EyeBrock wrote:
I'm a big believer in Peel.
And you're a good man.
For others who are not familiar with what you're talking about:
Quote:
1.The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2.The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.
3.Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4.The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
5.Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6.Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.
7.Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
8.Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9.The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
Anymore the general gist of this is void. Police all too often no longer see themselves as public servants but more as public regulators and they also frequently view themselves as above the laws they assert upon others.
Can't tell you how many times I see police cars excessively speeding on freeways and surface streets absent being Code 2 (lights on) or Code 3 (lights and siren on). What makes them so special? Nothing.
It also comes up in the matter of gun control. Cops frequently don't trust the people they serve so they don't want them to be armed.
And the recent spate of people being beaten up by cops for recording video of police malfeasance also speaks to some serious problems with the police anymore. Not only do some of them think they have a right to misbeahve, they think they have a right to cover it up, too.
Damn near makes some police jurisidictions into veritable banana republics.