The motto “To Serve and Protect” has been adopted by several police departments and is what the entertainment world most often expresses as the police departments main purpose. This is done while portraying officers as the ultimate crime fighting saints who do no wrong and make no mistakes. Television shows such as America’s Most Wanted, Bait Car, and COPS mostly display the “thrilling” aspects of policing with car chases, large drug busts, man hunts, and shoot outs but this is far from the truth. Because of the media and the entertainment world generations of people have grown up knowing the stereotypes and the negative aspects of policing instead of the truth.
I appreciate the work that police officers do, putting their lives on the line in order to keep our society from complete chaos and anarchy. …show more content…
I have had members of my close and immediate family that have had more than one run in with the law, and even though the punishment may have been correct for the offense, this does not make me anymore fond of the law. Also with the increase in “police brutality” cases against African Americans, which I also happen to be, consequently causing me to become wary of the law and further decrease what faith I have. I wanted to change my outlook of police officers and try to get a better understanding of how they worked so I chose to do a police ride-along with the Marietta Police Department. When the process began I was expecting more structure of sorts, mostly in regards to making an appointment and guidelines/rules that would need to be followed. I chose to do my ride-along on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. but due to how the ride along started we made the decision for me to do a full eight hour shift (3 p.m. to 11 p.m.); I was paired with Officer Daniel Van Ness, I was told to arrive at the station no more than 30 minutes early so I could make it to roll call, but miss the private meetings
I appreciate the work that police officers do, putting their lives on the line in order to keep our society from complete chaos and anarchy. …show more content…
I have had members of my close and immediate family that have had more than one run in with the law, and even though the punishment may have been correct for the offense, this does not make me anymore fond of the law. Also with the increase in “police brutality” cases against African Americans, which I also happen to be, consequently causing me to become wary of the law and further decrease what faith I have. I wanted to change my outlook of police officers and try to get a better understanding of how they worked so I chose to do a police ride-along with the Marietta Police Department. When the process began I was expecting more structure of sorts, mostly in regards to making an appointment and guidelines/rules that would need to be followed. I chose to do my ride-along on Sunday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. but due to how the ride along started we made the decision for me to do a full eight hour shift (3 p.m. to 11 p.m.); I was paired with Officer Daniel Van Ness, I was told to arrive at the station no more than 30 minutes early so I could make it to roll call, but miss the private meetings