The Hazard County Register
Why Cops Can’t Protect You
Editorial by Kevin Nevel
A young pregnant woman disappears from her home in Modesto, California. Snipers and anthrax letters terrorize Washington, D.C. Extremists live among us, plotting our demise. The President changes the U.S. threat level to “High”. We have only to pick up a newspaper or watch an evening news broadcast to see what those of us in the Law Enforcement community have known all along: your local cops can’t protect you!
The fact is that most Law Enforcement entities are reactive in nature, meaning that they spend most of their time responding to public calls for help, rather than actually trying to prevent crime before it happens. In the age of community policing, the average beat cop is swamped with family spats, calls for service, neighborhood meetings and endless trails of pointless paperwork. Sure, it’s nice to see a uniformed cop at your monthly PTA meeting, but who is out patrolling our streets for thieves and rapists while he’s fielding questions about parking tickets and playground bullies? Overworked and understaffed in these post-September 11th days, most Law Enforcement agencies are scrambling to keep up.
If a street cop does get a few free minutes, she’s sitting on a stop sign somewhere, trying to write a ticket to keep the supervisor off of her back. Or he’s catching up on reports, or checking the problem areas on his beat, or grabbing a quick cup of coffee. If the patrol cop is ambitious, you can bet he’s doing case follow up at the station in hopes of finding a quicker path to a detective desk, and away from the chaos of the uniformed cop.
And if you live in a big city with a higher crime rate, your chances of being a victim rise dramatically, while the likelihood of preventative police patrols decreases exponentially. The proactive field teams like NET (Neighborhood Enforcement Team), and the now defunct LAPD CRASH, are usually directed at specific problems like gangs, street-level narcotics and prostitution, or areas of violent crime. You won’t find one of these specialized teams staked out in your living room, just in case a residential burglar decides to visit you some night.
If you encounter the police, they will be polite, efficient and all business. Our Law Enforcement professionals work tirelessly in the face of increasing criticism, budget cuts and the war on terrorism. They do a difficult and dangerous job that few of us truly understand or appreciate, and they do it very well. So, the next time that you encounter one of your local boys or girls in blue, extend a hand and offer your heartfelt thanks. They have certainly earned it.
Just don’t ask them to protect you.
Kid-Kit: Child I.D. & Safety Package The Kid Kit™ is a confidential home file system that organizes pertinent and helpful information about your child. (Includes both CD-ROM and printed versions)