[quote]batman730 wrote:
[quote]Professor X wrote:
[quote]idaho wrote:
Good Post… I learned years ago we will always be hated, until “they” are injured, victim of a crime, attacked, etc…then “they” cry like babies for the police. What a double standard…
[/quote]
I think the police are lacking control.
You have a gun and social power over me. I want you under every eye and and under as much speculation as possible.
I want cops to live in glass houses…literally.
If you want that power, you should have to give up some personal privacy also we can all make sure you are doing what you are supposed to at all times.
I bet the employment line would be empty if that were the case.[/quote]
I can only speak for how it is where I live, but I don’t see how police could reasonably work under a higher level of scrutiny.
Prior to obtaining employment one must complete a 80+ page questionnaire disclosing in excruciating detail every embarrassing and/or questionable activity you’ve ever engaged in including the stuff you would expect (prior drug use, criminal activities etc) as well as particulars of your sexual history, detailed financial information, social media and other online activities and your porn viewing habits. This information is then verified in 3-5 separate interviews, the last of which being a polygraph.
You then must produce 30 personal references to be interviewed and 4 letters of reference. Inquiries will also be conducted with people you don’t provide as a reference (i.e. neighbours, past employers not listed as references etc). You must then pass extensive medical, performance and psychiatric testing.
If that all goes your way you get a job where all your communications are recorded as a matter of public record, you must document in painstaking, court admissible detail every action you take from the time you start work until the time you finish. Simultaneously the overwhelming majority of those actions are being logged on video either through legitimate surveillance or through “citizen journalism” and you can expect anything “interesting” you did to be on Youtube by the time you get off shift.
Should you actually elect to use force of any kind beyond compliant hand cuffing you must document all actions taken in even more minute detail, including your justification for having done what you did. Even if you are justified, it is not at all unlikely that you will be subject to investigation through Professional Standards (read: Internal Affairs) as well as independent civilian oversight. In some cases (like a K-9 bite) an independent investigation is triggered automatically.
Forget using force, if you use strong language while making an arrest you will likely be subject to scrutiny and hauled into Professional Standards. The threshold for conducting searches etc in the course of such an investigation is nowhere approaching the threshold required to do the same thing to a private citizen. There is NO expectation of privacy.
No doubt, some cops still sometimes do the wrong thing, sometimes with tragic results, but it’s not for want of reasonable constraints being placed on them.
Yet and still several hundred people apply to my local PD each year and bust their asses trying to get hired.
Go figure.
Edited[/quote]
Great post
I would add that in many departments - especially non “unionized” ones in the south - if you come under investigation, you can be hauled in to internal affairs and interrogated about actions that could (if prosecuted) later be deemed criminal… All without the right to an attorney. Failure to answer in this setting will result in immediate suspension. If you are found to be lying, most likely you face termination.
If you answer the questions in IA and the district attorney / solicitor decides to prosecute, your “interview” (again, without the right to legal counsel) can be used against you.
I can’t imagine being an officer today in the “YouTube” age either … Even though I never felt I had anything to hide, a picture or only part of a video rarely tells the whole story and can be wildly out of context to what actually went down
