Misdiagnosis & Becoming A Cop

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One way policing has changed is that efforts in the community are now more proactive. This is to combat the image that our media has given them. Things such as citizens academies, explorer academies and outreach events are now more common. As far as I know, these didn't exist 20 years or so ago. The idea behind it (it being Community Policing) is that it's going to establish trust and respect in the community creating a better environment to prevent and defeat crime. In my opinion community policing wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the bad image given to the police by none other than the media.

In the technology aspect, police are now equipped with more less lethal alternatives to subdue suspects and defuse situations in addition to the use of body cameras. Why are all these commonplace among police... the media! Police can no longer use deadly force (even when warranted) without being scrutinized by the media thus causing the use of less lethal weapons to be used more. Body cameras are now almost a piece of the uniform so that it can be proved the actions of an officer can be justified. This is a plus not only for the police but the community as well. I think of it as a checks and balances sort of thing.

Ultimately, policing has changed to be more proactive in the community, and reactive in the physical aspect of policing during a shift (getting called out instead of observing crime and stopping it). It's changed because of the media and the image it is giving police which is why they're trying to better their image through community policing efforts.

*I wrote this kinda late and I'm tired so if I think of some more I'll edit this post*

Do you have any personal relationships with LEOs within which you can discuss policing issues and hear their perspective on these matters?

Do you think that the media misrepresent LE?
How would you characterize the medias portrayal of LE?
Would it be better if the media did not report on policing at all, iyo?

Thanks.

Aren't there a couple people on here that are cops? I remember some of them replying whenever someone asks about a job in law enforcement, and they might be able to answer some of the questions. I remember one of them saying that his job is basically very repetitive and at times boring, it's asking the same questions to different people (like at traffic stops) doing the same stuff over and over.

I know hiring on some things depends on the agency, some places will hire and some won't. Personally for me, I'd rather find an agency I know will hire me (after the psych test) and then go through training, rather then go through training and not find anyone to hire me. I'd love a small town instead of a city because barely anything happens in them, and one of the places I'd like to get hired at lets you choose walking around on patrol or riding a patrol bike instead of riding in a car, because in a car I know I'd get fat after a while.

The Autistic traits of hyperfocus, attention to detail, spotting patterns are skills needed to be a good police officer.

I don't understand what could ever possess somebody to want to become a cop. Unless they enjoy constantly making other people nervous that often haven't done anything wrong.

especially detectives, CSI, and medical examiners

Slave,

I believe that the media should report on policing, just not in the way it does now. It's not that they misrepresent them, but rather they're not allowing time to produce an accurate story when it comes to the recent cases where I believe LE has been put in the wrong light.

That being said, the media shouldn't be biased in a positive or negative manner towards LE.

Do you think it's possible that a special interest in policing has led you to imagine yourself as a police officer and feel that you are a sort of affiliate member of "LE" as a group. Most people don't use the term LE, for example, when speaking of police.

I ask this because I think the problems facing police departments are much more serious than is usually revealed in the media. Journalists reveal key details when the stories are momentarily hot, but tend not to uncover long patterns of abuse. It's not hard to find examples of violations of every kind of law by police officers and police departments.

I think it would be very hard to be an honest person with a sense of justice and work in many of the police departments in the US today. Not impossible, but hard. You would have to find ways of compromising your ethics to get along with the job on a daily basis.

A few of the kind of things I am thinking about--examples of extremely serious crimes by police, not just the result of bad PR or a negative slant in some reporter's write-up:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how ... ed-it-all/
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/the-ny ... ct-6429434

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2015 ... -s-anguish

http://www.commdiginews.com/life/browar ... ion-17333/

https://www.aclu.org/racist-arrests-tulia-texas

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-m ... story.html

Hi all. I have Asp and became a cop or started to. I worked at the Sheriff's dept as a dispatcher and jailer. They wanted me to become full time deputy but I decided the job was not for me.

Aspies are very intelligent and have the ability to learn anything and practice it to perfection. That is what I did with my social skills. I practiced them to the point where I fit in and actually had an advantage because I really understood how a conversation and body language worked. I still say things that are inappropriate although I am just speaking my mind. I almost have a protester mentality (which is self destructive).

Enough about me. What I am getting at is that you can fit in very easily and become a cop. I would never tell them because law enforcement is a battleground of wannabe losers (sorry but its true) and the real deal cops. The wannabes will see that you are gifted in areas like investigation and they will hate you for it. They will make fun of you and your diagnosis any chance they get. Do not give them ammunition.

If you were schizophrenic then I would ask you to please tell the dept but asp is not something that would really affect your job in law enforcement. Actually we need more aspies in law and less egomaniacs and your skills in spotting defects or small things could be very beneficial while you are profiling other people (profiling is not racist, it is a common sense approach no matter the color to spotting shady people).

They reason I left was because the job did not excite me and the hours of meaningless paperwork did not attract me either. I went on many many ridealongs and being a cop is not what you might think it is. I now am going back to college and my brain feels challenged while trying to learn algebra again.

So my advice is to keep it a secret especially since people will think you are just slow if you tell them.

As far as dirty cops, there are some but 90% of cops are legit. This bs that you see on the news about dirty cops is just the media trying to start a race war to divide our country so that we will not notice the super elite/corporations controlling our government. Haha sorry remember I speak my mind.

