Will all of the hate have negative effects on the recruitment of furture officers?

[Zantos]

There was a recent case where an officer killed someone. We all know what it is. That is just part of the hate towards officers though. There are a lot of news articles that get tossed out involving officers and the bad some of them do. They never or rarely highlight the good they do since it doesn't get as many ratings. All its doing is generating more hate and anger towards the police force. I came to a conclusion that I am sure others may have as well. This all is causing a negative stigma towards being a police officer.

I have to ask, how much, if any, do you think this will impact the career field? I am pretty sure that this will defiantly turn away some people from trying to become a police officer. They already put their life's on the lines because of criminals. Now they also have to deal with all the hatred and anger from citizens due to how the bad officers behave.


Just a note, please don't turn this into a debate about any one case. Honestly wandering about the consequences of recruitment for the police force.

[Wells]

We've had issues with police exceeding their authority since we've had police.

[Zantos]

We've had issues with police exceeding their authority since we've had police.

Yes, but the news outlets like to latch on to it. Now, it may be because I am older, but I didn't hear about this as often when I was a kid. Its simply making me believe that this will undoubtedly turn away some people from becoming an officer.

[Tirivaria]

Going off the history of the LAPD, the solution for that organization was to more actively recruit minorities to diversify the police force. It's made things better, except apparently in the anti-gang units. They still have pretty strong racist tendencies.

[Deleted]

Typically the police have always had issues with recruitment.

I mean, it's rather self-explanatory, you can earn $30,000 with the chance at being shot at, knifed, attacked, spat on, so on so forth; Or $40-60,000 doing the job you went to school for.

Add on the public dislike for certain police departments and dropping rates of interest from the qualified candidates they hope to attract you face a void, and, without sounding harsh or demeaning that's where a typical ex soldier will come in; Little qualifications and career achievements where a police pension is the answer to this.

Will recent events have a more detrimental effect upon recruitment?

Hard to tell, some PD's have reported a decrease of up to 90% of applications in a 10 year time-frame.

It's a hard job, with little gratification within it, some people do it as a career but they tend to be the odd ones out i suppose, as is the same with career military.

[Deleted]

I'm not sure about over there. Where I live though the police have more than enough applicants compared to spots to fill.

A guy who used to work for us, like, his like "life dream" or whatever was to join the police, kept applying and stuff, and got on some kind of waiting list but because there was so many people, it took him ages to get in. When he joined us he was already applying to the police, he worked for us for several years, then left, and worked somewhere else for a year or so, and after all that he got finally accepted to like, take some test or do PCSO stuff or something, but is more or less "in" but now has to bust his balls to get up into like "real police officer" land. Point is, took years just to get in because there are so many people wanting to do it.

[Al Gorefiend]

Because the moment you put on the badge, expecting to be the hero, people sneer and insult you because they hate the police. Its similar to how a teenaged girl hates her dad because she can't joyride the Mazda. Anyone with a higher authority than the average citizen is a victim of mob hate, just ask a politician.

[Wells]

Because the moment you put on the badge, expecting to be the hero, people sneer and insult you because they hate the police. Its similar to how a teenaged girl hates her dad because she can't joyride the Mazda. Anyone with a higher authority than the average citizen is a victim of mob hate, just ask a politician.

Most people don't hate the police. People had bad police, of which there are too many.

[Mnevis]

There was a recent case where an officer killed someone. We all know what it is. That is just part of the hate towards officers though.

No, actually, you need to be more specific. There are at least three stories in the current news environment about excessive U.S. police use of force and unnecessary civilian deaths. I don't know when you were a kid, but I'm pretty sure there were "abuse of police power" high profile stories then too. The name Rodney King ring a bell? This is nothing compared to that.

There are a lot of news articles that get tossed out involving officers and the bad some of them do. They never or rarely highlight the good they do since it doesn't get as many ratings.

Well, today's coverage of the situation in Ferguson is largely about the good job Captain Ron Johnson of the State Highway Patrol has been doing handling the situation. We all know that the job of the police isn't really to serve and protect average citizens; it's to serve and protect the established order. The point Captain Johnson, and all the stories about "community policing" vs "militarization of the police", are illustrating though, is that peace and order is often better maintained by not being aggro jerks, like the St. Louis County Police were (I give them credit for not opening fire on the crowd, but they weren't being part of the solution).

The wish of the demonstrators is that out of this death comes change in the way their community is policed. The change in the treatment of the protestors indicates that at least in the short term, that's possible. If the systemic flaws (we're better than a lot of places, but there's still progress to be made, and I'm not talking 'the bad apples', I'm talking long term provable injustice) which lead to people distrusting and even hating police can be fixed, perhaps being a police officer becomes a good prospect for even more people.

You know, glass half full.

[Deleted]

No, actually, you need to be more specific. There are at least three stories in the current news environment about excessive U.S. police use of force and unnecessary civilian deaths. I don't know when you were a kid, but I'm pretty sure there were "abuse of police power" high profile stories then too. The name Rodney King ring a bell? This is nothing compared to that.



Well, today's coverage of the situation in Ferguson is largely about the good job Captain Ron Johnson of the State Highway Patrol has been doing handling the situation. We all know that the job of the police isn't really to serve and protect average citizens; it's to serve and protect the established order. The point Captain Johnson, and all the stories about "community policing" vs "militarization of the police", are illustrating though, is that peace and order is often better maintained by not being aggro jerks, like the St. Louis County Police were (I give them credit for not opening fire on the crowd, but they weren't being part of the solution).

The wish of the demonstrators is that out of this death comes change in the way their community is policed. The change in the treatment of the protestors indicates that at least in the short term, that's possible. If the systemic flaws (we're better than a lot of places, but there's still progress to be made, and I'm not talking 'the bad apples', I'm talking long term provable injustice) which lead to people distrusting and even hating police can be fixed, perhaps being a police officer becomes a good prospect for even more people.

You know, glass half full.

I'm largely on the side of the rioters on this, though I don't tend to take the side of rioters in general, but like, and again I don't really know the situation, but seems like a bunch of the problem with the police response to all this has been all this stuff about militarisation and so on.

That's not really the fault of individual officers, right? I mean, you sign on as a police officer, whatever, if you are a part of an unlawful shooting in the day to day doings of your job, that's on you. If you beat a handcuffed dude, that's on you. But if your boss puts a long rifle in your hands or a gasmask and a bunch of tear gas canisters and says "go here, do this" then you go there and do that.

It feels like a lot of the problem with local police things is unless you are a city prone to this sort of thing, you generally don't have a bunch of dudes around who know how to properly deal with riots and so on. How to control the situation without making it worse. That's the higher up's fault, but the average everyday police officer isn't, I don't think, to blame for vague things like "militarisation of the police" etc.

Which is why I don't really think there will be recruiting problems.