I read an article this morning in the Minneapolis paper that had to do with the city’s inability to recruit or find new police officers. To be fair, it's not just Minneapolis that has this problem, it's everywhere. Think about it for a second. Who in their right mind would want to work a job that had cellphone cameras and police body cameras recording your every move along with the media? Name anyone else that works under those conditions. With a little careful editing, anyone can make a bad story out of a good one without too much effort. Then the newsies will take that and put their own spin on it and before you know it, you’re the worst cop that ever lived.
I was in public safety for a long time. Our chief officers always told us, remember the uniform. You need to be on your best behavior when you are wearing it because it represents all of us. A lot of police officers in today’s world can’t wait to get out of it when their duty is over. There is no pride in it anymore, just the perception that you are a mean person who is out to make trouble for you.
No other job holders, more than police officers, have to work so hard to sell their image because someone in their ranks behaved badly. There are, in our society, bad teachers, bad athletes and bad firemen. There are bad people in the churches and seminaries, and the news outlets. There are bad people in every occupation that exists, and no one judges the lot of them by the actions of a few, like they do for the police.
Mike Holst
Crosslake
The Trust Project
