Do you trust the police?

Yes. Basic answer. No explanation necessary.

I don’t have much experience with them, but the ones I met were normal and they were nice. I’ve been pulled over a lot for speeding, but when you’re respectful and call them sir or ma’am, they were reciprocal. I’ve gotten out of tickets this way.

Not just because I was an officer, but I believe 99.5% of police officers are trustworthy and love their job in protecting the public.

A slightly ambiguous question. Do I think that police officers are, in general, trustworthy? Well, I’m sure most of them think they’re doing the right thing. Most of the officers I’ve encountered, however, have been violent and unreasonable. So if I see a police officer, I do not give him the benefit of the doubt. In that sense, I suppose I do not trust the police.

Yes I do, as I do all other people from scratch, they ‘just’ have to break my trust before I untrust them in whatever jobs they do.
But I can only give my opinion on the Dutch police; how it is to be policed in other countries I don’t know.

No. The cops around here tend to to be scummish if not downright scumbags. The Police Union purchasing a house next door to the City Mananger for the sake of intimidation? Hell no.

For the most part yes, but, there are some bad apples in every bunch, one does not know until they have an experience. I don’t do anything that makes me a target for law enforcement to prove or disprove my opinion and that’s all right with me. ;-)

About as much as I would trust any other person. They’re people, they’re failable. We’ve had coerced confessions, a state police scandal, and an excessive force lawsuit in the last few years. Be careful.

Pretty much, yes.

Not since Don’t Stand So Close to Me.

Only German Police, and even them not that much. Foreign ones even less.

Yes. They are there when I need them and most that I have met are very nice.

Of course!

Only if I’m asking for directions, I would trust that they would point me in the right direction. Other than that I will walk in another direction if I see any. (Even if I have nothing to hide).

Yes, unless one individual police officer shows that he can’t be trusted. I went to his CO about it, too.

I trust the legal system to protect people far, far less. Only those with money get true justice, and that’s WRONG.

About 95 percent of the time. The other 5 percent is when I hear about the “bad apples”.

Depends upon the nation.

Some yes, some no. As a teen I dealt with enough cops, some are awesome, some were bastards. Most of them though, they’re all right. It’s the ones that lack professionalism or abuse their authority that piss me off. In that same balance though, I’ve seen some police officers go out of their way, or do more then is required of them to help someone. Do I trust the police? Well first of all, whether I do or not, what am I gonna do about it? But overall, yeah I do. Most of em are people doing a job, and can be trusted. Personally, I don’t think the justice system is really anything more than a big corporation, and I don’t trust it, but the police don’t have anything to do with that.

One time Rick and I came suddenly upon a 4 car wreck that had JUST happened. It was night time, very dark, and it’s just the grace of God that we didn’t wreck too. We didn’t see it until we were literally flying past the one car that was knocked sideways in the left late. We immediately pulled over and got out. No one was hurt, and I told every one to put their flashers on!!! A couple of drivers looked at me like, “Whaaa?” I’m sure they were in shock. I said, ”Put your flashers on!!!” Then I told everyone to go stand out in the field, away from the wreck. I almost had to herd them like cattle.

As they did that, Rick pulled up on the left shoulder, facing any oncoming traffic and I started flashing our headlights while Rick stood in front of the headlights waving his arms…...we wound up with a line of cars stopped in front of us, then they slowly crept around the wrecked car in the road. We did that for about 10 minutes until the cops showed up.

After the police showed up one cop said, “You guys…that was good thinking. I’ll bet you saved some lives tonight!”

Right after that, as we were catching our breath and calming down (we weren’t flashing anything any more), another cop came up and said, “We HAVE this under control. You two can quit playing super hero and get out of here.” Asshole.

In general, yes. There are a few bad apples, but for the most part, police are our friends.

I have personally had no negative experiences with police officers here or in the UK.

However, there is enough evidence (Aboriginal deaths in custody/Fitzgerald Inquiry) to show police officers are just as likely to be corrupt or violent as any other citizen. I am therefore cynical about the idea that ‘police officers’ in general are trustworthy.

Yes and no. Police are human beings, I try to judge on an individual basis.

Nope. It’s not individuals I mistrust, but the entire organization. It is set up to protect the interests of the rich and well-heeled. If you are different politically speaking or economically speaking, you are not the people the police watch out for. Yes, they might watch out for you begrudgingly, but you don’t get the benefit of any doubts. and and anything that looks the slightest bit suspicious will get you arrested on the spot. Like the way they treated the occupy movements.

Like I say, that has nothing to do with individual cops, many of whom are nice people. It has everything to do with who pays the police’ salaries, and what they pay them to do (evict folks like “occupy” movementeers).

Edit

It’s interesting. I’d love to serve on a jury, but I can’t because they always ask if you trust the police. When you say you don’t, they kick you off the jury.

My Dad had a lot of friends who were Oakland Police Officers. My neighbor is OPD as well.
They all didn’t mind cracking someones head for information.
Not all cops are bad, and I trust them to make the choice of who is in the right, but I wouldn’t want to be on their shit list.

My sense is that I always have to be on my best behavior around the cops. I have to manage them—manipulate them—because they can’t be trusted to understand any nuance in a situation. For them, things are always black or white.

So when I am in their world, I have to play by their rules simply because they have the guns. That’s the wrong way to be in the world, as far as I’m concerned. If you have power, you should respect it, not just use it because you can.

I’m sure there are cops around who do wield their power with respect, but far too many simply aren’t well trained enough or old enough or bright enough to do so. More importantly, the system they work in doesn’t want them to think. It wants them to enforce the rules. In my opinion, rules-based thinking is the stupidest kind of thinking. It doesn’t really deserve to be called thinking.

Rules are for computers. That’s how programs are written. Unfortunately, in military organizations, rules are for people. Follow the rule. Don’t ask questions. I can never trust a person who inhibits their own questions. I would never trust someone who works for an organization where questions are shut down. Thus my mistrust.

Not really. I have full respect for all the good cops out there who do their job right to protect society, but there are many corrupt cops, and there’s just no way to tell the difference.

Yes.
I trust John :)

You can always find bad somebodies in any profession accountants, teachers, lawyers, etc. But to me the job of the policeman, the soldier, to protect the citizenry is one that is difficult enough and doesn’t really need people to sit around talking about the ones who didn’t act appropriately. They deserve our thanks, not our criticism.

@comity With all due respect, a policy of never questioning authority is how police states form. Criticism is essential to freedom, and that includes criticism of accountants, teachers, and lawyers—not just the police.

@SavoirFaire I understand. I criticise my kids too, but I also compliment the good. Tell me something good that you know when it comes to the policemen in your area. Overdoing criticism sometimes backfires in politics. Obama’s rating with all the attacks is going up!!

Some of the police in our town are serious dick-heads (Sorry comity!) But at the end of the school year, when all the kids are on the school playground doing end of year fun stuff, it’s cool to see the police out there playing with them and talking to them. :)

@comity I believe that my original answer is balanced. But if you’d like something specific, the local police were quite helpful when my wife and I were hit by a drunk driver earlier in the year.

@SavoirFaire did they catch the driver?

@wundayatta Nothing quite so dramatic. Her car was not drivable, and she was too drunk to run away. So I guess they did catch her, it just wasn’t really a chase. What was most helpful was how good they were about answering my various inquiries while I was trying to expedite the insurance battle process. If their investigation of the scene hadn’t been so thorough, and if they hadn’t included several minor details from my testimony in their report, I never would have been able to back the woman’s insurance company into a corner. This was much different than when I got into an accident while living in New York and the police officer who arrived at the scene never even took my statement.