Are there bad police officers on the streets? Yes. Are they all bad? No. What makes people think a police officer is a bad cop? If you look around the internet, you’ll find stories about officers who’ve acted badly, taken advantage of their status, threw proper procedure aside, and used their badges as a way to get revenge on someone against whom they have a personal grudge. On the other hand, there are people who complain about the bad police officers they’ve run into and the opinion of “he’s a bad cop” is formed only because the person is mad they got caught breaking the law.
      In the first category, the officers who can really be labeled as “bad cops”, I won’t defend their actions. I don’t support or condone such behavior. If you run into one of these situations, get the officer’s badge number and file a complaint with the officer’s department. You’re probably thinking it won’t do any good because “the cops stick up for each other and nothing will be done about it”. Don’t allow your opinion of a few police officers effect your opinion about the entire group. The police can only do their jobs if the community they’ve sworn to protect can trust them. The trust is broken when officers continue to act in ways which make the department and other officers look bad. Unless the citizens file complaints, nothing will change. Let your local law enforcement department know if you think something is wrong. If you’re traveling outside of your hometown, you can get the address of the officer’s department or the state police headquarters and file your complaint through those channels.
      When it comes to people labeling an officer a bad cop, sometimes it has more to do with the person’s attitude then it does the officer’s. How many times have you asked yourself “Where’s a cop when you need him” as a car goes speeding past even slightly over the speed limit or blows through a red light? You ask the same question when you see kids causing trouble, the neighbor’s dog is running loose, or someone is, in any way, breaking the law. If the police need to be called, call them. What’s happening here, though, is people want the police to prevent crime or punish those who break the law, but when it happens to them the police are “picking on them”, “throwing their weight around”, or “not seeing the real criminals”. It’s the job of a police officer to enforce the laws, no matter how big or small, whenever they see the law being broken. They’re not out to get you, you put yourself in the situation. If you obey the law, you have nothing to worry about.
      There are combinations of the two categories. An example would be an officer who pulls over the speeder and “cusses out” the driver. Another example would be the officer who arrests someone for actually breaking a law, yet decides to “teach the guy a lesson before the court does”. There’s no problem with the officer performing his duty to uphold the law; however, there’s a major problem with him stepping over the line and acting like a jerk or breaking the law himself. I’m all for people complaining about and reporting the bad behavior of an officer, but don’t complain about the officer for simply doing his job.