i was wondering when we would come around to discuss the issue of how police present themselves.
What’s in an image? A lot.
Earlier the month, Toledo, OH Police Chief George Kral sent out an order prohibiting his officers from wearing tactical, or Molle-style, load-bearing vests.
The chief stated, “In my opinion, that looks too much like a military soldier.”
I happen to agree and have posted my thoughts on this in the past.
How police outfit themselves matters. Sociologically, it is called the “presentation of self;” how we wish to be perceived by others.
I served over 20 years as the chief of police in Madison (WI), four years as chief of the Burnsville (MN) Police Department, and before that as a police officer in Edina (MN) and the City of Minneapolis. I hold graduate degrees from the University of Minnesota and Edgewood College in Madison. I have written many articles over my years as a police leader. After retiring from the police department, I answered a call to ministry, attended seminary, and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church. After 25 years leading two Episcopal Churches in Portage and North Lake, Wisconsin, I now serve as Associate Pastor in a growing, dynamic, and Spirit-filled Lutheran congregation in nearby Mazomanie.
View all posts by David Couper
5 Comments
I wish the police could go back to wearing white shirts and civilian type shoes that many police departments use to wear. In the movie, It’s is a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the Sanita Rosa cops wore white shirts and regular shoes. It makes the police officers look like civilians and less threatening. You also have too many sheriff deputies wearing clothing that makes them look like US Marines with the dark green pants and the light forest green shirts. In addition, too many police departments have dark green shirts and khaki pants that remind me of the US Army back in the 1940s. They look better wearing the khaki shirts and pants like the old California Highway Patrol of the 1950s and less threatening.
I don’t believe the cops have the same shared values like respecting the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights or going after wealthy people and CEOs.
That’s why they need a four-year liberal arts education, lengthy training which includes the foundational values which they will be sworn to protect, and leaders who model all of the above. Big order, but I believe it’s possible if we commit ourselves to this goal as a nation!
We need to re-introduce civics and government classes back in school so the cops get the message that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights were established for a reason. Thanks to the systematic cuts in school funding, too many Americans don’t know about the responsibilities and functions of the three branches of the federal government. In addition, thanks to the FBI getting Trump elected, the DOJ will no longer investigate police brutality and corruption which means that the cops at the city, county, and state levels have carte blanche to do anything they want and get away with it. In addition, with the federal courts being packed with radical conservatives who have no experience in trying cases, the cops will not be held accountable for their actions
Improving Police: A Necessary Conversation 
I wish the police could go back to wearing white shirts and civilian type shoes that many police departments use to wear. In the movie, It’s is a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, the Sanita Rosa cops wore white shirts and regular shoes. It makes the police officers look like civilians and less threatening. You also have too many sheriff deputies wearing clothing that makes them look like US Marines with the dark green pants and the light forest green shirts. In addition, too many police departments have dark green shirts and khaki pants that remind me of the US Army back in the 1940s. They look better wearing the khaki shirts and pants like the old California Highway Patrol of the 1950s and less threatening.
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I agree. Less- threatening should be the choice — but that stems from a shared value — do we?
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I don’t believe the cops have the same shared values like respecting the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights or going after wealthy people and CEOs.
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That’s why they need a four-year liberal arts education, lengthy training which includes the foundational values which they will be sworn to protect, and leaders who model all of the above. Big order, but I believe it’s possible if we commit ourselves to this goal as a nation!
LikeLike
We need to re-introduce civics and government classes back in school so the cops get the message that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights were established for a reason. Thanks to the systematic cuts in school funding, too many Americans don’t know about the responsibilities and functions of the three branches of the federal government. In addition, thanks to the FBI getting Trump elected, the DOJ will no longer investigate police brutality and corruption which means that the cops at the city, county, and state levels have carte blanche to do anything they want and get away with it. In addition, with the federal courts being packed with radical conservatives who have no experience in trying cases, the cops will not be held accountable for their actions
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