Is the TV show COPS bad for the image of cops?

I have a police officer for a neighbor, and have always had a conservative view of the police as nice, regular guys. Constant viewing of the TV show “Cops”, however, has turned my viewpoint to see the police as arrogant, aggressive storm-trooping thugs.

True a lot of the people arrested on that show get what they deserve, but a lot seem to be arrested for the flimsiest reasons, and what really makes me boil are the “entrapment” ones where they use fake johns or fake prostitutes to lure people in to trap them.

And it always seems that they are yelling “get on the ground!” at someone.

Are cops really as bad as they seem on the show? Does having a camera crew around cause posturing for the camera and make them act more aggressively?

What ever happened to the nice-guy officers of “Adam 12”?

GQ is for questions with factual answers. Since the responses you are likely to get will be opinions, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.

Having a camera crew cruising with the cop changes the dynamics of the cop’s working environment A LOT. You’d think it would make them more conservative, worrying about violating civil rights and following proper procedures, etc. But IMHO a lot of cops see it as their chance to be a tough-guy TV hero.

I’ve known a few cops, and had encounters with others, and I can’t put any such blanket judgement on their behavior. I used to smoke pot with a cop neighbor. OTOH, once while walking down the street, I had a cop call me over to his car, check my ID, and vaguely threaten me, all because I was “looking at him funny”. Actually, his cruiser had a new paint scheme which I hadn’t seen before, and I was trying to figure out whether it was a local cop or not.

I’m very interested to see how this thread develops, from the point of view of an Irish person, the USa looks like a nazi police state on those shows.

Slight hijack, is absolutely everyone handcuffed and leg ironed? I really wories me to see people treated like this.

I don’t think it’s that bad of an image. The episodes that get shown overseas may be older or milder ones, but in most of the ones I’ve seen the “Get on the ground! NOW!” moments only happen when a suspect has been acting in a violent or dangerous manner. In the rest of the cases, the cops seem more interested in keeping everybody calm.

What did steam me, though, was one of their prostitution sting episodes. Not the sting itself, although I think prostitution shouldn’t be illegal, but the way the show handled it. At least twice, the officer explained how the sting worked, particularly that they had to get the suspect to actually say “I will have sex with you for money” before an arrest could be made. With one guy (gay prostitute), they made an arrest even though he hadn’t said the magic words. Cut to courtroom: lawyer:“Did he say he would have sex with you for money?” Officer: “No, he didn’t.”

The narrator later chimes in: “the perpetrator was set free [smarm]on a technicality.[/smarm]” Damn those evil lawyers! :rolleyes:

Hmmm…this is actually a really good question. I will ask my friend who is a cop what he thinks about this. As it is, I’ve discussed ‘cop persona’ with him a few times, so I’ll share this.

He’s been a police officer for 15 years, and he used to work in some of the more crime-ridden areas of Philadelphia. (He’s now a sergeant in my sleepy rural town.) He says that how most cops act depends on how they are treated, or how they perceive they are being treated. A lot of cops he knew used to act really tough, thinking if everyone thought they were hard cases, nobody would bother messing with them and they’d avoid trouble. He says most cops are actually pretty afraid of the people they are trying to arrest; but they can never, ever show this, or it will 1)give a perpetrator an advantage, and 2)their fellow officers will no longer respect them.

(This actually reminds me of what my father once told me about being in Vietnam; everyone was frightened, but no one could ever show it- they had to maintain group cohesion and a ‘cool’ attitude. They used to joke about the worst things in the worst situations, because otherwise, they’d all go crazy, or panic, and there goes the group. Preserving group cohesion means a better chance of staying alive, so it is preserved even at the cost of the individual. A lot of cops also look upon ‘the streets’ as being a sort of war zone.)

My friend in the PD has been dating a friend’s mom for two years now, and he is the nicest guy you could ever want to meet. He’s one of those people who would do anything for you. But on the job, I’ve heard he can be pretty nasty. So who can say?

But a lot of police officers do seem to sort of power trip at times. I notice this more in suburban areas, actually. City cops actually tend to be more laid-back, despite the greater threat of injury and death. But some cops, I’m sure, get off on the feeling of authority and can be truly assholish. But you find this everywhere.

Pergau, don’t worry- it’s not a Nazi plice state. It’s just that cops in the US have, I think, a greater threat on the job than police in other countries, due to the incredibly widespread legal and illegal ownership of firearms. So American police tend to be a bit more careful, a bit more afraid, and they can react a little harshly at times. But they are also a little bit persona non grata here in the US; stories of police brutality tend to be deeply upsetting to us Americans, since we like to think of ourselves as being very egalitarian. People in the US, on the whole, respect the police but don’t really like them. Police officers apparently have trouble making friends with non-police, for this and other reasons.

But you’re right, the Gardai (I’m assuming you live in the Republic of Ireland, right?) do seem more like friendly neighborhood watchmen than US cops do. But I was in Lurgan up in Co. Armagh a few years ago, and almost got arrested just for taking a picture of the police station! Barbed wire everywhere. But I can understand the need for security.

