Have you ever listened to a police scanner?

[B2G]

I mean really listened. For an extended period of time. And imagined you had to deal with that day in, day out.

You couldn't pay me enough to do that job.

[Separation]

1. Listening to one right now

I'm listening to what's going on at the mall shooting (4 dead) at Washington state right now.

[B2G]

2. Any new info?

Have they caught the guy yet?

[Separation]

4. Not yet

They are widening their zone now to include the highway. I hope they catch the guy. He was described as "Hispanic looking".

Also they are still searching the mall.

[uppityperson]

6. There's a picture out now, young man with a rifle, dark hair.

[Separation]

5. Also

If you have a smart device android, iPod, etc you can download a scanner. Go to top 100 listened to scanners while in the app and it'll take you there. I actually happened upon it as I was listening to Charlotte. NC, and Atlanta, Ga.

There are website that list the codes so you can get an idea what's going on as well.

[B2G]

9. I use Broadcastify

Great little app.

[Separation]

16. Plot thickens

They just passed info on a possible second suspect. White male, balding and a goatee. Was seen with the primary suspect at the AMC theatre.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I've been on a couple of citizen ride-alongs.

Sat in the back seat with a drunk they were taking to detox, got to watch them track down a burglar, got to operate the siren, watched the hookers ply their trade (they were left alone; too much other stuff going on). It was interesting; I can see the attraction for the job in some respects because there's always something happening and it's seldom routine. But you sure do see the cruddy side of life.

[B2G]

7. Same with social workers

Burnout level is really high.

I know. I only lasted 2 years. I almost started therapy towards the end.

[kristopher]

18. Both professions are being tasked with doing the impossible.

They are the band-aid for an economically dysfunctional society. The crime, mental health and broken family stats here are directly tied to our feudal approach to wealth distribution. If we can fix that and in the process build a strong, vested, middle class then the remaining ills will be at a level where humanity can be part of police, social and emergency medicine job descriptions and recruitment goals.
IMO

[Fast Walker 52]

26. yes, I agree

they are more a symptom than the actual problem, even if especially police, cause serious problems.

[RKP5637]

27. Yep, Agree!!!!! n/t

[Sunlei]

51. good post. police shouldn't be 'delivering warrants' for a community court system in the first place

Some local communities (like Ferguson) use an endless system of local citations, fine payment systems, warrant if late for endless court dates, constant stop and frisk. IMO, unconstitutional.

Police are also expected to be enforcers for local ordinance citations, home evictions,help kick people out of hospitals, be mental health professionals...those tasks shouldn't be assigned as police work in any community.

[Kilgore]

35. My son in law is a State Trooper in a very rural area

You could not pay me enough to do that job. He calls it hours of boredom broken by the stress of approacing a pulled over car with no idea what will happen. His nearest backup is 40 miles away in the next county.

[melman]

8. Yes

I was living in Boston when the marathon bombing happened and I listened to the scanner a lot, especially the night all the shit was going down in Watertown.


I noticed that almost any time someone on CNN said 'we're hearing' , etc, it was something I just heard on the scanner.


Ever since whenever there's a developing crime story and they are talking about it non-stop, and the person goes, 'I'm being told..blah blah'. I always thing it's the producer feeding them stuff they got right off the scanner.

[Separation]

11. I noticed the same!

I remember first thinking that when that ex cop went on that rampage and then they ended up burning him down in that cabin.

It was pretty obvious during the Boston Marathon though. Like you said, something interesting would come over the scanner and then a minute or two later CNN would say, "We're being told that this is happening now." Very sloppy journalism, but I guess they, "they gotta do what they gotta do", to become first with the news. Even if it is wrong.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. I seldom listen to scanners. But I think someone posted a link to the Boston bomber search scanner

It was insane!

[WDIM]

10. We need fewer police with better pay.

And a better education system to teach people how to be decent human beings.
Don't steal, don't kill, don't beat, don't hate, these things are such simple things.

But we live by example. Look at our leaders, and the rich and powerful, They steal, They kill, They hate, They exploit,

How can a leader say killing is wrong when they are the ones killing people? Or encouraging others to kill people? Or by saying the answer to violence is more violence. The people in power promote death everyday. The invisible boogie man be affraid. Of everyone and everything don't even go outside...

This world isn't going to change until we as a people demand leaders that choose non-violence. We don't even have that choice in our politics both parties are hawk's and in the pocket of the arms industry.

Cops are under paid so are our soldiers they are also mentally abused and programmed by propaganda and stereotypes. We need fewer cops we need fewer soldiers we need to start looking inward and start educating our youth to live a life of doing no harm and living in love and understand exactly as all the prophets have taught.

[B2G]

12. I don't even think pay is the issue

It's the nature of the job. Exposed to the absolute worse of humanity and good people at their worst moments...day after day after day.

It's bound to take a toll. Maybe we need to start looking at how to make help cops protect their mental and emotional health, while dealing with the incredible stresses they face everyday.

No one ever talks about that.

