Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
As the editor for this website I get the privilege (said with some sarcasm) of moderating virtually every comment made on any article posted. Since members of the general public (non-law-enforcement) are free to comment, and since there are some members of the general public who don't like the police, some of those comments can be quite negative. Now obviously some folks are just never going to be happy with law enforcement officials / representatives. Some folks would only be happy if state dissolved and all law enforcement authority ceased to exist. For those folks, there's nothing I can say except, "Oh, well."
Still another segment of society sees the need for the law enforcement presence and occupation
but only so long as it doesn't impact them, their family, friends or anyone they know. This segment of society confuses me somewhat. Logic dictates that if you see the need for law enforcement to exist then you must understand that it should exist in as impartial a fashion as possible. That means that if you, your family, or anyone you know has need of law enforcement services, then a law enforcement presence will exist in your life. I think most of the folks in this particular segment are okay with law enforcement professionals being around
except when said LE officials take enforcement action against someone in this segment. In other words, this segment of society wants officers and deputies to SERVE them but never ENFORCE the law on them. Unfortunately for them, that's just not how this job works.
Another segment of society not only sees the need for a law enforcement presence but actually appreciates them - mostly. This segment likes the police only as long as the police perform to a 100% perfect standard and never, ever, make any mistakes. I feel bad for this group too. As much as I appreciate the support they so readily voice and provide, it is inevitable that they will become unhappy with law enforcement at some point. After all, cops are only human and
every human is imperfect. We ALL make mistakes - and that's what I actually wanted to talk about: the mistake rate.
Think about this for a few moments: there are over 900,000 law enforcement professionals in our country. If a mere 1% of them make a mistake each year (and I challenge ANYONE to make only ONE mistake per year) that still means that 9,000 cops made a mistake. Read "made a mistake" as "did something wrong." No matter how trivial that mistake may be, someone, somewhere, will blow it out of proportion and do all they can to make it major news for the mainstream media.
Now, take a look at the news as it's reported. Even when the mainstream media sensationalizes a story, the most you're going to see is one negative law enforcement story each day. Sure, that story might hang around for a few days so it'll seem like there are two or three each day, but in reality there is - at most - one really negative story per day. That's only 365 per year - not 9,000. I have to assume that the other 8,635 mistakes made were so trivial that they didn't bear attention. Doing the math, that means that only four one-hundred-thousandths of one percent of the mistakes is serious. That's .0004 percent. I challenge anyone reading this to find a profession that has a performance rate that is equal or better.
The final segment of society I'd like to identify are those who support the law enforcement profession; recognize that we're not all perfect; forgive us minor mistakes and offer forgiveness for major mistakes if proper and timely corrective action is taken. Remembering that, as I said earlier, all cops are human - how can anyone demand any more than that?
Your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
