It is an incredibly difficult job to be a good police officer in today’s America. On one hand, you are expected to prevent crime and arrest those who commit it. On the other, you are supposed to videotape your every move so a host of critics – lawyers, judges, DOJ oversight committees, news media, etc. – can review and re-review to see if you did everything exactly by the book, even in the most difficult of circumstances. If you make a mistake, consequences range from termination to prosecution … to felony conviction and prison time. On the flip side, crime is escalating, and criminals are becoming ever more brazen and violent. Many lawbreakers resist arrest, ranging from being vulgar and obnoxious to spitting and scratching to all the way to attacking police with the intent to kill. Imagine having to deal with people like this every day – for relatively very low pay and benefits. What kind of toll must this take on your mental health?
Now, let’s add the “defund the police” sentiment that echoed across the country after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis last year. What impact on morale did that have on many police departments nationwide? No wonder it is so difficult for cities to recruit new police officers and retain the ones they have. I tend to agree with those who believe we need to support our police with better pay, better training and more well-defined, (focused) … areas of responsibility. Police should not be called to intervene in domestic disputes, for example – let unarmed people who are trained to de-escalate domestic issues take care of that. Same goes for calls concerning the mentally ill and homeless. Traffic cops should deal with traffic issues.
Armed police, trained specifically and designated to respond to such violent felonies as carjacking, kidnapping, rape, armed robbery and murder, etc. should not have to perform their duties under a microscope. A split-second lost due to trying to turn on or adjust a lapel camera could cost an officer his/her life – criminals … do not wear lapel cameras.
Lastly, I wish we could remove all the greedy law firms from the equation. They used to chase ambulances, but now they chase the police. While individual police officers typically have few possessions to squabble over, their employers – municipal, state and federal police departments – are funded by taxpayers, and we are viewed as … juicy sources of endless cash. I suspect a large portion of the sharp increases in my property taxes these past few years has gone toward police lawsuit settlements.
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January 09, 2022 at 02:02PM
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Let's let our police officers do their exceedingly difficult job - Albuquerque Journal
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