Police Employment- Why we need to change our standards

Like many decent paying, low skill jobs, interest in police employment has certainly reached a fevered pitch in the last few years, the result of a poor economy and the desire of some people to eat (the nerve!). Before we talk about the police hiring process that is failing us, I will start with a simple question:

What is law enforcement?

Many would go with the easy answer here, which is simply "enforcing the law". My experience as a law enforcement officer involved in many aspects of policing (including the hiring process) taught me pretty quickly that the answer is much more complex than this. A police job is about much more than driving around writing tickets and arresting people for violating the law.

The number one desirable trait in a law enforcement officer should be people skills. Unfortunately, the police hiring process lacks a good way to test for this. Most law enforcement agencies rely on psychological tests (a joke), polygraph (bigger joke) and the results of a poor background check that is outsourced to the lowest bidder. Nowhere in the hiring process is a person's reasoning skills or empathy tested, unless you count one of hundreds of multiple choice questions on a laughable psychological profile test.

The Police Complaint Process

Few things in our normal, day-to-day life cause anxiety quicker than an interaction with law enforcement. Who knows why this causes many people stress? Maybe it's ingrained in us to be afraid of authority as children. Or perhaps this response has evolved in humans over millenia of dealing with unpleasant authority figures. Or maybe it's because, deep down inside, we believe the law enforcement officer is a power-hungry asshole who is going to do what they want regardless of our actions or wishes. While this isn't the way things typically go, sometimes they do. And if you have ever been subjected to a rude or lying law enforcement officer and want to file a complaint you know the road ahead of you is going to be even more stressful (and maybe cause you more problems than you have now). But why is it this way?

Holla atcher Boy

My name is Mark Bowers. No it's not, but it sounds like a pretty good pen name, right?

I am a former police officer with a major metro-area law enforcement agency. While employed in this capacity I worked in all aspects of uniform patrol, from a regular line officer to shift supervisor.

The purpose of this blog is to rationally discuss police procedures in the United States. In the last several years the citizens of this country have recognized GLARING problems with police use of force and the way law enforcement interacts with the public. What few realize is that the reason for all of these problems come from a series of poorly-written state laws as well as several important federal court cases that govern police conduct. These laws and the resulting case law have led to insane interpretations of the way authorities can interact with the public.

This blog is different from other "police outrage" websites in that I examine individual uses of force and possible constitutional violations based on years of experience doing it myself. I admit I am far from perfect, but I left law enforcement for one reason: because of the ridiculous procedural re-writes that have occurred in the last several years allowing law enforcement to justify their actions on a LAWFUL basis. The "thin blue line" is alive and well in this country.

Let me clarify that the point of this website is not to shine a light on stupid things law enforcement officers sometimes do just because they are bone heads. Every profession has idiots and this one is no different. My purpose is to expose those incidents that strike a blow at the United States Constitution while being justified, covered up or excused by department policy and complicit government employees.