Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Kinder, Gentler Police Force

As cop killings spike in the U.S., police departments in the Pacific Northwest are training officers to be kinder, hoping it will make cops safer.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/22/cop-killings-up-new-training-stresses-kindness/#ixzz1Q6SCKVMm

Really? Here's my thoughts on this one: You can't teach kindness. If we could, the world would be a different place. If we could legislate morality...Congress would be a better place!

Rich O’Neill, president of the Seattle Police Guild, says a vast majority of officers already treat citizens with respect and dignity and are not interested in being confrontational. But O’Neill and others worry about how the public will perceive the training. Will some take it as an invitation to challenge an officer’s every request during a stop?

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/22/cop-killings-up-new-training-stresses-kindness/#ixzz1Q6TX6DcY

Here's the deal. My husband always starts out being as kind as he can possibly be:
"You can always go from Sir to Asshole; but it's a lot harder to go from Asshole to Sir."

3 comments:

  1. I agree with you on that most cops already have that gentle touch on the force...but I think too it's all about the context of the situation and the clientelle the cops are working with.

    Sam, my cop, is probably the nicest guy around both in and out of uniform, but his clientelle and the public he deals with are in predominately poor black neighborhoods. He's told me that he has no qualms with cussing or using slang when speaking to them...and it's not that he's trying to be rude, as he's explained it to me but rather he's getting down to their level so he can maintain some level of trust. I guess they're more apt to talk to him if he talks in a manner similar to theirs and of course trying to be respectful.

    I don't know, I think it's good but it still depends on who they're interacting with.

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  2. I notice the use of the term "BRO" quite a bit...he once tried to call me "bro," but I think that was the day his eggs got burned...LOL...I will follow up with Roc on this and see what he says...
    :) Stella

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  3. Luckily I haven't been called "bro" yet lol. What I wanted to mention to that I hadn't before. I think a lot of these cop killings the officer is not at fault but its the paranoid guy hopped up on drugs or some stupid kids trying to keep out of trouble. Most of this course comes from watching Worlds' Wildest Police videos or shows like that. The officer is just pulling them over for a broken tail light/no seatbelt/ expired tag or something very minor but the guilty party thinks the cop knows they have drugs/weapons in the car or the cop knows they done something wrong so they're ready to defend themselves by causing more trouble than what it was worth.

    So I think the idea is a good one but its not necessarily the cops that need the training. That's my two more cents on the topic. Yeah, I'll have to see what Sam thinks about it too.

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