Police

I recently had an unpleasant encounter with a young traffic cop. She was monitoring a construction site on my street. It is called a "detail" in police parlance.

 

My late father, a career policeman, made a middle class life for us by working many details, paid for by construction companies and event promoters. His meager police salary in the 1950s and 1960s would have kept us in a low-income, working class lifestyle. He worked details in his off hours, often three or four days a week while he worked the night shift at his regular job.

 

I have been related to several police officers. My uncle and two cousins were police officers. Our next-door neighbor when I was a boy was also a police officer. I spent many boyhood hours at the local police station, where I was treated to stories and shown the cells. The building, an 1880s structure, had a grimy and ghostly atmosphere.

 

So, when Officer Kathy, stood before my car at the entrance to my own street the other day, I was predisposed to like her. "I live on the street. I just need to scoot up to my driveway, " I explained with a smile. The sewer contractors had blocked the other end of the one-way street, so I was seeking Officer Kathy's dispensation to drive the few hundred feet the wrong way to my driveway.

 

"It's a one-way street," Officer Kathy yelled after pulling down the ski mask she was wearing as protection against the unseasonable cold. "I know. I live on the street," I replied. I then explained that the crew of tractors and excavators had progressed beyond my driveway, and I had to access it from this unconventional direction. "It's a one-way street! Are you sure you can access your driveway?" Officer Kathy was not in favor of my request. It became obvious I had challenged some territorial impulse.

 

Traffic on the busy cross street where I was stuck due to Officer Kathy was now piling up in both directions. Horns were beeping angrily front and back. After a few more "It's a one-way street" responses, I decided to proceed differently in the interests of public safety and my neighbors' needs to get on with their lives. "Never mind," I yelled back at Officer Kathy as I pulled off, "I will deal with this through the water department."

 

I returned home after parking some distance away from my house. I carried what items I could from my shopping. I sat down and emailed the liaison for the construction project. I received an email in return and a call from a friendly engineer, who apologized for the inconvenience and said he would educate Officer Kathy on standard protocol for giving abutters access to their property.

 

So here we are. The engineer has to educate the police officer on her job and the law.

 

Police departments nationwide have adopted a reactionary model for police work. They are "first responders". This is unfortunate for them and for the public. They have managed to alienate the public trust by becoming enforcers, as opposed to being daily fixtures in the life of a neighborhood. They have many excuses for this. However, as I see it, the excuses are mostly hollow. The simple fact is that the police departments have encouraged this alienation by allowing officers to reside in their cars. The result is a police force which does not know how to prevent crime by establishing a friendly and vigilant presence. The result is a police force which enables petty crime while avoiding enforcing the law against the biggest criminals.

 

As a retired registered nurse, I know very well how difficult it is to work with human beings under stress on a daily basis. I respect the difficulty of the "first responder" role. However, I do not believe police departments and police unions are making things any easier by encouraging their officers to see this as their only role. The net result is the public's mistrust and dislike of the officers, who have become associated with a harshness inherent in the "first responder" role.

 

My encounter with Officer Kathy was not traumatic, though aggravating. However, I saw in this very young officer the roots of bullying behavior, born of defensiveness. This is particularly disturbing in a female officer, who might be more sensitive to exception and flexibility within her role. As a humanist, committed to nonviolence and universal justice, I became concerned that young Officer Kathys are being conditioned to be rigid and inevitably brutal from lack of regular community contact in non-threatening situations. There is no rational justification for this.