I had a conversation with a retired police officer acquaintance recently about all the hubbub lately. I asked him how many cops he thought were assholes, and he had an answer ready: “20% of cops want to be Supercop – the best on the force, a superhero, getting all the bad guys. 60% want to be decent cops, stay safe, do their jobs, and go home at night. And 20% are bullies who like the power trip.”
That made me think of the 20/80 “rule” – that, in many circumstances, about 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Combining this and my retired cop’s answer, perhaps we can postulate that 20% of asshole cops are responsible for 80% or more of any bad police behavior.
So first, is this 20% number reasonable for the amount of asshole cops? How does it compare to the amount of assholes in the general population? If it is reasonable, what can be done about it? I have the impression that the “Brotherhood” protects even these assholes, because of the worry that the decent cops might be swept up in any sanctions for bad behavior. Is this impression reasonable? Any other thoughts?
I’d guess it is a little higher than 20% in the police force (maybe 25-30) and closer to 10-15% in the general public. I believe police work attracts some of the wrong kinds of people and brings out bad personality traits among officers so it would be higher.
With our own unpleasant behavior, we count the external cicumstances. Tired, wary, didn’t know, etc. With others unpleasant behavior , we are quick to say it’s their personality. That is called the Attribution-Bias.
I’ve long believed that somewhere between 15-25% of people are assholes (a category a little wider than just jerks/bullies who I’d class as subsets of my wider category). I don’t have any particular reason to believe that cops are any different from the general population in that regard. So I’d say the OPs friend’s estimate of 20% sounds plausible to me.
Continuum with 1-3% being agressive jerks, maybe fading into another 2-7% being OK most of the time, but easily moved into dick-mode. On the opposite end we have actual supercops, and cops who can approach a drunk (white!) guy brandishing a gun and get him to have a sit-down and chat some sense into him. Nobody really cares about the top level performers, just the shitheads.
And I’m certain the %s change from department to department, some having better community-relations than others.
I agree with this general thesis and rationale, though I can’t say about the numbers.
What I would add is that there’s no hard-and-fast dividing line between jerks and non-jerks - it’s more of a continuum. So I would just say that there’s a higher level of jerkishness among cops, mostly for the reasons that WC gives - that the job and its petty power perks attracts punks and power trippers. But it’s also likely that the occupation brings out the jerkishness in a lot of people who might otherwise have their jerkish tendencies restrained by life circumstances.
Your second question renders the first moot. In theory we should get rid of them, but as a practical matter it’s not feasible. Unless it gets really egregious in which case there are disciplinary proceedings that can be brought against them. But even there they tend to be protected by professional loyalty and by strong unions.
Suffering petty harassment from jerkish cops is one of the more minor annoyances of life. It’s a lot better than the alternative.
I couldn’t handle being a cop. 100% of the the police force have to deal with the 10-15% asshole public daily, every day, all day. That would make me seriously jaded. If that’s all i’d see all day i’d feel like the whole world just sucks.
Can’t we prevent them, or at least some of them (perhaps the worst) from becoming cops in the first place? Are there ways to determine who is motivated at least partly by the desire to bully and exercise power?
I assume some people are already trying to do that. But I doubt if you could have much impact. Maybe a little better or a little worse, but not much is going to change. As noted, it’s an inherent problem.
Another way to look at it is to compare the cops in the US with those of a lot of Third World countries. Then they’ll look a lot better.
Judging by my workplace, I’d say that 20% being jerks and bullies is pretty close. Everybody in management is, and there are plenty who would be just as bad given half a chance. Power corrupts and power jerkifies and bullifies. Given that we arm the police, that power probably goes to the head of say 30% of them. It’s my perception that those people prone to be bullies are more likely to choose policework as a profession.
Could pay them better, require at least a 4-year liberal arts degree and continuing education in either criminal justice or work toward a law degree. Basically change the candidate to reflect an apprentice of law rather than low level government employee. Of course the higher you raise the brows of the police officer, the further you get the cop’s mind away from that of the more violent trouble makers, potentially impairing cop’s ability to relate with those in need of a little law enforcement. That comes off as a bit elitist, doesn’t it.
As an alternative, we could disarm the police and force them to be a bit more creative in how they justify their authority.
What are you basing that on? It’s a rule of thumb, sure, but a reasonably accurate one in terms of predicting that the vast majority of something isn’t the cause of the problem. Just because it shifts to 90/10 or 70/30 in some cases doesn’t really invalidate the concept.
Anyway, for the purposes of the thread, it does seem like some relatively small proportion of policemen are bad apples, so to speak. I’d say that it’s probably more situational than anything else- the number of true bad apples who are constantly bullies and dicks is probably much lower than 20% in most large police forces- probably on the order of 2-5%. These are the guys who either liked picking on people, or who look at being a cop as their way of getting back at the world.
However, there’s probably another 20-30% who, in the right(wrong?) circumstances, go from being good cops to complete dicks. They’re probably just fine handing out speeding tickets to people who are reasonable about it, or working security at a store, or just being a beat cop, but you get the right belligerent asshole saying just the wrong things when they get pulled over, or a suspect defying him a little too openly, and out comes the taser or nightstick.
A lot of it I suspect is what Hampshire is saying; if 95% of the people you deal with on a daily basis are either criminals, people who are otherwise acting out, or people who you have to warn/crack down on for whatever reason, and a large proportion are disrespectful of you and your profession, I can totally see how a person would quit giving a shit reallly fast.
I’m a long way from a bully, but I suspect that if I was a cop, I’d probably be somewhat of an ass a lot of the time for the reasons I just mentioned.
I doubt it. I assume they’re probably about the same. Do you have reason to believe otherwise?
If not, then it’s apparently possible to do better than we’re doing here, and we should find out what they’re doing elsewhere and consider copying that. But my assumption is that this is not the case, absent evidence.
As best I can see, it’s all about the right professional culture augmented by really comprehensive training.
I never understand these cctv instances of police racing up to someone and leaping out the car. Or how they seemingly invite reaction. It looks like very poor training.
I imagine the numbers are fairly similar (law enforcement vs general population). That being said, I will say that of the handful of LEOs I know, one is shady (sexual harassment, subject to more than a few Internal Affairs investigations, etc.) and another is just kind of a jerk (wanted to put urine in a squirt gun and shoot it at “Occupy” protesters. He even posted about wanting to do it on Facebook, while he was on duty, saying it was what he was going to do as soon as his shift was over.
I also think part of it is the line of work & the conduct in their daily job. If Bob from Accounting is an asshole, he might turn in a report late or take my food out of the fridge and eat it. Hardly going to make the papers. If Frank from the 3rd District is a jerk, he might use excessive force or harass & intimidate the populace. That’s going to be in the news.