Do You Trust the Police ?

Interesting, there are plenty of stories of police officers who do that kind of thing here (although I don't believe on the same scale your talking about, anyone correct me if i'm wrong)

I do have a few neighbors who are police officers, I fully trust them.

I mean, if I had a problem I would call the police, so I guess...yeah I do trust them.

That's not to say that ours are perfect

(I live in The U.S.)

Until we can have robotic policemen we have to deal with human nature - and nobody is perfect.

I don't think it has as much to do with the profession they are in as much as their character as to whether they are corrupt.

When someone is in a position of authority and has power over your life, it is particularly egregious if they are corrupt - it is really a betrayal of the public trust.

I trust police officers in general and appreciate that they risk their lives everyday to protect us.

I can see how they could get really really cynical and even sadistic with the creeps they have to deal with and all the horror they see.

Like the military they are not paid particularly well in spite of the dangerous nature of their jobs. It must be hard to see the 'riches' that are garnered by a life a crime.

In my town they have reduced the police and fire depts to a dangerous level - where in an emergency cops need to come from neighboring towns to assist. It is utterly ridiculous when crime is so high that they are laying off police officers.

So you might consider that is what is happening when you have slow or poor (or no) response time.

9-1-1- is our emergency phone number, and I am wondering when we will start getting recorded messages on the line. 'hello, please press 1 if you are bleeding, 2 if you can't breathe, 3 if you are being attacked.

What is scary however is the weirdo sadists who become cops out of some perverse need to control and punish people. I think they should have their background checked really thoroughly and be screened regularly to see what is cooking with them as time goes on.

When you work in a bank you are routinely checked by the FBI - both before employment and very often at regular intervals while employed - so I think that should at least be necessary for law enforcement because they have so much power.

Damn and I thought that New Zealand is a safe place.. no I don't trust 'em either. However here in central europe they just fine you for nothing, but rape and stuff like that doesn't happens

Around here, yeah, I trust them. I know many of them so I could be a little biased, but I think most people around here trust them.

Now ask me if I trust politicians.

I am from Germany and I must say I had only pleasant experiences with the police. (Recent videos from demonstrations show different things, though <sigh>)

I think for my private security I'd trust them but not when it comes to handling the masses. They were very kind once I had an accident and helped me out a lot. They even waived the fine I'd had to pay because I called them straight away and didn't try to do a hit and run.

Man, hearing that is depressing.

I'm currently living in Thailand,.. been here 4 years and have a Thai wife and 3 little boys. We live in Chiangmai which is more of a laid back and better part of the country in which to live.
Having said that I have never encountered so much police corruption, double standards, turning of the blind eye and total disregard for social responsibility in my life.
This is a country on which corruption rules and the police are complicit with the majority of crime rings, prostitution, gambling, tourist rorts etc. If you have money here you can get away with absolutely anything (not that I'm interested in trying). There are virtually no laws observed on the roads and most of the police have such poor training that they wouldn't know what the real requirements under the law were anyway.
They come out in force whenever some big dick is in town or when they run low on funds and need to go on a cash drive (if you get stopped by a cop and he's holding a fine book then he's probably legit,.. but if he's empty handed and wearing a flu mask and CHips sunglasses then he's looking for a cash hand out (I've even seen them accept beer and groceries,... no kidding!).

I actually had been intending to buy some property in NZ and live part of the year there as I though it was a peaceful and law abiding country. I was there in 2004 for a week and loved it. It seemed calm and orderly and I felt quite safe whilst there (Auckland area).
Prior to coming to live in Thailand I lived in Australia for 27 years (have citizenship there) but was (and still am) loathed to return there as the cost of living and housing is a joke. Also, my experience of the police and law in Australia is that it is "over-policed" and over-governed. You can hardly fart in your own living room without it being in breach of some statute law or council regulation. It's become a real nanny state country and I find that oppressive and depressing.

So whereas in Thailand we have a pathetic and totally corrupt police force (the government being largely to blame due to policy and grossly inadequate wages to the cops), on the other hand there's the over policing, and massively unjust road fines and trumped up revenue raising traffic "offences" of Australia. So I thought that NZ may have been a happy medium??

When the chips are down though and the police are needed (as they were here in April during the red shirt riot when national martial law was almost imposed) then I think an overbearing and dominant police force is far better than one that would allow blood and carnage in the streets all because they were on someone's payroll!

OK,.. that's my little rant for the day,.... back to work now ! :-)

Cheers

Some of the nicest people I've ever met were/are police. Some of the most frightening, sick, and evil people I've ever met were police.

