There are plenty of people that decry all the abuses that are suffered unduly by the people because of law enforcement officers, using their power unjustly against them. Then again, plenty of people appreciate the implementation of a powerful law and order mindset, to thus keep those who wish to be uncivilized, to become civilized, or if not, to pay the price for their disobedience. While it would seem that the twain shall never meet, there is a way to make the policing of the people, to be more per what a civil society should desire, when applying law enforcement upon its citizenry.
The first thing that needs to be noted, is that police officers have a lot of discretion as to what they will or will not do, when confronting what would appear to be trouble in the streets, in which, how law enforcement officers react to such has a whole lot to do with who and what entities that they answer to. In other words, when police officers have explicit or implicit quotas that must be filled regarding arrests, tickets, or engagement with the public, we do so find that a portion of those police officers are going to suffer from the urge to find those who are the most vulnerable, defenseless, and powerless, thereby concentrating the full arm of the law, upon those people, because they make for easy targets, and further to the point, are the type of targets, that aren’t typically championed by those that wield a lot of power and influence. In other words, police officers have discretionary power, and because of that, they don’t desire to bite the hand that feeds them but rather prefer to concentrate on those people who would appear to be a visible nuisance, instead.
In consideration of the foregoing, it has to be said that the best way to reform what law enforcement officers do on behalf of the people, is for police officers to make it their point, to actually be a part of the community, with the community knowing what the police officer’s purpose is within that community. That is to say, firemen are known for putting out fires, as well as providing medical services to those in need. So then, police officers could be known as being representatives that make it their point to see that the body politic is behaving in a way and manner that is consistent with the good attributes of a healthy civil society, and to the degree that they can help to maintain good civil discourse, so much the better. This would signify, that the more comfortable a given enclave is with police presence, and the more that the people see the police as being “honest brokers” the better the communication will be between these parties, so that, those things that need to be dealt with, can be dealt with in a manner, that is suitably fair for those that are members of that enclave. That is to say, the ideal police force responds to the concerns of the citizenry, who know who these police officers are, and the police officers know who they are, thereby building trust and making for better interplay between the two.
After all, people do want to feel safe and secure, and police officers can aid in that process all the more if rather than being perceived as an occupying force, they are seen as being reasonable, fair, and doing what they have to do, only when such is really merited.