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WildBill wrote:

srothstein wrote: We fight it and try our best to get new cops to develop hobbies and hang around with non-cops when off duty.

How do you do this?

There are several ways, some that are direct and some that are a little more subtle. During my academies, I teacha class on officer safety. I break the class down into three areas: physical, financial, and mental. Obviously we spend a lot of time on the physical side with how you can get hurt and so on. It is what most cops expect when they see a class titled officer safety. I also add in the parts on being sued and how to treat people right as a self-interest thing. I go over what gets complaints filed and how to avoid being sued as a person (instead of as an official that the agency would defend). A lot of cops are unaware that they can be targeted for the lawsuit in such a manner as the department will not defend them.

And I add in the mental part, bringing up burnout, stress, the suicide rate, divorce rate, etc. It is always mentioned during this part of the class with asking them what they did as hobbies before, what they can do now and so on.

For the subtle part, I try to get them to interact with people during the academy when I can. this gets a little trickier because I have to do it in such a manner as to cover the agency also. But, I do it. For example, during the last academy, when we had a slack day, we scheduled tours of a vineyard, distillery, and brew pub so the agents got to meet the people working there in a non-adversarial manner. It also showed them some things most had never seen before (a real still for example). I try to get other non-officers involved in classes when I can. We made sure this time that our auditors (non-sworn employees who check bars also) were treated equally with the agents during the training, even having the auditors riding along on patrol. Using the non-sworn employees of the agency is a start on the problem, though not as complete since they still work with us. When I can, I will get others involved also. Anything that helps both sides (the citizens and the officers) know each other as people helps prevent the problem.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. First, as pointed out, even if the CHL numebrs double, it is still not a really significant portion of the public. And that is without taking into account how many will actually meet the police.

I think, if anything, the numbers of CHL's meeting the police growing is a good thing. One of the major problems in police work is remembering that there are good people out there who are not cops. Having a CHL reminds the cops of this very subtly. But it does work to remind cops of this. It has been well documented as a problem for cops that after a certain time period (usually the first couple years), they tend to start seeing the world as a mixture of cops and bad guys. If you are not a cop, you are bad. This comes about because the rookies tend to get assigned to the worst neighborhoods and all they get to deal with are the bad people. The few good people they get to deal with are in a bad situation. Off duty they tend to hang out with other cops. So, it is easy for some cops to develop the cops versus everyone attitudes.

We fight it and try our best to get new cops to develop hobbies and hang around with non-cops when off duty. This keeps them in the real world where there are good guys, bad guys, and the biggest majority (including most cops) are somewhere in between. It helps them remember that the average person is a good person, even if he just made a mistake and did something wrong. It also helps them keep in touch with how the rest of the community sees the crime problem and what makes a bad person bad. When they come up on a CHL, there is a gentle reminder that this is a good person who just made some minor mistake. If they are not yet in the us versus them attitude, this helps them realize that not everyone needs to get a ticket or go to jail. So, I figure the more cops get this quiet reminder, the better they are. After all, in real life, 90% of the people are good people.

I think this quiet reminder is also why so many cops do let CHL's off with minor violations. It is not a hard and fast rule, but it is a reminder that even a good person can make a minor mistake. And for those of us who like guns, it gives us something to talk about with you to be even more person like. I think I am more likely to be easier with you fi I see you as a person, and you are more likely to listen to my wanring and learn from it if you see me as a person and friend, instead of a nameless authority figure.