Ratty,

You’re right, but i’m not worried about the Rodney King type episodes - you get that everywhere. We even had an incidence of this in Dublin recently.

I’m more worried about the whole pulling a guy over for breaking a stop sign and pulling a gun, shouting spread them etc etc.

It always worries me that the ones that you get to see are only the ones the Police passed for viewing. How many other perfectly harmless people were treated like that for breaking a stop sign, but weren’t drunk or stoned or carrying etc, and were just late for something or in a hurry.

I watch the UK versions of these shows and am amazed at the difference in attitude of the police.

The show has increased my respect for officers, showing what kind of crap they have to put up with on a daily basis. Far, from showing them as ‘nazi thugs’, it illustrates very well the mind numbing idiot ‘civilians’ we have in the U.S.

My friends young son is TERRIFIED of police officers now. A babysitter wasn’t paying attention and the little guy (aged four) watched a significant portion of an episode.

Apparently, what he saw was an episode where the cops going to arrest a drug dealer. This was expalined by the narrator, but not comprehended by the child who is not allowed to watch such programming. The kid just watched teh visuals. What did he see? The cops kicked down the guy’s door, charged into his bedroom while the dealer was asleep, pounced on him and wouldn’t even let him put his pants on.

From the kid’s point of view, the “bad guy” wasn’t doing anything bad. He was napping when the cops burst in, shackled him, and dragged him away half-naked.

My friend had to try to convince his son that uniformed poilce officers are the good guys and that if he ever needed help, he could go to a policeman. Even so, the sight of a cop makes the kid cry. He still thinks they are scary, stormtrooper thugs.

Granted, young kids aren’t suppost to be watching that show (and certainly his parents never would have allowed it). But I think that the overall image of the police can be tarnished by shows like that.

The visuals of the show are so confusing, that you can’t really recognize the potential dangers or see the how orderly the “chaos” really may be. You also rarely see the crime being committed – well, duh, the cops are responding to the crime after its been committed – however, being such visual junkies, we respond more to what we actually see. And you just see cops jumping fences and tackling, skinny, unarmed kids. It makes it tough to recognize the potential dangers of what the cops may be rushing into.

I watch this show quite often. In fact, COPS and America’s Most Wanted are about the only weekly shows I watch. I think the show portrays cops in a positive light. At least by showing a little of what they have to go through and how they have to handle themselves.

The “Get on the ground!” usually comes after a chase where the suspect has already proven by his actions that he has no intention of heeding the cop’s orders. Either that, or when the Cop believes the suspect poses a threat or danger to others (based on prior warrants or the dispatcher stating that the suspect may be armed). What do you expect the Cop to do after the suspect has rammed three cars, bails out, and heads for the hills?

I actually see a lot of restraint on this show. As long as the suspect doesn’t run off, the Cop will talk to him and ask him questions. The hadcuffs may come out for site detainment, but I’ve not seen this as long as the person is cooperative.

Of course, the episodes we see on TV are the ones where the suspect is NOT cooperative, as this makes for better TV. So, it is probably not a representative data set.

Yeah. Where’s the control group?

This is true. It’s not like the producers are going to air the episodes where the cops respond to a complaint that someone’s neighbour has been stealing the petunias out of her garden.

Nonetheless, but showing only the really sensational episodes, it does give a much scarier impression of both cops and criminals.

…and where’s the plecebo cops? :slight_smile:

Well I’m a rookie cop. Have’nt been on the streets for a long time, but I’ve been through enoughto have a basic understanding of how things work out here. One of the other posters was right, when an officer is in front of the COPS camera, he starts acting alot differently than he would normally. Officers tend to show alot more bravado and tend to make alot more mistakes when on TV. It’s hard to spot unless you’re actually trained in the law though. So in that regard, I don’t think COPS really hurts officers that much. In fact, I think the fact that police officers come off as brutal helps our job.

Listen, I think it’s rather unfortunate that people would watch a TV show and deem police officers untrustworthy simply because of what they saw on TV. The most difficult thing in dealing with victims of crime is that alot of them don’t trust the police. We’ve got alot we can offer them, but we can only show them the door, they gotta walk through it themselves. Cops are’nt out there to babysit the citizens.

Sure policemen (and women of course) can be brutal. We live in a brutal world; but when you hear a strange noise in the middle of the night and you’re in fear of your family’s life, you don’t call 911 hoping that a troop of Boy Scouts arrive, you want the police. You want these guys to extricate that crackhead who was out of crack money and decided to shatter the sanctity of your home (believe me, it happens). You want us to pile drive the psycho who is in the middle of kidnapping your daughter at gunpoint because he decided she would look good in his collection. The world is brutal and sometimes we have to stay brutal right along with it. We try our best to go out there every night and make it safe for you to come out during the days.