If as many as 10% of cops were crooked, things would be very much worse than they are, but the small percentage of cops who are truly dirty cause terrible harm. You would not think the news about dirty cops was bs if you had been subject to such abuses and did not identify with the police culture. What Chief Marino did to Officer Schoolcraft in New York, using an Emergency Service Unit to unlawfully seize him in his home and force into a psychiatric ward as punishment for cooperating with Internal Affairs cannot be justified or attributed to media bias or the bread and circus tricks of the oligarchy.

I think I have traits in common with you, exemplified by this:

For that reason, I think I would find myself in Officer Schoolcraft's position were I to have joined the NYPD. I actually considered it when I was about 20 and having trouble in college. I got the practice exam from the NYPD and realized that I couldn't really recognize faces.

I think that a number of cognitive biases distort one's perceptions when one considers joining an organization like this. The Stanford Prison Experiment is the classic study of this, but there are many others. I am related to and have been friends with a number of cops and all of them have told me about moments when their ethics were challenged by aspects of the job.

I don't understand how its relevant to pursing a career in policing. Unless you are looking to work for the CIA or something why would it matter?

If he has no symptoms of autism, then it would not matter. If he has trouble with social communication, it could matter depending on the nature of that trouble. Restricted or repetitive interests and behaviors could also be a problem in a department with changing assignments and duties (the scope of such changes would vary greatly depending on the department--a small town has less scope for change than you woul find in a large urban police force.) Prosopagnosia, while not a core feature of autism, could also be a problem.

If the OP is right about being entirely subclinical or misdiagnosed, then it shouldn't be a problem.

Sorry I should have been more clear and yes 10% was just a safe number. I consider lazy cops dirty bc integrity plays a big role imo.

If I my son points a gun at a cop and the cop kills him I would not blame it on the cops. Or if my 200 lb son beat up a cop and the cop shot him, it is not the cops fault for defending himself. He is just trying to do his job and not die.

Now do not get me wrong. Cops have done some very stupid things of all colors and that is what bothers me with the media is to pick each negative interaction of people who are different races and label a whole group of people. This is 2015 and we are still having race fights. sigh.

I think asp brain is a gift. I explained to my wife that I think in patterns and not emotions. I must learn how everything works to the detail or I will stay up at night trying to figure it out (thank you google). I also got 16 units in college this semester and I still have 2 months left. I finished my last class in 1 day lol. Not bragging but trying to explain that no matter what an aspie does he will excel at almost everything even policing but if integrity is an issue then watch out bc politics is huge in most depts. It all depends on the chief or Sheriff.

I was once an weld/metal inspector for a company. That is a very good job for an aspie also. I think investigations or maybe some csi work would be where an aspie would fit in mostly but if the op said that his social skills are up to par with everyone else then he could work the beat.

Go with your heart's desire. My brother did and within 2 years he made k-9 with an unmarked tahoe. He is 23.

Oh and pepper spray, the best way for me to describe it is when watching the movie "Fury" and the guy's head catches on fire. lol. I would take a taser any day over that.

So, I am thinking it may be a tangential hijack of this thread, something I don't want to do, but this seems important and interesting, so I will post a quick response but also start another thread about this.

The thing that seems sad to me in 2015 is that we can have very clear racist conduct, conduct that is in violation of the law and codes of professional conduct, from members of police departments and have many of their fellow officers, unions and professional organizations try to excuse and protect this conduct, or blame the press for reporting it.

For example,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post ... on-report/
http://gawker.com/the-horrible-bigoted- ... 1692183203

This isn't something merely being portrayed by others as a problem, it's a real problem. The fights our society is having over race are happening because of the toxic, distorting effects of racism on both the hated and the haters. When the hateful person has the powers of a police officer, the thing that is merely an ongoing tragedy for most becomes a horrific crisis for the society.

The call to see each group of such officers as isolated individuals and not see that there is a culture of acceptance, denial and silence in police departments is to actively avoid seeing the patterns that are plainly there. Like a church hierarchy denying the sexual assaults on minors by its priests or pastors, police departments and organizations work to deny the evil within their membership instead of curing it or excising it.

There is nothing new in this. I grew up after Frank Serpico revealed the extent of criminality in the NYPD, and read about the Knapp Commission and Mollen Commission. I think the NYPD is one of the best in the world, but the problems there very are serious and despite all the efforts at reform and control, the patterns of abuse persist.

Frank Serpico was interviewed recently about these issues and it makes an interesting read:
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/show ... mayor.html

There are strong psychological reasons for these toxic group behaviors that are not unique to police forces and are interesting to explore. But police have to stop denying that there is a problem before they can start working to fix it.

Is there racism? Yes, just like everywhere else there are simple minded people.

The problem with the media is that they only report one side when statistically African Americans make up 14 percent of the population and cause 52% of all murders. Its not genetic it is an education failure. So many more black on white crimes are never ran in the media. There was a site on youtube that documented this but Youtube shut it down calling it racist (probably hateful comments).

But yes there is a problem and with about 1 million cops (guessing here) you are going to have some racists on both sides. I just do not like being labeled racist because I look white (Im native American) just because the media is not competent enough to report accurate journalism.

Sorry Op maybe we should take this somewhere else.

I use "LE" because it's easier than to type out Law Enforcement every time. In addition to that it is more professional to use than "the police" or "cops" in my opinion.