Will hatred of law enforcement cause a shortage of police officers in the US?

Felons should be allowed to be cops

No, the pay is good enough where even those who hate cops would be cops if they could. And there's probably enough people to fill any shortage just on the power trip alone.

No, but I think the quality of cops will change (for the worse), especially in crime ridden areas where the citizens there despise them.

No but I think the hatred of police will definitely result in some of us being less diligent when it comes to helping others.

Nah man

If OT is any indication there are far more people who support cops then the number of people who prejudge unfairly to a great degree.

I'll go with these 2 answers...

That may be true, but I think it's the intensity (support vs hate) that matters. Having detractors is one thing...having tons of people who basically equates you to being pigs, scum, and murderers on a daily basis and having to deal with that same type of person every day has to take an emotional toll. As airshocker said, I think at some point you will just become disillusioned and the level of help you will want to do will wane.

I think the whole thing is a negative feedback loop to be honest so I don't lay the blame on those people altogether. Crooked and abusive cops certainly are a cause, and it all just feeds back when the citizens the good ones are trying to protect start to, rightfully in a way, despise them.

I think the majority of people who hate cops aren't the kind of people that work hard and thus wouldn't be cops anyway.

I think the quality of cops is only going to go up though. I've heard that Police academies mostly take ex military now.

I wasn't suggesting that people who hate police officers would ever consider becoming one. I was thinking more of the possibility that people who actually do want to be officers decline to do so because they don't want to be the target of hatred or even false accusations from people who do hate cops. It's kind of like how after Vietnam some people didn't want to enlist because they didn't want to be called babykillers or get spat on.

Although the potential for decreased efficiency is present, the scrutiny by the citizens upon those who volunteer to serve and protect will ideally bring forth the best of those individuals. Otherwise, those who are unable to adhere to the values of being an officer of the law might not be suited for that sort of career in the current America. More policing rather than better policing could be viewed as another form of another power imposing control without representation like Great Britain and the American colonies which as we should all know was known as "taxation without representation." The fundamental issue was not taxing, but laws without association to the common citizen. I think educated Americans may be careful of any sign of that event repeating itself in other forms on a subconscious level which is why the civil unrest has been going on for as long as it has in Ferguson, Missouri.

I'm still on the fence on whether or not if I wanna still go through Law Enforcement Academy, it's not cause I hate cops, hell I've wanted to be one since like 1st grade, it's just a pain in the ass to go through all the training.

Also as the population grows, the greater need for cops/law enforcement.

This. It's a paying job, so someone's gonna do it. However, if hatred of cops gets widespread enough, then there's definitely a chance of it hurting the QUALITY of the work that they do. Either they'll be less diligent when helping others, they'll be more prone to making deadly mistakes, it'll be harder to get people who do the job WELL, or you'll flat-out have cops hating the people they're supposed to be protecting.

But yeah...we need cops, so someone's gonna take the job. It's just that villification of cops in general is gonna either result in cops doing a worse job, or police departments being forced to hire worse cops. Worst case scenario, this kind of "**** the police" mentality is going to result in MORE innocent people getting killed.

Of course cops (and anyone else, really) should be scrutinized based on their ACTIONS. My problem is when cops get scrutinized and villified for being cops. Right there, that erases the dividing line between "good cops" and "bad cops." And that line must remain intact if we actually want GOOD cops. The second that the public that you're protecting (and I'm not talking criminals here, just the average law-abiding person) sees good cops as the same as bad cops, then that erodes the incentive for being a GOOD cop and is more likely to make cops in general view the general population as an enemy and a threat.

Yes, hold police officers to a high standard. Yes, punish them when the do wrong. But the backlash against cops needs to be based on actions rather than identity, or else that's just a recipe for worse cops and more innocent people being killed. If you want to hate a specific cop because of his specific actions, fine. If you're hating anyone who's wearing the uniform because "**** the police", then you're part of the problem.

Go for it.

The actions of officers should be a focus, but also important is the history of one before joining the police force. Political affiliation is important. For example, I wonder how many would you feel safe with a United States police officer candidate who approves of ISIS after what they did to the American reporter James Foley, Iraqi men, and what they intend to do with Iraqi women and children. Though a certain level of impersonal relations are to be expected and sometimes, personal relations are more so. That goes into what you said about holding police officers to a high standard which I briefly spoke of. I agree with you. The dislike of law enforcement because of assuming that career is to a certain extent redundant and apathetic because rather than approaching with an open mind, there is an expectation of bad things to come with any interaction and that should not be. Not to detract from the various reasons why distrust occurs due to precedents of society or natural carefulness, it is becoming apparent that changes in both law enforcement policy towards community policing and the mentalities of civilians would be good for the overall state of our culture.

