Weren't you a cop?
A long time ago, yes. Took me under 2 years to decide that it was not what I was expecting.
So instead of being the change from within you bailed, sad, very sad.
I attempted to affect change from inside but soon learned that that is a suicide mission. Live to fight another day another way.
Suicide mission, nah it just takes dedication to a cause, vision and the ability to persevere. Sometimes you have to bide your time and occasionally change department. But it we don't change the system from within who will?
Suicide mission such as a call going out for a domestic dispute involving a firearm in progress. Putting yourself responding and getting absolutely no backup from the other 9 units on duty. Their message was heard loud and clear.
You play it smarter at the lower levels. You gotta infiltrate them. If you got loud early, you change departments. You gotta have enough rank to be a change agent.
Why don't YOU go be a cop of you want to ride his nuts so hard about quitting the force?
I hear you. Loud and clear.
Becoming a cop is not easy and few can do it, it is a position of trust and responsibility. Those who can do this and keep their heads about them are rare and valuable assets. I hate to see the most promising leave. They are the ones that are so necessary to lead into the future. If the decent people leave what does that leave in their place?
Attempting to be an agent of change in an organization that resists it because it doesn't think it has to is a recipe for disillusion, depression and worse.
So you are advocating that every person of character should abandon law enforcement? I hardly think that is the solution. The fact that he had a moral conflict makes him very valuable. He's exactly the type of person the profession desperately needs these days.
You know, if there were mass resignations of competent, experienced professionals, that would certainly do a lot to force the needed changes.
I believe the current organizations are where they are precisely because of the flight of the officers who have a moral compass leaving many organizations with a gang mentality. Your rank and file are the hiring pool for supervision. So if no one decent is left what do they do? It becomes a choice of lesser evils.
Bingo. If the pool of responsible professionals is not deep enough, their flight will leave the situation unaddressed and the department badly impoverished. One officer with a steady and apparent sense of right and wrong can have a large influence in such a case.