Listen folks, I’m not talking about harcore civil rights violations here. I’m talking about using enough force out there to make the arrest and not get the citizens or the officer hurt. If anyone out there tells you a Cop’s job is to go out there and get hurt, then you’ve been sorely misinformed. Our job is to protect you while, at the same time, making it home after every shift to see our families.

Being brutal and intimidating is just one of the tools we use to get that drug dealer in jail without having him try anything funny. Believe me folks, as a fresh rookie, I can tell you first hand that those crimnals out there can smell fear and they will take advantage of it. Now if we can look like we’re undestructible, if we can put alittle intimidation into those offenders, then they’ll be less likely to try to fight us or even shoot us. Those criminals have the upperhand in so many ways: they chose the time, location, and weapons they bring to their fights. We almost have to show up at their convenience. Just think of the time when Superman had to fight that guy who ran on solar power and would put citizens in jeopardy in order to put Superman at a disadvantage. If we can start to level the playing field just alittle, then we’re gonna take it.

Sure, some cops are assholes, but every profession has assholes. Neitzche was right, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss will gaze into you (or something like that). Sometimes the job just gets to you. Imagine everyday you go to work you’re surrounded by people who don’t trust you no matter how much you help them, you see pain and injustice everywhere you look and you never know if you’re gonna see your wife when you come home. Half the people we catch wind up back on the streets before we even complete the report. Eventually, it’s gonna get to you. Some people say we’re trained to do this, but cops are only human. No amount of training will make you infallible. Especially, the first time you see a child, dead and violated, laying on the ground, and the criminal is laughing his way through court because some lawyer found a loophole in the system, and the guy is only spending 1/4 of the time he should in jail. It’s happened people.

All I’m saying is, just try to understand where we’re coming from before anyone starts drawing any comparisons between the local police and Nazi stormtroopers. %99.9 of the officers out there really want to help and are’nt on any type of power trip, in fact, being a police officer is more a heavy burden than a free pass to do anything.

Well, DUH. Of course Cops gives the impression that a typical shift is full of mayhem. What would be the point of showing the 90% of the shift that involves paperwork and donut-eating?

Even putting that aside, the impression I get isn’t that cops are a bunch of stormtroopers. Rather, that the U.S. has an inordinate number of really dumb citizens.

I have never seen, heard or experienced a police officer pulling a gun and forcing someone out of the car simply for breaking a stop sign. Seriously. Even if they are drunk or stoned. Unless the person was trying to escape and led them on a chase or something. If you run a stop sign here in the US, and a police officer sees it then he’ll flash his lights, you pull over (you keep your hands on the top of the steering wheel), he’ll saunter on up to your window and say, “You know you just ran a stop sign?”, you say “Did I? I’m sorry, I didn’t see it.”, he says, “OK, I’m gonna have to give you a ticket, let me see license and registration,” you hand over said documents, officer writes ticket, you’re on your merry way again.

This really cracks me up. Mostly, because it is true. I like COPS, but I like the other police video shows much better that show situations taken from the police cruiser’s dashboard camera. I’m guessing that the officers are so used to the cameras there, their behavior is more true to life.

You get to see officers politely giving someone a speeding ticket and the driver freaks out. You see them giving a mother a ticket for not having her child restrained and she freaks out. You see an elderly woman forget to put her car into park, exit her vehicle, and get caught in the door and fall under the car. Very wild stuff.

These shows cause me to have even more respect for officers because you see some of the situations they are put into. Like the female officer whose face was crushed by a man in front of his ten or eleven year old daughter because he had an outstanding warrant. Or the office who was shot at by a man he had pulled over for speeding. The man had just robbed and murdered a trucker and was attempting to get away. My respect goes up tenfold after seeing these videos.

I have been watching cops and I noticed that yes in most part the cops do a good job, but I’ve also noticed that if an unfit or overwieghb cop has to give chase when they catch the person they have all used excessive force just because they had to run.

This is a complete abuse of power witch ends up in more violence as the perp then gets angry and starts kicking off which would not of happened if the cop never used excessive force in the first place.

Chasing someone is part of being a cop, I was born in Northern Ireland and we always ran from the police, as if you met the right officer you were in for a kicking if you were the wrong religion, and I’m a protestant.

Also ex-army so I know what goes on what is excessive force and how it can be pushed to its limits and that what I see, evening one with a pissed of girl.

Concerned citizen of a problem that I think needs address.

(zombie alert)

What makes me a little uneasy while watching cops is when they have the perp on the ground and well restrained and they repeatedly scream at him, “stop resisting!” (often followed with, “or you’re gonna get tazed!”).

The guy is on the ground, his face in the gravel, a knee on the side of his head, and 3 or 4 cops sitting on him or pulling at his extremities. And he’s in handcuffs.

More often than not it looks to me like the guy who is ‘resisting’ is merely trying to avoid pain and injury.
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Over on TV Land, in Mayberry.