Now ye're talking - to a US police officer

Is there corruption in the/your police force? Have you ever seen or witnessed it?

Don’t know, it’s not like someone is going to say over coffee “while I was collecting my bribes last week…” We have had officers who made poor choices, soliciting sexual favours on a traffic stop, forming a relationship with a previous victim (which became a domestic violence issue), drunk driving & domestic violence on their partner. They were all found out quickly, sanctions ranged from fired (all of them) to jail time. It’s pretty hard to keep secrets these days and if you’ve been fired it’s very difficult to work for another agency, or at least a decent one. I’ve never seen anything beyond routine officer discretion and if I did, I’d report it. I’m not losing my career over some dope

Why is the police force suffering with so much corruption?

It’s not, most of us do a decent job, go home and come back the next day, and so on. There are over 850,000 sworn officers of one kind or another in the US. So odds are there are some bad apples, I don’t condone it, but I’m a realist. These assholes make life difficult for the rest of us.

Do you screw people over or are you one that actually listens and gives people respect obviously this must be both ways of course?

I do my job. If enforcing the law is screwing people over, then I suppose so. I look at the totality of the circumstances. I’m professional, don’t really like shouting at people or being rude (I hate rude cops). Will I write you for broken brake lights? Depends, if your DL check comes back with multiple traffic offenses, and you choose to be rude and aggressive, then probably. Not to “screw you” but to help the violator understand they need to obey the law & follow the rules. You have a clean record, are reasonably pleasant, maybe you won’t get a ticket. All depends.

Have you been in many shooting incidents?

Been shot at once, never fired back. I’m ok with that, no real desire to take another life. I’ve seen firsthand how that works out for the officer, it’s horrible.

How to you find winding down or copping with stress is best achieved.

I have an amazing, very communicative spouse, I work out and spend time with friends. Everyone has their own way of coping, some fish, hunt, fix old cars, do carpentry, whatever floats your boat.

What's the best cruiser you've ever driven?

I liked the Chevrolet Tahoe.

What's the most rewarding pert of the job....

Answered on a previous post.

Do you love giving tickets?

No strong feelings either way, it’s part of the job. Does a barman like pulling pints? Does a plumber like fixing pipes?

Why do the FBI have those oversized badges? Is it a case of small man syndrome?

No idea, their badges aren’t much bigger ours. Agency choice I suppose

Has the current political situation with trump and co in power lead to less thrust within the communities your patrolling especially with the sizeable Mexican population in Austin?

I’m not commenting on my specific location. Yes, the current administration has made the immigrant and to some extent certain minority communities less trustful of us. We generally had good relations; all things considered. Now victims won’t come forward to report, of if they do, they won’t give us enough to go after the perp, they are scared.


Is Texas hard to police with a lot of rural areas and proximity to the border as well as larger city areas.

I work in an urban to semi urban area, can’t speak for the border. In the remote areas, officers are further from back up & other help, that’s certainly a challenge.

Have you ever caught a really big fish for something silly like driving without a seatbelt or no tax and insurance?

I’ve nabbed a few felons over the years on traffic stops, it does have a degree of satisfaction I will admit. Best way to avoid the police if you are wanted: slow down, wear your seat belt, don’t drive drunk. The really smart ones all live in condo’s in the Caribbean and stay away from us.

What’s your views on the relationship between easy gun ownership and mass shootings?

That’s a complex question, and it has been studied at length on both sides. There is a relationship, but as to whether it’s cause & effect, that’s the rub. It’s on oversimplification to say “Ireland has strict gun laws, and no mass shooting, therefore strict guns laws are the answer”. Guns are a reality here, no getting away from that, but I am a strong supporter of tighter gun laws. It won’t solve everything but it’s better than the current process.

And how do you view the NRA solution that we need more citizens to be armed to prevent mass shootings?

The “good guy with a gun” is bollocks peddled by the NRA. Both the FBI and the US DOJ have studied this and debunk the theory. A gun owner is more likely do have their own gun used against them, shoot an innocent or have it fall into a child’s hands than ever shoot a bad guy. Will tighter laws prevent a shooting? hard to say, some will always have them (look at the gangs in Ireland), but if it prevented one mass shooting, I submit then it's a "win".

The number of people incarcerated in the US increased by approximately 500% from 1980 to 2016. 1980: 319,598, 2016: 1,505,400
Link - (https://sentencingproject.org/wp-con...orrections.pdf)

Why do you think that is?
Better detection rates?
Increase in crimes committed?
The development of Prisons as a for profit enterprise?

Do you think the country is safer now than it was in 1980?
Do you think that the criminal justice system in the US is making society safer through reducing the likelihood of crimes being committed in to the future?



Good questions, great reference too!!

Is the country safer, well I suppose so, but it's not just the laws. Cars are safer, health care is better, kids wear bike helmets, etc. Not being facetious, but its not just the laws. In 1980 there were no cell phones & lots of drunk drivers, so we tightened the DD laws & raised the drinking age. That helped I'm sure but it's hard to draw a cause & effect directly. However, now we are texting & driving, so more of those accidents......

There is some great research on this subject. My take: the US went hard in the 1980's with the "War on Drugs" and "Three strikes and you are out" thing, so we ended up locking up more people per capita than any other western country. As I mentioned earlier, we are quick to criminalize things which (IMHO) are not really crimes and would be better served spending the money of a social safety net and education, it's cheaper in the long run. I've been reading about the Swedish criminal justice system, it focuses on rehab and reform, not the Victorian model of punishment. Swedish recidivism rate is something like 48% compared to something like 80% in the US.

Detection has gotten better, we use more science (DNA, forensics, IT) and the profession is better trained & educated too. That probably contributes too.

For profit prisons: Worst idea ever. Lets put a bunch of criminals, a high number of whom have mental health issues, lack basic education, substance abuse, etc and lock them up for 15 hours a day with no recreation, education, etc and supervise them with minimum wage guards FFS!!! It boggles the mind.
Do you think that the criminal justice system in the US is making society safer through reducing the likelihood of crimes being committed in to the future?

Sorry, I can't predict the future, no idea.

alchemist33 wrote: »

As a foreigner, did you have to jump through any extra hoops to join the police force? Related, are you now a US citizen?

Roughly, what percentage of your colleagues are from ethnic minorities? And do your superiors deliberately mix pairs of cops so as to have a non-white member, or station certain cops in areas with a similar ethnic background to them?

And thanks very much for doing this.

Last time I saw the stats we were somewhere between 30-40% minority in my agency. It shifts with the ebb & flow of employees, we probably are fairly representative of our community, but could do better.
No, we're assigned based on the needs of the shift, schedule, seniority, skills, etc. To our supervisors we're names/ranks/skills on a schedule, simple as that.