I think it's harder to trust cops in large towns than small ones where they know most of the people by name.

The ones that make my blood run cold are the ones that are trained by Blackwater. Those guys don't even resemble humans any more. They are nothing more than military machines that eat anything in their path just to eat it. I don't want them near me on a personal basis or in the line of duty. They are completely sociopathic by the time that corporation gets through with them. They will tase people just for not moving fast enough when they shout an order at them - they are the ones you see in most of the videos that show police brutality. I'd rather handle an emergency by myself than call 911 if I know they're going to send one of those things to my door.

I'll give another example, about 10 years ago I lived in a hostel for a while. Some of the people told me the new manager was an asshole and was beating his girlfriend.

He seemed OK and I didn't believe them. One day I came home and there was this asshole beating the **** out of this poor woman. He actually sprinted across the road and kicked her full force in the chest, about 12 of us saw it and were mortified. Then he proceeded to punch her in the head at full force multiple times.

We didn't know WTF to do and phoned the cops. They came about 30 minutes later and after interviewing people refused to make an arrest or press charges. They said the woman was too frightened to make a complaint so they were doing nothing. There were a dozen witnesses willing to stand in court.

That truly disgusted me.

Now last year a similar thing happened while I was walking down the street I saw a guy assault his girlfriend - this time the Police handled it correctly but I was the only witness.

They got to the scene in about 3 minutes and took proper statements etc, they said if it went to court it would be in 6 months time. I never heard a thing again.

It seems if you are a rapist or want to beat women then New Zealand is great.

Gareth,

The sad part is YOU had no standing. SHE did. So only SHE could press charges. The law works SO poorly, that she probably figured it COULD get worse, so she didn't press charges. IRONIC, but OFTEN the case.

Steve

I've had my fair share of run ins with the law, nothing that got me landed in jail. But from what I've experienced and seen, and heard, I don't trust them.
You have your honest cops, who got into the profession for the right reasons, then you have some people who just want to exert their authority on other people. Who let race, gender, sexuality, or anything else guide their judgement in dealing with the public.

I understand it's a hard and dangerous job, and I appreciated it everytime I called them for their assistance, but, all in all, I feel there are just way too many things they keep from the public. So that makes me wary of their actions, and cautious that I might be caught in an unfair situation.

Yes I think I trust them for the most part. Most officers are quite nice.

It depends on what area are you but I do trust them, there are some areas also I don't trust either in my country.

Never trust a motorcycle cop! They entire job is only to write tickets! I bet they would pass an accident if they felt no one was at fault

HI,
ya, i believe the polish and Government.because Polish is a part of Government.

Well i do not believe them... They always come late and there are lot of suspicious people present in police also...

Well, there's a problem in a nutshell. Just because you are a woman doesn't mean you can rely on police to be around when some scumbag wants to terrorize you.

Actually - laws are being changed so that women don't have to be the ones who file a report against a man who attacks her. That law was actually keeping women victimized because they knew if they filed a report and the cops didn't keep the guy in jail they were dead meat when he was released.

If the cops are called on a guy now who's smacking a woman around in public - if the police are doing their job honestly - that guy can count on jail time whether she picks up a pen or not.
Women also can no longer be denied a home or evicted from one for reasons of abuse. It used to be if a guy came around terrorizing her enough, if the neighbors complained, she was out on her butt for his violence.

Wow...for a moment there, I thought you were speaking about MY country! Several HIGH police officials here have been convicted for fraud, domestic violence, and other crimes. Its a sad commentary about the state of human society, when they very ones who are there to protect and uphold the law are the ones breaking the law.

And lets not talk about drug smuggling. It is widely rumored and believed that many police work closely with druglords. Which would explain why its often so difficult to put a stop the the thriving illegal drug business bot locally and globally!

Fun story --

Back in 2000 in Wyoming a drug dealer was nabbed with 3 pounds of pot. When he got to court he was charged with having 1 pound. Knowing the sentence for one pound and 3 were the same, he asked the Judge to tell him where the other two pounds disappeared to. LOL - heads rolled.

I personally haven't had issues with police here in Canada. What's disconcerting to me is that ex-cops I know don't like police. What's up with that?

no,i don't they are bad ass

No i don't trust police.
Police department is very currupt and not done his duty.

I do, because of personal experience of both the entire organisation (with which I worked very closely in a past life) and many individual officers (whom I also worked very closely with).

