The Expectation of Constant Perfection

What is the perfect police officer? We are at a time when only perfection seems to be accepted of a police officer. Activists, protesters, and civil rights attorneys are expecting an officer to act or react perfectly in every situation. When the officer is less than perfect, the officer is immediately called a racist, sexist, homophobe, or other derogatory name. Then the demands for suspension, termination, and/or arrest start. All this happens before the incident is examined in detail. Do you do your job perfectly all the time? Do you ever make the wrong choice? 

A recent example is the police response to protests. If there is a large police presence at a protest, then the police are blamed for inciting the riot because they are there. If no riot happens, the officers are accused of overreacting. If there is a small police presence at a protest, then the police are blamed for not being ready for the riot because there lack of presence allowed the riot to happen. If no riot happens, the police are still blamed as the reason for the protest in the first place. It appears to be a no-win situation for the police.

As a comparison, consider a football team under the same conditions of constant perfection. That means the offense scores every possession and the defense is never scored on. Now think about the quarterback with extreme oversight. They are not alone in the backfield. Several people with cameras are criticizing every move the quarterback makes. Those people are fans of the opposing team and want the quarterback to lose. Instead of focusing on the play, the quarterback now must worry about the people filming getting in the way of the play by accident or more likely, on purpose. How perfect would that quarterback be in their decision making? How successful would that team be?

Policing obviously requires extreme oversight compared to other professions because of the nature of the job. That oversight must be by people trained in policing in general, case laws, and the specific agencies policies. It cannot be just random people selected from the population. No other profession has an oversight group that are not knowledgeable about the profession. No other profession has oversight organizations whose purpose is to find fault as opposed to finding the truth about a complaint. The officer did not swear and use a racial slur, but they did not properly introduce themselves. How successful will you be at your job with that level of oversight?

To help with these issues officer need the support of their agency. Agencies must release information related to highly publicized incidents as soon as possible. Information should not be withheld for any reason, including political. If the known information is not released, then others will decide what the public hears. It does not help a police agency to devote resources to debunk false information because the agency was afraid to issue any information or was directed not to. Either way it still seems to be the involved officer’s fault or a cover-up.

An example related to the release of information and perfect police is the police involved shooting. When agencies withhold information, the civil rights attorneys, activists, and/or protesters set the narrative in the media. At first they say there was no gun; then there was a gun, but it was not pointed at the officer; then the gun was pointed at the officer, but it was not fired; then the gun was fired, but the officer was not hit by the bullet; then the gun was fired and the officer hit, but something the officer did caused the shooting to happen. As these narratives continually change in the media, their accuracy and honesty are seldom questioned. The officer is still presented as untruthful when the officer has not said anything. 

We officers must remember that those expecting perfection and yelling at us the loudest, are a small group of citizens. Do not stress about being perfect for them because they will always blame us.  Most citizens recognize the necessity of policing and the difficulties associated with it. They give us the grace to be imperfect humans, like we all are. They are there and they appreciate us, but they are not as loud. Keep doing the best that you can for yourself, those that support us, and yes, those that hate us. While they are blaming us and trying to harm us, they still need our protection, even though they will never admit it.