Do You Trust The Police?

[cockneygeezer2009]

After the Duggan shooting, Jean Charles de Menezes shooting, Hillsborough, News of the World payments, a copper blatantly lying to bring down a politician and other incidents, do you trust the police?

There has been other instances of bad/criminal police behaviour by police in the last few years. What I?m asking is bad/criminal behaviour endemic in our police forces or is just a few bad apples/rogue policemen?

I accept there are bad people in all professions including doctors, solicitors, bankers and politicians. Methinks the police themselves should do more to get rid of the bad coppers rather than close ranks and protect bad, lying and incompetent officers.

Trusting the police to do their job honestly and without prejudice is essential if they want to maintain the full public support of everybody (crims excepted).

[3SS]

Not really, but I trust gangs with guns a hell of a lot less

[cockneygeezer2009]

"Not really, but I trust gangs with guns a hell of a lot less"

Gangs do kill more people per year than coppers do.

[3SS]

In seriousness, as a Liverpool fan my trust in the police was never high.

That said I also believe that most police are hardworking people who want to do right. Ive found most corruption tends to be from higher up in most forms, whether it be the police, government, businesses etc.

We live in dangerous times with criminals more armed than ever, whether its knives or guns. The moment you do pick up a weapon, far as im concerned its open season. I would rather the police act rather than hesitate and risk someone else or themselves be hurt. We have one less gang member on the streets and I will not shed one tear over that.

[max_tranmere]

Overall I do, a few rotten apples doesn't make the whole barrel bad. People who think that 2 or 3 in a hundred means they are all bent are the same kind of people who assume that because there are a small handful of people within a certain ethnic group who commit crime then that whole ethnic group are criminals, and so on. People must look at how the majority of that category of person are not that way - therefore I would say overall that the Police are good people. The minimal number of dealings I've had with them have always involved dealing with caring, straight, honest officers.

I read in the London Evening standard yesterday that the London gang boss Terry Adams, who is probably London's biggest gangster, was saying that over the last 10 or 20 years a number of officers at Scotland Yard have helped the underworld by letting them know all kinds of things about criminal trials and about other criminal figures, all for money. This sort of thing was much worse years ago, in the 1970's most of the Soho Vice Squad were jailed for corruption as they would tip off illegal premises that they were about to be raided - always in return for cash. It was quite common in the 1970's for wealthy people to be stopped by the Police whilst driving, and have to bribe the coppers with a wad of notes so that they didn't plant something in their boot.

This all goes on a lot less now, even one corrupt copper is one too many, but I think overall the Police are good people. They put their lives on the line to protect the public, and are always criticised. Most people in ordinary jobs do not put their lives on the line and I think overall the Police deserve respect. The small minority who are bad though need to be weeded out and punished.

[Arginald Valleywater]

Problem is now people see the Police as a well paid career rather than a vocation. A younger colleague if mine is leaving our company to join the local fuzz purely because he sees it as being a better paid. He is a mercenary sod who would sell his grandmother for money to buy another designer shirt. Same with a lot of other local coppers who get more excited over a weekend's overtime than catching criminals. Sad reflection on society.

[Cuntybollocks]

We live in dangerous times with criminals more armed than ever, whether its knives or guns. The moment you do pick up a weapon, far as im concerned its open season. I would rather the police act rather than hesitate and risk someone else or themselves be hurt. We have one less gang member on the streets and I will not shed one tear over that

Well said that man!!

[one eyed jack]

If theyre doing the job theyre supposed to do...Yes

But they are human too and like most humans when they make mistakes they take risks in the hope a problem won't go beyond what it is until it comes back and bites them on the arse then they have to face whether too do the right thing (good cop) or continue with the lie (bad cop)

Thats the duality of man. Theyre not robots.

Do I trust people? Sometimes...But I aint that dumb to trust em all.

The police have breached a lot of trust through human error and bad judgement calls. I the case of Mark Duggan I seriously think we havent seen the end of this. i dont think it will result in more riots but im convinced the truth will come out from where we least expect it...

Jut like the officer who admitted to lying in the plebgate affair. In the Duggan scenario I believe some people are not going to sleep well on the truth an are trying to convince themselves he is a scumbag with a gun who deserved to die...I reckon there are too many witnesses that day that know what really happened

But then I could be way out of line and totally wrong because I wasnt there but something don't add up. The truth was just not cut and dried enough for me to believe it was more than what it was.

[Gentleman]

I was wondering if due to the percieved "disconnect' between justice and the law and what the role of the police actually is social worker or responsible for locking criminals also teamed up with the sheer politicalisation of policing its understandable no none trusts the police as a organisation.

[David Johnson]

I suppose I do trust the majority of policemen, but that isn't really based on anything. I have hardly had any dealings with the police and I suspect that is the same for the majority of people.

I expect that the trust in the police generally is dropping. Apparently recent polls suggest that 1 in 4 people are less likely to trust the police after the news of the police attempt to "fit up" a Tory cabinet minister.

As an example of how reluctant Joe Public is to convict the police of any misdemeanours I posted these stats



which are incredibly low in terms of finding the police culpable of deaths in custody etc etc.