I'm surprised by your experience, Gareth: In terms of population, Ireland is about the same size as New Zealand. Small countries have a number of unique advantages in terms of policing. In Ireland's case, the main advantage is that there are no "layers" of policing (like local, county, state, federal, etc.). There is only a single national police force (called An Garda Siochana, or, simply the Gardai), all of whom are employed directly by the national government (rather than any local authority or town). All officers ultimately answer to the Garda Commissioner (the head honcho of the whole force), from whom they are seperated by only a few layers of authority, who, in turn, answers directly to the Minister for Justice. As such, there isn't anyone in between with whom trying to curry favour can produce any real personal advantage, thereby limiting the opportunity for corruption.

Also, all would-be officers must be Irish citizens or long-term (legal) residents, undergo background and security checks by a dedicated unit, followed by 4 years of full-time education and training (all at the same dedicated college, following the same curriculum) and as trainee officers (alongside a fully-qualified Garda), and are never posted to their home town after graduation (in fact, they are often sent to the other side of the country, and can be transferred elsewhere at any time in their career).

All of that adds up to a police force with an incredibly low level of corruption (I can count on one hand the number of serious incidents since the foundation of the Irish State itself) and an astonishingly high level of public satisfaction; I have seen it reach over 90% in many public pollings. (I can't think of any other public body that receives anything close to that kind of approval.)

Tommy.

P.S. - Personally, my level of trust is increased even more by the fact that, unlike in most countries, the Garda Siochana are also responsible for national security, in addition to their policing duties. And, having worked in related fields, I know they have literally saved this country more times than anyone will ever know. As a result, I don't even get mad if I receive a speeding fine in the mail. Honestly, I don't.

Well, gee, Tommy - at your age it's probably a thrill to be able to move at all let alone be faster than should at it.

Actually - Ireland is just different than most places in a lot of ways. Look at Haiti - that's not all that big a place, but look at the disaster level corruption they have going on. Myanmar, same thing. More than a few other small countries are having nightmare problems with police corruption. Look at the other EU countries - are they all on par with Ireland?

The cops in Ireland aren't stupid. They know they are dealing with Irish people. Would YOU want to piss off hordes of Irish people? Cripes Tommy - even terrorists know they will get their butts kicked if they go to Ireland.

I respect my police because they do their best to uphold the law. Police of course have corrupt individuals who ruin it for the good officers. Not all police are bad, but there are some bad apples hanging around.

it really matters what city you're in.. but for the most part i don't.. they pulled me over for having fog lights and tried giving me a dui... all i did was go to a friends bday but happen to have a nice car

Yes, I trust them. You also to trust them. That is the best way to solve the peace and order problem.

I trust the police in my area but I really dislike the arrogant ones and that's most of them.

Well The Police here used to be excellent and crime rates were minimal many years ago.

Things became amiss in the 80's I think.

Thats wonderful those of you with high ratings for the Police. The morale of NZ Police has been through some very low patches and after that some serious corruption cases came to light. Mainly involving sex and drugs not graft as such. Alcoholism is also a problem, or has been in the Police.

I remember many years back I was at a function where one of the top Auckland cops was present, a detective inspector that had been in some high profile cases. He got so drunk he was literally rolling on the floor (its true) and I remember him ranting that most women that get raped are slags and deserve it. This was about 20 years ago.

The cops in Australia are much worse and there have been some serious drug cases and graft involving the cops over there.

The Police do there own survey of Public confidence and it reports about 70% trust the Police here.

Thats from a survey of 10,000 people of whom 37 % have dealt with the Police in the last 6 months.

There's a rule in Phoenix, carry $300 in your car, and you will be alright. I know this from first hand experience.

Here in Iowa, its all small town cop stuff. You know someone that knows someone, you will be alright unless you don't know anyone. Mayors here are known drug dealers, town close to mine, mayor was busted selling over 1 pound of weed to an undercover and it wasn't that brick packed crap from Mexico either. Our local Walmart manager ran around having sex with dudes while he knew he was HIV Positive, nothing happened to him either because he knew someone. Iowa and my area is straight up corrupt.

Former Wilton mayor gets 5 years for drugs

I would have thought that if these were legalized, there would be much less scope for undercover work and corruption. The underworld would not have to pay corrupt policemen for protection.

I trust our police here in Hong Kong. It used to be one of the most corrupt in the world. A police captain made off with the equivalient of over US$100M in the seventies and absconded to Taiwan.

Since then we have had one of the toughest crackdown on corruption and many were sent to jail. It is now regarded as one of the cleanest police forces in the world now.

