Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
As I type this, just this morning I was editing an article about the threats that can exist to a police officer's career
from within his or her own department. The article is titled
Police Self Defense and I highly recommend you read it here on Officer.com. Now some may read it and consider it a negative piece about police work. I disagree. I think it's accurate and I further believe that law enforcement professionals today need to realize that the security and stability of
the thin blue line requires focus and commitment to each other - not just to one's own career.
Over the weekend I was watching television with my son and
Striking Distance was on. Starring Bruce Willis it's a movie about a homicide detective whose father (also a cop) is murdered and the detective (Willis' character) is convinced a cop did it. Through the course of the movie you see how one crooked cop - trying to cover up his own tragic mistake - lies to the entire police family (some of them his actual family), frames an innocent for murder and then abuses the authority of his position to insure that no one on the police department or in the media or public finds out what he's done. Along the way he also screws up the careers of two cops - one of them his own son.
Now I've never personally witnessed a cop who was that dishonest. I've known a few who have skirted regulations, ignored "best practices" and lived to support their own power and ego. Along the way I've seen them ruin - or severely negatively impact - the careers of ten or twelve good officers. One man I know - who still wears a badge for now - has cast his shadow on more than one Chief's integrity as he's risen through the ranks.
The point is that
one law enforcement officer who loses focus; who puts his own welfare, power and greed ahead of the brotherhood (including all our sisters) is like a cancer that grows and spreads until its tendrils touch all aspects of police work in every section of an agency. We, as a collective body of law enforcement professionals, must strive to maintain our entire "body" in an ethically secure and morally sound system. We must always be vigilant against those who display their affinity for selfishness, greed, low morals, lack of ethics, and general disregard for the true spirit of law enforcement.
Along with that, though, we must also understand that every one of us is human and therefore imperfect. Mistakes will be made. Some of them can be corrected with guidance, and sometimes disciplinary action within the agency is required. When "mistakes" become
crimes we must swallow the bitter pill and excise the cancer from within the agency for the good of the entire body.
The challenges we face today are far different from those of the past. "Crime" isn't as simple as burglary, drug possession and personal crimes of violence. Today our street level law enforcement officers have to deal with organized gangs, terrorism, drug trafficking, human trafficking and more. In such an environment mistakes are inevitable. Minimal training and high stress both contribute to our level of imperfection in compressed time frames. Although law enforcement professionals are "held to a higher standard" we must understand, and use discretion, when punishing anyone who makes a mistake.
What do you think?
