Do you trust your local police department? (poll)

[unbound]

My local police department isn't really all that trustworthy. They've been caught doing bad things including a nasty incident where they massively screwed up with a disabled person. There were no consequences to the misbehaving officers involved.

On the other hand, I have relatives in another police department (not local to me), and that police department is trustworthy because they severely punish and actually fire police officers for bad behavior.

The difference is the leadership. The sad reality is that quite a lot of police departments in the US (e.g. clearly the Minneapolis PD) have very bad leadership who lets bad behavior go unpunished, and the officers behave poorly in lots of circumstances.

[Unholyground]

You do realise how tone deaf this sounds given current events, right.

Which is exactly my point. America's house being on fire doesn't mean you get a pass for your walls being smeared in shit.

I am not giving anyone a pass, quite the opposite. I am just saying having a more finely trained police force is better than letting people join who should not be joining, you will get way more psychos in places of power.

[Sorensen]

Imagine trusting the cops in 2020. Literally terrorists in uniform.

[DarkAmbient]

Yes, I live in England where the police don't shoot people on a daily basis.

[Sadi47]

I could't say anything about police but I totally trust on our army

[AeneasBK]

My local police, sure.

Thames Valley or the Met. . . No

[TEHPALLYTANK]

They can still be trained well and asked to do things they don't agree with. It is not their fault they are being made to do what they are doing, and there are always bad eggs in any business.

That assumption only makes sense if police officers are incapable of making choices, which last I checked we're not really close to having mind control technology. Being well-trained and choosing to do the wrong thing doesn't absolve you of your responsibility for your own choices.

They aren't being "made to do" anything. They are being ordered to do something, and they are choosing to carry out those orders. It is a shitty choice to have forced upon you, but that doesn't make it any less of a choice.

[Kumorii]

Yes I do, I'm swedish however. Would probably be a lot less if I were in US.

[-aiko-]

I have my issues with them, but overall they're not too bad.

[Kumorii]

Then you've been lucky enough to not run into police officers who wants to fuck with you.

yes, we are all shaped through our own experiences and from what we are told through others. I can only speak for myself.

[Unholyground]

That assumption only makes sense if police officers are incapable of making choices, which last I checked we're not really close to having mind control technology. Being well-trained and choosing to do the wrong thing doesn't absolve you of your responsibility for your own choices.

They aren't being "made to do" anything. They are being ordered to do something, and they are choosing to carry out those orders. It is a shitty choice to have forced upon you, but that doesn't make it any less of a choice.

The problem is when you are forced to do something or not provide for yourself and your family, it is very grey as no one wants to give up the ability to provide so what do you do? Not provide for your loved ones? There are many intricate levels to things beyond right and wrong in a world that is run via wealth.

You ALWAYS have to take everything into the picture not just one aspect.

[jakeic]

I’ve only ever had unpleasant experiences with police officers, best case scenario is that they just ignore me.

My first run in was when I was driving outside Sioux City going to visit my sister at college. The officer pulled me over for doing 55 in a 60 mph speed zone, he took me back to his car and demanded he be allowed to search my vehicle because my story didn’t "add up". I got a ticket for driving with an expired licenses, it was expired by two days.

My second run in was heading home from a wedding, it was 1:30 at night and I was on taking an exit onto another interstate, I was pulled over for doing 60 mph while merging from the on ramp (the highway was 65 and the merging highway was 65, but the ramp was 55). The officer demanded I do a sobriety test, even though I had not drank, and then gave me a speeding ticket.

My third run in I was heading home from a basketball game on a Sunday, I was driving through a real quiet neighborhood and was pulled over for not stopping at a stop sign, I was going 20 mph and I did in fact stop. I got a ticket for $257 a block away from my house.

The fourth time I was pulled over, I was coming home after closing a restaurant and someone began tailing me real close. I distinctly remember slowing down to 20 mph to piss the guy off because he was right on my ass, he followed me like that for about a mile, then when I was going to turn onto my street lights came on. I remember thinking this is stupid, I never sped and even slowed down when this guy got on my tail not even knowing he was a cop. He shined a flashlight into my car with his gun drawn tapping on my back windows. He asked me if I knew why he pulled me over, I didn’t know, he said I was speeding, I said I wasn’t, he gave me a ticket. This ticket I actually challenged and didn’t pay.

I’m just a plain white guy from Iowa, I don’t race around or flaunt the law, I’m not belligerent when spoken to, yet I have been harassed by cops for doing nothing different than anyone else.

[PC2]

Of course I feel safer around cops. It's literally they're job to keep society safe...

[infinit]

If we'd been in the USA, and if we'd been black, we'd probably have been fucking shot.

yea dude, every black man who interacts with a police officer in the USA gets shot.

there was 35,000,000 police interactions in 2015, 6,200,000 were with black citizens.

nitwit

[Freighter]

Trust?

Depends on what it concerns. If it's like someone stealing your stuff, yeah. Someone vandalizing anything? Yeah. Physical violence? Yeah. Sexual crimes? No, never.

[kail]

From my experiences so far, yeah. My interactions with them have been minimal in that past decade though.

[apustus]

Yes because I'm not a criminal or an African immigrant who has been indoctrinated to believe that the police are the enemy.

[Zython]

Of course I feel safer around cops. It's literally they're job to keep society safe...

It is not.

[kamuimac]

Imagine trusting the cops in 2020. Literally terrorists in uniform.

you do realise most of us dont live in country of brave and free so its really not

[Tuor]

I really don't know. Most Police officers are normally helpful, my town doesn't have much crime, and if you call 112(911) for problems with a neighbour, they normally come and try to mediate the stuff.

But there are setbacks, often they lazy, and the worst of all, is that they just totally avoid Gypsies, if any citezen is caught without car insurance, he normally gets a ticket, but if the police looks at a Gypsy driving, they never order them to stop, the reason is they affraid of them. The result is that mos gypsies here don't even have a car insurance, which is mandatory. The few times they do something against them, normally they deploy the riot brigade, and that is normally only after a police investigation.