When you hear the word “cop,” what do you think of? Chances are it’s probably something negative. It seems like the majority of people I’ve talked to in Eugene about our policemen have a negative opinion of them. But why do we feel this way about the people who protect our communities and uphold the law? Isn’t it crazy how much faster negative feedback moves than positive feedback?
The thing about stereotypes is that they’re usually unfairly based off of one person’s experience. Of course, when you hear more negative feedback than positive feedback, you tend to go with the majority, right? Well, collegiettes, I’m here to debunk three of the most common policemen stereotypes I heard!
– they have a ticket quota they have to hit everyday
– if you drive even 1 mile per hour over the speed limit, you’ll probably get a ticket
– they don’t really care about the public/it’s just a job to them
For one of my journalism classes, I was required to go on a ride-along. Required assignments usually bring one of two reactions from students: We’re either excited to start, or we’re a little less than thrilled. For me, it was the latter. I thought, Oh great, I’ll either be stuck in an office watching the officer do mind-numbing paperwork, or I’ll be stuck in a cop car for four hours and nothing good will happen. I could just picture all my classmates showing up at the end of the term with their exhilarating stories of adventure, and since I didn’t want that to be me, I showed up to my ride-along open-minded (and praying something good would happen).
In total, I spent about four or five hours with my assigned officer, and it was far from dull.
The only “boring” part was watching my officer fill out a warrant request. Once I was taken into the break room to acquaint myself with the other officers, things picked up a bit. The break room is decorated in posters of missing children, search warrant request guidelines, and the rest of your typical police papers. We might assume that because these officers are around these types of things on a regular basis, that they may be immune to it and it’s “just another day” to them. But (and as cheesy as this sounds, I’m going to say it anyway), they’re people too and the things they see can be pretty intense.
“”What’s the weirdest call you’ve ever responded to?” I asked the officers in the break room. In the world of policemen, this question is kind of hard to answer because there are simply too many “weird” calls they get. They all looked at each other and kind of laughed nervously, but then Amelee spoke up, and his story topped them all.
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When he first started at the police department, the first call he responded to was about a suspected suicide. When he arrived at the house to investigate, no one answered the door, so Amelee walked in. He could smell fresh bread baking, an indicator that someone was home, but no one answered when he called out. He walked around the house and finally came to a back bedroom, but there was something leaning against the door, so Amelee had to push. He peered around the door and saw a man slumped over on the floor with pools of purple liquid around his hands.
There were two bottles of ammonia next to the body, a butcher knife stuck in the body’s chest, and before the man died, “he had dug out all of his insides and put them in a paper bag,” Amelee said. As for the pools of purple liquid, the man had drank the ammonia and slit his wrists with a pair of scissors prior to killing himself. So the purple liquid? It was his blood mixed with the ammonia. Amelee said he now associates the smell of fresh bread with this particular man.
It turns out none of the other officers in the room had heard this story either, so by the time Amelee was done talking, we were all sitting there with our mouths open. I didn’t even have a chance to respond when Amelee turned to me and said, “You ready to get out there?”
The ride-along consisted of a little bit of everything a typical officer handles during the day. After a child went missing from school grounds, Amelee drove around the neighborhood and found him, returning him safely to his parents; we radar-ed some people driving in the school zone (but didn’t pull anyone over); and we answered one call that came in over the radio involving a man with a bag of money threatening to jump off a bridge (which turned out to be a false alarm).
Most importantly, I discovered that those stereotypes I mentioned earlier are a little over-exaggerated.
1. Officers have to hit a ticket quota every day.
Not true, collegiettes! At least not for the Corvallis area anyway. This rule seems to depend on the area you live in.
By the way, although there is an implied ticket quota, it’s actually against policy to institute one. In fact, in 2011, Los Angeles police officers Howard Chan and David Benioff sued the city for instituting a ticket quota system. According to the Los Angeles Times, the officers alleged that their captain required them to write 18 tickets every day. They were awarded 2 million in a settlement.
2. If you drive even one mile per hour over the speed limit, you’ll probably get a ticket.
“All officers have a personal limit,” says Amelee. “Me, I’m pretty easy-going, but I’ve met some officers who will stop you for a lot less.” So, as with the ticket quota, it really depends!
3. They don’t really care about the public/it’s just a job to them.
This may apply to some cops out there, but not to Amelee. Officer Amelee goes against the grain. It seemed to me that he was very lenient with who he gives a ticket to and for what, and he also made it a point to say hello to every homeless person he knew by name. When he didn’t know their name, he parked the car, got out, and introduced himself to them. He always asked them if there was anything he could buy for the shelter they used or if they personally needed anything (socks, for example).
Officers may seem cold and withdrawn, but a lot of us would be surprised by their level of humility and empathy for the public. So, collegiettes, keep in mind that our policemen are the first responders whenever there is trouble, and that they’re only looking out for us and our best interests. And remember, the law was made by us, the citizens, so is it really fair to get mad at them when they’re only doing the job we ask them to?