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Messing With "Them"
The police ride-along was fascinating. It was just what it sounds like—I rode along w/an officer as he did his daily duties. It wasn't a very exciting or busy day, but even the routine calls were interesting since I'd never been on any call at all before. We responded to:
- A shoplifting call where a woman allegedly stuffed over $100 worth of steak into her purse and walked out of a grocery store. The officer said he recently busted someone who pushed an entire cartfull of merchandise out to her car w/out paying for it. If you're going to shoplift, do it in style. (But note: If the value of the stuff you're taking exceeds a certain amount—$200 in our jursidiction—you'll be charged w/a felony instead of a misdemeanor). No arrest; suspect long gone.
- A call about a suspicious person where we found a guy sleeping in the middle of a restaurant parking lot, just laying on the asphalt between parked cars. The guy said he had a mental disability and was on his way to see his counsellor when he just got distracted and decided he wanted a warm place to sleep. Apparently the asphalt fit the bill. Very strange. No arrest—the cops were pretty nice to the guy.
- A call about a woman asking a parking cop where she could buy crack. I kid you not. When we got there and talked to her, it seemed fairly clear she was high. No arrest; just threats.
- A call about a 13-year-old boy threatening a 9-year-old boy to get the younger kid to give him money. What can the police do about this? Next to nothing, but that doesn't stop them from trying. No arrest; just threats.
I have some thoughts on the experience that I don't have time to share, including the awesome technology at the disposal of the police (they've got laptops in every cruiser that are always online), as well as the way police dehumanize the people they "mess with" or otherwise interact with. I think perhaps my cop's world is divided into three kinds of people: Us (cops), Citizens (people who aren't cops and aren't criminals), and Them (criminals and poor people who are basically criminals waiting to commit crimes). After the ride-along, one of my fellow interns asked how it was and I said the cop I was riding with seemed like a nice guy. She responded by saying she's not going to take a ride-along because it seems like everyone who comes back from one has a better opinion of the cops. I suggested that might not be such a bad thing. Her response:
Why is it ok for the cops to dehumanize the people they arrest so they'll be able to do their jobs easier, but it's not ok for me to dehumanize the cops in order to do my job [as a defense attorney] easier?
It's a great question. But wouldn't it be nice if we could figure out a system where nobody had to dehumanize anyone else in order to sleep at night?
Posted July 14, 2004 07:25 AM | 1L summer
relatedly, is doing your job efficiently the only goal that's important? because what about the humanity of the cops/perps?
Posted by: monica at July 14, 2004 04:08 PM
I'm glad you had a good time on your ride-along.
Except you need to do another one. The real reason to do police ride-alongs is to feel how much acceleration those cop cars have when a robbery call comes in.
Posted by: Carey at July 14, 2004 06:34 PM
Monica: My point exactly. The cops are human, the people they arrest are human. It seems to me we've got problems when the cops feel that in order to do their jobs they have to view suspects as less than human, and we have problems when defense attorneys feel that in order to do their jobs they have to view cops as less than human. I'm not sure what to do about this, though. It almost seems that seeing suspects as less than human is a prerequisite to being a cop. But then, that may just be me dehumanizing the cops, and so the circle goes.
Carey: You're right. I did not witness a good demonstration of the raw, jaw-dropping power that is the Chevy V-8's accelleration. I'm glad you mentioned it though, b/c that's something I wanted to point out: My cop drove like crap. He was constantly cutting people off, drifting into other people's lanes, running stop signs, etc. And this wasn't in pursuit or responding to calls, it was just driving around. I watched another officer do similar things. These guys seem to have a sense of entitlement on the road, as if just b/c they're driving police cars they don't have to be too careful about being good, safe, defensive drivers. And they're not wrong. Who's going to give a cop a traffic ticket?
But I may actually do another ride-along. I want to go at night to see how things are different when the cops respond to a violent crime of some kind. That's where the rubber meets the road....
Posted by: ambimb at July 14, 2004 07:34 PM
My only cop ride-along was at night, and we did go to a robbery call (didn't find the perp). It almost made me want to be a cop.
That, and all the time we spent sitting in parking lots with another cruiser, passing a bag of jellybeans through the window, and griping about various defense lawyers.
Posted by: Carey at July 15, 2004 04:45 PM
