Image: Lucky Miller had been the police chief in Mannford, Oklahoma, near Tulsa, since 2007, the city says.KJRH-TV
On Monday November 11th, Mannford police chief of 13 years, Lucky Miller left his wife and three children at home while he traveled out of town with his second in command Michael Patrick Nealey to attend a law enforcement conference. The two were caught in altercations which led onto a physical fight. On Sunday night, Escambia County sheriff's deputies found Miller’s dead body in Pensacola Beach. Nealey was arrested and charged with homicide and depraved murder without premeditation, he is currently being held at without bond at the Escambia County Jail.
In the U.S. in 2019, 105 police officers have died on duty and 783 people have been killed by police officers. Both of these numbers are increasing at extreme rates and very little attention is being drawn to this issue.
Do you think our society today have lower standards for our police officers?
What do you believe is the role of a police officer?
Did you want to be a police officer when you were little? How has that changed or what makes you want to take on that role.
I don’t think that police officers today are held to a lower standard by society. If anything I think the police are held to a much higher standard with all of the outrage surrounding police brutality and racial biases from the police. A hundred years ago, many police agencies were full of corruption, but today, society expects much more from its police force and this corruption is pretty much extinct. I also think that if any group of people is going to have lower standards for the police, it would be fellow police officers that let some things slide when another police officer does something slightly illegal as sort of a “professional courtesy”. However, along with this, these would also be the same people that would take great offense to cop killers, since they themselves are cops and it's killing one of their own. I think when there’s a situation like this one, where a police officer (allegedly) kills another police officer, the murderer is held to a much harsher standard.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Nathan. Despite recent controversies about police brutality, I do not think the profession as a whole is any less respected, and this brawl between two officers does not detract from this image. Going back to our APUSH knowledge (Thank you Mr. Colglazier and Ms. Sadlon!), we remember the stereotype of corrupt cops turning a blind eye to Al Capone and that sort of nefarious activity, although today I think that the more popular image would be that of a beloved community member, obviously excluding some recent current events. I believe the role of a police officer is simple: maintain order in the community. Anything extra, community outreach and so on, is supplemental, quite nice, of course, but not necessary. And sadly, I did not want to be a police officer when I was little.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that our society today have lowered standards for our police officers. I do think that there is more pressure on police officers to do their job so in theory, higher standards for the job. Due to many recent acts of police brutality, I do think that the people's trust in the police has decreased. In past years, police officers have been found guilty for killing unarmed citizens because of their instincts. It may have convinced some people to put less trust in police officers in their communities. However, this influences police officers to maintain their status and keep their image up. I believe that the role of a police officer is to maintain order and to keep peace within communities. Although some actions of police officers haven't been the best, police officers are needed to keep peace. In regards to the last question, I have never wanted to be a police officer.
ReplyDeleteAll of the other commenters seems to agree with one another, and so do I. If anything, society has raised standards for police officers, as brutality and corruption has been flooding the news since the 60's. Though many police nowadays do their jobs correctly, the police that are tainted by crookedness paint the whole profession in an unsightly hue. A police officer's job is law enforcement. They should be able to protect people under the law and punish those who do not follow it. The law, at least for police officers, is not up for interpretation. Officers who give into their emotions enough to become compelled to kill a fellow officer have no right to wear the badge. It is people like these in law enforcement that ultimately are the ones featured on the news for their terrible crimes. Because of people that lose their cool and murder civilians, other officers, and dogs, the standard has been raised and every officer is expected to be squeaky clean.
ReplyDeleteI would not say that our society has lowered its standards for police officers, in fact I think it might be the opposite. With all the attention towards police brutality and racism, I think it is on the minds of the police officers in America to counteract that stigma. I think the job of policemen is to enforce the law, and to protect the public by preventing and finding crime. I don't think I ever aspired to be a police officer, but I imagine it would be a pretty difficult job acting under the spotlight, essentially, and in regard of the negative stigma surrounding them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with previous comments stating that people do not tend to have lower standards for police officers, they hold them to a higher standard because of the importance of their job and role in society. The role of a police officer is to solve disputes and uphold the law to prevent crimes and ensure the safety of the citizens. However, it has been more common for some police officers to abuse their power and hurt innocent civilians rather than protect them, causing major outcry from those who expect better from the people meant to protect them. As a result, I think that police are held to a higher standard due to the weight of their job and their need to perform well.
ReplyDeleteThe reason the police officer standards are lower is because they are being targeted for enforcing the law. If you want them to enforce the law you can't complain, and say everything they do is racially motivated or immoral.This is what's causing them to not be able to enforce the law as well as they have in the past, or as well as they should be doing.
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ReplyDeleteIn terms of the first question, I definitely think that our society has raised its standards for police officers. This is mainly due to the fact that people think police officers are not doing a sufficient job keeping the cities of their states safe when events such as shootings or homicides are committed. Although police officers cannot prevent every crime from occuring, their job is to regulate and address issues that place any person in danger. However, it has been quite a controversial topic regarding the idea of police officers abusing their powers to hurt minorities which has pointed even more criticism their way.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that the police are held to lower standards today. In fact, with the publicity that the police are getting, such as accusations of police brutality, they are held to higher standards than before. The fact remains that in spite of all the negative publicity, the majority of police officers do not engage in acts depicted by Ponce. However, because of the attention that reprehensible officers such as Ponce are receiving, police officers that are simply trying to do their job have been viewed in a negative light. The role of a police officer has not changed since the time it was created; it has always been to protect the people from threats.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if the first question is asking whether the public has lower standards for viewing police officer work or whether there are lower standards for becoming a police officer so I'll answer both. I think the public actually has higher standards when analyzing police officers, which is evidenced in the large amount of negative news coverage of them. In the past, police officers possibly had lower expectations (I'm guessing- I don't actually know how high standards were in the past) and officers met them so there wasn't as much negativity about them. And I also have no idea what the actual requirements are to become a police officer but I know the average length of academy training in the US is 21 weeks while other countries, like Sweden, it requires 2 and a half years of training. I believe that better preparing officers will make them far better at handling stressful situations and doing their job better.
ReplyDeleteSociety should have higher standards, and I think analyze not just physical ability but also mentality. There is a huge number of good, hardworking police officers but also ones that cause negative news about the police as a whole. Police officers are meant to keep people safe, and not at an expense of their feeling of safety. The amount of police on police deaths is scary,considering how they supposedly have gone through enough rigorous testing for them to own and handle a firearm and use it at their discretion.
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