Replies

In police-public relations, it is important to look at both sides of the coin. But this is usually done with the police on one side, and people who hate the police on the other side.

However, the vast majority of people *don’t* hate the police, and are often more than willing to help the police, sometimes directly, and sometimes indirectly. And the more that police realize this, the more they might be inclined to take advantage of this help to achieve some rather important goals for society.

In particular, I am thinking of the many situations where the police are constrained, but the public is not.

I first learned of this in a situation that was *almost* corrupt, but whose overall ends were worth at least some consideration.

A city had a newly elected liberal government, that was pretty much anti-police, making their ROE impossibly strict, and in the face of a particularly nasty and violent criminal element, risking the lives of the police and the public. However, someone in the PD came up with an effective end-around to the problem.

The city also had an “outlaw” motorcycle gang of some size. And while they involved themselves with some crime and violence, it was never too obnoxious, mostly in-house, and it was never really offensive to the public or the police. They even “arrested well”, when the police were ordered to suppress them some, which they were at intervals.

In any event, the police reached an “entent” with the MC gang, so if they were in a position of conflict with a “protected person”, the cop would “call a biker”, to “resolve” the evil liver, after the cop left.

The technique proved effective at keeping the violent criminal element under control, at the price of the police being less inclined to hassle the bikers over mostly minor things.

I use this as an extreme example, but also to illustrate how the police may get some cooperation from the public.

It is an often used plot device in police dramas, that a particularly nasty, threatening and murderous criminal offender is held at police gunpoint, which is usually resolved by the policeman arresting them, “letting the courts handle it”, instead of the emotionally gratifying execution of “someone who needs killing.”

However, in many cases, the public is not held to this standard. If they feel “at imminent risk” from a vicious criminal, in most states they can act as “judge, jury and executioner”, putting down said criminal without having to carefully follow all the rules set forth by the police.

Now, this being said, the police are often aware of many honest people, who are well armed and willing and likely to defend themselves, their family and property, from violent criminals.

So when the police are constrained from righteously killing some evil fiend, there is nothing preventing them from subtly steering the villain into trespass against an armed and prepared honest citizen willing to dispatch them.

Of course there is no copyright on this idea, and it has likely been done by police for many years, solving many of the worst villains in society.