There is a sentiment right now, among certain people, that if you do nothing illegal, the police will not bother you.
I wish that were true, but it just ain’t so.
Let me back up a bit.
It is true for some people. It is true in many communities. It is true with most police.
The problem is, that if it is not true for all people, in all communities, with all police, it isn’t true.
The analogy here would be like saying that police do not need to wear guns or approach cars cautiously, that they do not risk their lives, because most people do not shoot at police.
It only takes a very small number of cop killers to make all police cautious in every situation. The same way, it only takes a few bad officers to make some people and some communities very scared of the police.
I would argue that those who believe that if you do nothing illegal, you have nothing to fear from police, believe that because they have been blessed to live in a community where they are safe and protected by good officers. Those beliefs are formed because they have never needed to worry about that one bad officer.
Until I moved to central Ohio I had a very negative view of police. Growing up deep in the mountains, we rarely saw law enforcement of any type. When I went to college, the university had a police force made up largely of criminal justice majors and grad students. They served more as security guards than actual law enforcement, but there were a couple who gave all of them a bad reputation. The local police were even more dangerous. The police chief, named Dennis McMasters, openly joked that he wanted to create a McMasters race in the college town. Eventually, the community decided to disband that police department and start over. The process took longer than it should have because McMaster refused to disband. (I got my only ride in a police car while in Shippensburg, because, and I am not exaggerating one bit, I was a college student in the wrong part of town and when I parked in front of a convenience store, I backed out and pulled in again to straighten my car. The officer took that as a sign of reckless driving. Despite passing repeated field sobriety tests and explaining the situation, the officer put me in his car, took me home and made me go the next day to the police station to get my car. While I was not cited or ticketed, I did need to pay a fee to get my car out of impound. Ultimately a letter from an attorney with a lawsuit threat got the money returned.
When I moved to central Ohio, former Plain City Police Chief Steve Hilbert changed my view of law enforcement. He was a police chief that valued and demanded professionalism and service. He used a common-sense approach and treated everyone with respect and dignity.
Many in Union County are privileged that they can believe that those who do not break the law have nothing to fear from police. They are blessed that the law enforcement officers here are good and have been for years. There may be a couple bad officers, but the vast, vast majority are honest, straight-arrow police.
I am not saying police should be defunded. I am saying the opposite. I am saying that in an environment where leaders and officers alike take seriously their responsibility to protect and serve, it is easy to think that all officers are here to protect and serve.
It isn’t until you and your community are forced to deal with bad ones, that people begin to understand why some people and some communities are afraid.
The next time you think to yourself that those who do not break the law have nothing to fear, take a moment to give thanks that we have a police department that lets you believe this.
-Mac Cordell is a reporter for the Journal-Tribune.