Police Perception

April 23, 2009

Are you ready for how the public perceives you? Ready for the media coverage that is less than complimentary? Ready for people to act like the police need to be avoided at all costs? Ready to get a real rough ride from some of the people you will deal with? Are you Police Ready?

Better start thinking about some of the questions we just brought up, because not everyone is going to love dealing with you. Not everyone is pleased to speak to a representative of law and order, and certainly not everyone is going to want to co-operate with you. Yes, that will make a tough job even tougher, but that is the way things go when you are out on the streets.

By their very nature, many criminals are not going to be great to deal with at any given time. Many friends of those same criminals aren’t going to be in a huge rush to help you out either – unless of course there may be money involved (Crime Stoppers). Ok, that’s the criminal element, but what about the general public?

Good thing you asked that question. The general public comes in all flavours and it will, at times, be a real crapshoot what kind of response you will get from them. If you happen to be stopping them for running a red light, you are definitely not their new best friend. If on the other hand, you happen to be returning stolen property, or arrest someone that ransacked their home, then you may even get thanked.

And that’s the other thing, don’t always expect to be thanked for the job you do. Many people have no real understanding of the things you do and even less appreciation for the training and hard work you put into your job. To them you are supposed to be there when you are called, and be there within ten minutes flat. Many people will also joke about how often you hang out in donut shops. Grit your teeth and continue to do your job.

The day a civilian does a ride along is the day they finally “get” what you go through every single day on the job – and that is only a small portion of what you do. The only way to handle the comments and the disparaging remarks is to just prove them wrong. After all, it’s YOU they will be calling when they have a problem.