Hardly. US military is going to be downsized in the next couple years. The police will be able to fill their ranks nicely.

Maybe the ones not fit to be police officers in the first place.

There will always be stupid brutes to fill the ranks of good police officers don't worry I am sure they will ship some in from the TSA.

@slateman_basic: What makes you think that everyone who is put out of the military or rejected for enlistment due to the drawdown would even want to be a police officer?

Not everyone. But there is a substantial number that do. I know of five guys I served with in the year that have already been accepted and are in the training pipeline.

It just makes sense. Police want some of the skillsets that the military has. Ability with firearms. Ability to do a physically challenging job. Ability to maintain yourself under stressful conditions.

There will be no shortages. But they do need to be trained better, particularly regarding the rights of individuals. Far too many times I see police start getting physical because someone was simply recording them, when it's perfectly legal to do so.

If shortages do happen, I will be happy to move to another country. Which country has lower crime rate than the US? Almost anywhere? I can deal with that.

I wanted to as well to work my way to become an FBI agent. Then I looked in the mirror and realized how my build won't ever change to the way I want it to be, and that I wanted to live a bit longer and not die in a fatal death. Media and tech will be my thing for now.

Your not the only one, I wanted to be a U.S Marshal Since I was in Middle School but then I realize it's not worth it so instead I just want to Nursing School and became a Nurse Practitioner.

I think it might act as a filter, actually. When law enforcement is under such a bad light, I'd think that only people who really have the calling or want to make a difference would join.

This recent crap will all blow over. I'd like to hear the complainers live in a world without cops. Guarantee you if police units stop receiving funding, downsize, those neighborhoods go to complete crap. It's mostly the government's fault anyway. The drug war that is.

To be fair, only the people who express hate behind the internet and under whispers would be crying for their mothers. Gangsters and psychos on the other hand will feel like they're in Disney World.

To my knowledge, there are very little jobs where there is shortage because nobody wants to do them. There are always people looking for a way to make a living. The problem is often jobs whose high requirements prevent interested people from joining in.

I mean, there are so many jobs out there that I can't imagine people would actually like doing, but you don't see a shortage of those jobs.

Nope, enough powerhungry assholes will want to be that now

You may know a few people who want to join the police force after they finish their service but that doesn't mean everybody who is in the military does. If everybody who joined the military wanted to be a police officer then most of the people enlisting would be fighting for MP and Security Forces positions. As for people in the military having the right set of skills the police are looking for, that doesn't matter if they don't have the desire to be a police officer.

Another way to look at it is the military looks for men and women who are intelligent, athletic, and great with teamwork. Despite that, if I went into several colleges and asked 1000 college athletes who got full rides and are getting As and Bs to join most would politely decline, some would laugh in my face, and if I was lucky I might find maybe ten or 15 who are interested.

He just said "Not everyone" on the very post you quoted then you go on and say "that doesn't mean everybody who is in the military does."

Kids have always hated cops and authority figures in general. Most of them will grow out of it like every other generation before them did.

Cops make good money? Since when?

When I lived in Seattle cops in the area when I looked into it started around $60,000 and $70,000 per year, but typically they made much more than that due to overtime pay where many of them would easily rank in $100K to up to $250K incomes, this got noticed a lot more when the city had problems trying to figure out a tighter budget in the face of recession. Yes, they get paid very well, and well enough where people would definitely take these jobs if they were available. Throw in all the free meals they get while in uniform and I'd say the perks are all there for anybody to want to join, unfortunately not everyone can get those jobs, it's no secret that hiring for police and firefighter jobs give nepotistic preference.

Talk about reactionary. The Ferguson thing will blow over and everyone will be back to scrutinize Miley Cyrus' phone finger.

@XaosII: He said a "substantial" amount of them want to be police officers and that is almost like saying everybody does. Some might but most don't.

Yep. Cops make good money these days, especially in larger cities where they unionize. They typically get very good benefits.

doubtful. no college required, retirement after like 20-25 years, great pension for life. i don't see a shortage anytime soon.