Times are tough for law enforcement all across this great country of ours. High-profile incidents are examined in the court of public opinion and the profession is taking a beating. In the vast majority of the cases, the officers have been exonerated, but our actions are under the microscope and on camera on a daily basis.
We need to take this opportunity to look at ourselves. We know that the vast majority of us do our jobs faithfully and professionally, but we have a small minority of officers who are just a**holes. Here are a few signs that you might be part of the problem and not part of the solution:
1. You don’t wear your name tag.
You scribble your name on a citation so the violator can’t read it. You refuse to identify yourself when requested or give another officer’s name or wear another officer’s name tag.
If your quality of interaction with the public is so poor that your greatest concern is trying to avoid complaints, you need to seriously reconsider changing your actions, attitude and perhaps your current profession. Any time you find yourself less than proud of the work you have done — whatever it may be – ask yourself what you could have done to make it better. Then ask yourself why you didn’t do it in the first place.
2. You escalate stress and conflict.
If you regale in your ability to take slightly agitated suspects and turn them into assaultive combatants, you are the cop that no one wants to work with.
The real job of police officers is to bring or restore peace. That should be your goal on every call, through your example. Your actions at times will require the use of force. That use of force should be a direct result of the suspect failing to peacefully resolve the situation despite your words and actions to reach that goal.
Some people insist on doing things the hard way - you shouldn’t be one of them. You should work towards gaining compliance, which lowers the likelihood of force being used and increases officer safety.
3. You make it a point to win everything.
Do you have to have the last word in every encounter? Do you pride yourself on “winning” every argument?
Take a deep breath and repeat after me, “It’s not about me, it’s about doing the job to a professional standard.”
People respond and react to the uniform in different ways. If you allow them to make you angry, they control the situation, not you. Police work has a lot to do with control. If you cannot control your emotions or your response to others, you are giving up control and you are giving away your freedom to be in control.
Remember this: they can have the last word, but you will have the last act —whether you choose to react or respond. Reaction is an instantaneous emotional use of words or actions. A response is a trained, professional, preplanned execution of the tactics of control, verbal and/or physical, that is taken to achieve the successful completion of each public and professional interaction.
4. You expect other cops to lie for you.
Do you engage in any of the following: “testilying,” “street justice,” “attitude adjustment,” “brake checks?” Do you engage in criminal activity on duty? Off duty?
The problem with criminal cops is obvious, but they always seem to want other cops to lie for them. When you expect that, you are the worst kind of cop — a criminal hiding behind a badge in search of an accomplice
If you see yourself identified above, what makes what you do okay? Imagine that you are sitting in front of a disciplinary board or a judge and jury. Try to justify your actions. How do you think those rationalizations would work? Rationalizations are the lies we often tell ourselves to make the things we do wrong seem okay, and they are never okay.
Conclusion
What is the solution? Stop. It’s your choice. Do it for yourself, for your family and for the profession. We all have bad days. Don’t choose to have a bad career.
If you want to change, here are some three books and a TedX talk video for you:
- “The No Asshole Rule” by Robert Sutton
- “Unleashing the Power of Unconditional Respect: Transforming Law Enforcement and Police Training” by Colwell and Huth
- “Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement” by Kevin Gilmartin
This article, originally published on August 17, 2015, has been updated.