[WDIM]

15. Its the whole mentality of the police state

Being under paid adds to the stress.

But our leaders want them stressed and scared for their lives. Its part of the training.

They want them believing that people using a plant are dangerous. They encourage them to harrass people and stop and search people for no good reason. They create the crime then make them go out and fight it. Fear is the true enemy and the reason for so many unnecessary deaths.

[Igel]

50. Some pretty big assumptions.

In a lot of places, "underpaid" for a single person is still well-above median household income, with better than average benefits.


The police often base their perceptions not on what leaders tell them to believe--the police, contrary to beliefs, are typically decent people with, on average, slightly above average IQ--but on anecdotes, partial information, and how their community interprets and perceives statistics. When confronted with us-vs-them attitudes, they do what decent people do and promptly form a community in response.

Part of the training is that they are often at risk. To argue otherwise is either duplicitous or simple minded.

However, part of the response to the police is that they are, indeed, not just to be decent but to be superior to those around them. When insulted, they smile. When assaulted they're to smile and say, "Yes, sir." When abused, "Yes, sir." Hell, you'd think they were reporting to their masters, not peers who they're trying to protect.

(With the downside that when they don't do their jobs and protect people from thieves or other criminals, often the us-vs-them thinking makes the community involved blame the police, not the criminals. Can't diss one of your own, and the other group is always to blame. The worst of us is better than the best of them.)

[B2G]

56. Great post. Thank you. nt

[ansible]

13. Cops get paid $14 an hour if they're lucky

It's a pretty awful job to be honest

[catnhatnh]

17. Much higher...

How much does a Police Patrol Officer make an hour? The median hourly wage for a Police Patrol Officer is $25, as of August 29, 2016, with a range usually between $21-$30

http://www1.salary.com/police-officer-hourly-wages.html

[Lee-Lee]

20. That's skewed way off hey a few big cities like NYC

Where that pay is good but with the cost of living isn't much.

If you throw out the few big cities that pay really well because of their high cost of living it skews it back to a number more representative of the typical pay.

When I started as a deputy in the 90's I made 9.68 an hour my first year. Same department no starts at $12.45.

[catnhatnh]

23. Check the data at the link....

...which states that only 10% of officers are paid less than $17 per hour...

[shenmue]

14. Yes

[Skittles]

19. most people have zero clue what they deal with day after day

and they'd shit their pants if they did

[B2G]

28. Yep

The phrase 'it's a jungle out there' was coined for a reason.

In a lot of ways, being a cop is more stressful and dangerous on a daily basis that being in the military. Yet the military has the respect of most of us.

[Lee-Lee]

21. My old boss gave scanners to our county commissioners

And made sure he invited them for ride-alongs scheduled for nights that were typically busy.

They got to see first hand what it was like to a a shift covering 500+ square miles with only 5 deputies, cars with 150,000+ hard miles on them and a radio system from the 1970's that often left us with no way to call for help.

It was a brilliant move that changed the sceptacism about our budget requests to understanding that we really needed that stuff.

[joshcryer]

22. Every time I heard gunshots in my old neighborhood.

I'd go to the scanner online and listen in, hoping that it was OK for whoever it was. It usually was, wasn't reported, or just one or two blurbs.

I'd leave it on though and just listen. Petty crime was less than drunk stuff and domestics. Overall just saddening hearing them go to domestic after domestic throughout the night. The occasional tickets weren't that big of a deal. I lived in a city of 450k at the time, surprisingly little traffic stops in comparison. Probably more in the day (I tended to listen at night whenever I heard gunshots).

[dembotoz]

24. i remember a neighbor who used the scanner like we would a radio

looking back i think today he would be called a doomsday prepper

he was also a full blown racist...convinced various minority groups were about to revolt

[Sunlei]

29. excellent pay and top of the heap of job benefit$. ability to seize cash/property, generate millions

in fees/fines for local community. job of choice for people with a couple years of military service.

[B2G]

30. And completely stress free!

What a great deal!!

[Sunlei]

34. Every job has stress.

[B2G]

36. Completely different kinds, at vastly different levels. nt

[Sunlei]

37. Then quit, the excellent medical benefits will treat the 'stress', for life if a DR. says is needed.

plenty of other people lined up for those 'jobs'

[B2G]

39. OK, I see you don't want to discuss possible causes

or potential solutions. That's fine.

I guess trying to figure out why some cops might get trigger-happy isn't important to you.

[Sunlei]

46. what is your solution? I think police have always been violent in their dealings with the public.

[B2G]

48. How about PTSD screening and mandatory

evaluations periodically with effective treatment?

[Sunlei]

52. They have regular medical checks and job evaluations.

[uncle ray]

31. you know who else has to "deal with that day in and day out"?

black people.

they can never turn the scanner off.

[B2G]

32. Not saying that's not true at all.

I'm saying that there is more to this issue than I see discussed. Take my opinion or leave it. Doesn't matter to me.

[philosslayer]

33. They signed up for the job

They weren't drafted. They volunteered. I have no sympathy, and expect them to do the job they were trained for and are paid to do in a professional manner.