Yes i trust them they are genuine

nop .. here in Russia police is kinda corrupted place

I Don't know.
On one hand you call them if something is wrong. but yet even if they arrest the person that person is out again within a day or 2/ there has been so much corruption documented all over the place I guess the sad thing is it reflects on what human nature is cops are people and apparently people can be corrupted so cops are no different.

I guess it comes down to do you trust the cops not to arrest you for doing their job
Someone breaks into your house, you beat em half to death or maybe even kill them. do you trust they won't take you away? I don't but that still wouldn't prevent me from doing it. I guess no I don't trust the cops.
-WD

Hmmm I would like to live somewhere that the Police have 90% or more public confidence.

It's a symptom of the society if the police can't be trusted, but generally worldwide the police do have a trustworthy relationship with the members of the public

Yes, that's right! We don't necessary trust the police.

It sounds like things there in New Zealand are changing but that has to do a lot with politics and the culture of the country. But to answer the question of trusting the police, I trust them as much as I trust any other human being. Human beings have flaws.

I live in Indonesia, and I'm telling you I don't trust the police, public prosecutor, the judge, and also the politicians.

Just Imagine you can go to jail for 4 years in a stinkin' cell with overload capacity for stealing a chicken but a person who stole millions of public money only get 2 years in a private cell with air conditioning, television, even a KARAOKE SET ! not only that, they can go out as often as they want as long as they pay to visit their family or doing something else, and they will be set free before their sentence end for good behavior.

most of the people I know in this country don't trust our justice system, the police are already bad from the day they were recruited. You cannot join the police force unless you bribe the recruiter, that's the truth and everybody knows that. So, the first thing they think about after they join the police force is how to get their money back. Do you know what they do after the initiation ceremony? the seniors took the new policemen to the street and told them to stop every vehicle that did every minor violation so they could get money from the driver who didn't want to get a ticket. Usually most drivers in this country already put in some money inside their car registration or driver's license in case they got stopped by the police.

Almost every big crime in this country involving the police, so it's very understandable if the people don't trust them. In this country unless there's a murder or an armed robbery people won't bother to call the police, because usually they don't help much and again it costs money. they will ask you to pay just to make a stolen thing report, isn't that ridiculous? Most of us don't even know their emergency number, because we never think about calling them at all

I have no trust in the police of my area. They are corrupt and always demand for bribe for doing their own job. This is really disgusting!!

Not all of them. Some are indeed goods but those crooked and corrupted one are still around.

No, I definitely do not trust the police. I thought New Zealand was a safe place too. Geez I guess not.

I was always told - Keep your friends close, enemies closer, police and journalists closer still. So yes, i trust them. As much as I trust journalists.

Bottom line is absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't know how it is in police stations all over, but I know in the town where I grew up, a lot of the kids that went on to be cops, only did so they could get back all the people that messed with them in highschool. I feel like thats why a majority of cops joined up, because they get a hard on being douch bags. This is one opinion I won't be swayed on: a large number of cops just so they can treat people like crap, and feel that sense of power. Because at then end of the day when they go home, and take off the uniform and the badge, the have nothing left. Sorry to all you decent cops out there, but you should step up and get rid of the riff raff.

Some teenagers tried to murder a cop with a Machete here last week and they are discussing arming the Police with handguns.




What is pathetic is that 20 years ago people would have pointed out the movie "Machete" that is on at cinema's at present.

But the sheep have been well and truly drenched in New Zealand - nobody even noticed.

Personally even though I don't trust the cops I do favor arming them as the gangs and meth dealers are already armed.

I do not trust police, because most of police are involved in lots' of illegal doings such as gambling, killing, illegal drugs, prostitution. But I'm not saying that all police are doing this kind of stuff.

I trust police, not actually this is a discussion for professional but for people, not only people can do bad work. even IM, webmaster, doctor, police, being bad, is not about talking profession but this is about a behavior of an individual.

I trust the police in our town because they really help us and protect our life, wealth and our town with the Honesty. Some peoples are not good in police but most of people in police are good and honest with his work and country.

Not always but some time i trust on them.

Sure there are good police out there, but all you have to do is to watch the news to see the bad ones.

Just driving around you see police breaking the law by speeding, not using turn signals and such, so what else will they do.

I think they should respect the laws and give others a good example. Too bad...

Thank goodness for the good ones though.

Lambert

NO
oh did i mention NO

HELL NO!!! I do not trust the police in my area...they are very racist
They pull over anybody who is Hispanic or African American. I have been pulled many times by the Torrance police dept.

Oh and did I mention out of all the times I have been pulled over by them...I only received 1 citation because my 3rd brake light was out.

I never trust Police...
all police man are corrupted..

sometime . police not all of they are bad