonable, open-minded folks are in for a major eye-opening experience when they have the opportunity to see things from a police officer's perspective.

[Iantha]

You know, everytime I wanna cuss out a cop, I think of you, Joe. I don't know if this makes you smile, or feel a bit creeped out, but every Cop in charlotte is riding around with an UncleJ face taped on him.

Do they also have his good shoulders? Because just the face would be sad. But shoulders...

[Jeff Hauze]

More importantly, do they pimp out the suit and fedora? Because really, cops would be more awesome if they all looked like that.

[Raygun]

In decades past, a lot of cops became cops because they weren't qualified to do anything else, or simply needed a job and police work was hiring...similar to some folks who enlist in the military. Cops nowadays usually come from the ranks of folks who are driven to make a career out of law enforcement. Many have higher education (and thus, understand the laws and civil rights much better than those in the past), and strive for professional excellence.

That would be my experience with the city police and county sherriff's deputies here.

Of course, I'm not saying there aren't some brutish authoritarian cops out there. Plus, there are plenty of folks in law enforcement who feel like there's something to prove, and who have a very aggressive personality. This profession attracts that, and you also have to have some of that kind of personality to survive the job.

I remember reading sometime around the millennium that the LAPD wanted to stop hiring Marines because they were too aggressive and kept beating up on people. I'm not sure if that's a policy that they got around to putting into effect, but I figured that there was probably just a lot of ass that needed beating in LA. Of course, it's probably a better idea if the guys in blue aren't the ones handing them out.

Our culture nowadays can't stand authority, doesn't want to listen to authority, and doesn't think that the laws apply to them in many cases.

I blame MTV and gangsta rap. Who's with me? Eh? Eh? Yes, I'm old now.

Cops have to enforce bad laws, have to write traffic tickets, have to make arrests, have to catch the "bad guys" and have to try to do the best they can with an ever-increasing number of restrictive (and sometimes unconstitutional) laws.

What unconstitutional laws do you have to enforce?

Some people will never get over their opinion of police, no matter what I might say or show them, but many reasonable, open-minded folks are in for a major eye-opening experience when they have the opportunity to see things from a police officer's perspective.

Well, this is a very interesting subject. Whenever there's an instance or something you feel like discussing regarding your work, I'm interested in reading it.