There are lots of hard, dangerous jobs. Why should we reserve special sympathy for the police?

[B2G]

38. The military is volunteer as well.

Yet they receive plenty of sympathy for injuries sustained in the line of duty, PTSD, etc. Saying 'thank you for your service' is the norm now.

And the vast majority do just what you say they should. But to not acknowledge the stress they are under in our society today is to ignore some of the root causes for these types of incidents. I've never heard PTSD mentioned in relation to a cop. I would venture to guess there are quite a large number of cases of it.

Empathy is not sympathy.

[MicaelS]

40. How many other jobs

Are there where you could go to work and face the possibility of getting killed ever day? That's why.

[Taitertots]

42. 7-11 workers face a higher risk of workplace homicide

In short, the answer is literally millions of other jobs.

[ronnie624]

43. Many jobs carry greater risk than being a police officer.

Law enforcement is undoubtedly stressful, but if you can't handle it, you don't have any business being a cop. In my opinion, it is a career choice that is highly attractive to people who enjoy excercising power over others.

[Major Nikon]

49. Instead of weeding out those individuals the profession encourages it

The idea of cops policing cops just doesn't work. There should be a federal level entity that does nothing else but police law enforcement. All complaints should go to them, with bad cops being ferreted out of the system.

[ronnie624]

53. Agree entirely. n/t

[Major Nikon]

45. Most any job where lots of driving is involved is dangerous

There are many jobs which are statistically more dangerous than being a police officer, yet you don't see people lining up to thank them for it.

I think it makes a lot more sense to respect police officers out of respect for the law, but the ones who engage in illegal, unethical, or otherwise unprofessional conduct are truly reprehensible for those are the ones who do the most disservice to society.

[FrodosPet]

55. The job needs to be automated

Robocops, if done correctly, could be a giant leap forward in law enforcement.

They could be programmed to deal with everyone in the same polite, cooperative way. And, being by design free of fear, they could react in non-escalatory ways more often. Bad guy wants to beat up Robocop? LOL! Go ahead, pump a jumbo banana clip into them, no worries! When the shooter is out of ammo, they can come in to detain the perp.

[True Dough]

41. I get where you're going with this thread

It's an interesting sociological phenomenon how people can be skewed towards both ends of the spectrum when controversy emerges.

I'm glad we live in an era where technology makes it possible to expose the acts of power-tripping police officers. There are a fair number of corrupt ones out there. They need to be removed from the force. Training needs to be overhauled to focus on de-escalating situations (stats from numerous other countries show that police shootings occur at a much lower rate than in the U.S.).

And I realize you're not disagreeing with any of that.

But on the other side of the coin, as dozens or scores of incidents have emerged of cops acting inappropriately, brutally, violently, lethally, the prevailing attitude among some becomes "Fuck the police." Almost every story involving law enforcement that gets publicized now brings a strong reaction from the growing anti-cop crowd. It becomes automatic that the police are in the wrong, that the police are lying, that the police planted evidence. If you dare to question it, you are branded a cop sympathizer.

That's a problem. We need the police. They serve a vital role, and I still believe the majority of officers are well-intentioned individuals.

What you say is true, being a police officer is, in many ways, a shitty job. And there is a real threat that death will find you on any shift. Some cops are fortunate enough to retire after a 30 or 40 year career and they have never stared down a barrel of a gun pointed at them. But others have dodged an early grave by mere inches multiple times.

And they deal with the most depraved members of our society (outside of bank executives): murderers, thieves, drug dealers, sex offenders and pedophiles, and on and on.

It's not a pretty job at all. Thankfully someone is willing to do it, but we still have to improve their training and weed out the ones who unnecessarily leave blood in the streets.

[jmg257]

44. Yes - for a few years. I wouldn't be a cop again. Its safer, less stress and pays more to

be in my current job! (although being on call 24/7 sucks)

[Go Vols]

47. I have one running 24/7

the most excitement is when it snows or tornadoes.Its pretty slow around here.

[alarimer]

54. When you are taught to treat citizens as the enemy, they will hate you for it.

And you will fear them in return.

The militarization of the police leads directly to unfortunate situations.

But I wonder why they can arrest a terrorist or an armed person who happens to be white, while black men who may or may not be armed (though they sometimes are) are almost always killed. There is very definitely disparate treatment by the police when it comes to skin color.

Having said that, though, the police are on the front lines in a system with inadequate to non-existent mental health care. They are usually the first called when someone is acting bizarrely, not criminally, and their first (and often only) response is to shoot them. They do not have the training or resources to do anything else. I think it's unfair, really, to ask it of them.

[B2G]

57. Your last point is a great one.

In the heat of the moment, amid all of the chaos, Scott's wife was screaming that he had a TBI.

Sitting calmly in front of our computers, we expect the cops to A) hear her and process that immediately, B) know what the hell it even means, and C) as a result, react differently to a threat that I'm sure they perceived to be very real.