In the US, our relationship is pretty strained and politicized. My friend noted when he visited different areas in Europe, he saw police walking around on the streets and (positively) interacting with the community. In the US, this often not the case. They generally patrol in their cars and maintain their distance. It’s well known they often don’t respond to emergency calls in lower income areas. Police are held on this untouchable pedestal where if you say the wrong thing, you could end up in the back of their car. So I’m curious, how does your country differ?
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There is pretty much nothing interesting about the police in Finland. They just patrol and respond to calls. Innocent people practically never interact with them with the exception of occasional drunk driving checks.
Police related problems are very rare because crime is rare and the police can only use their guns when someone’s life is under threat, and even in that situation, it will be investigated and likely handled in court.
Only real problem is occasional racial profiling with people who look like foreigners. This however is only a checkup to make sure they are citizens or legal residents. It has resulted in ugly situations a few times, which is unfortunate but it’s still something that has to be done.
I’ve never really understood the consept of police interacting with a community. Like how and in what situations? I never interact with the police. I see them sometimes in traffic or patrolling in big events but that’s it. I trust them to arrive if needed but never had to get them. Knock on the wood.
Police certainly dont have the negative conotation of america. They are also much better trained (2 years instead of a few months in the US and higher requirements to get in in the first place too).
Plus our justice system isnt so punitive, that also helps.
I havent had many interactions with them. But the ones i had were all professional and with a general nice tone. Even getting caught with weed once. That was also quite friendly, they were joking with us, took it away, gave us a fine. Just doing their job.
Also when we were around 15-16 we had a graduation party with some alcohol. One of my first times drinking. Under some trees with a fountain and some benches on a country road, a few hundred meters outside of town.
A police car approached us and i got very nervous because i was technically too young to drink (15 instead of 16) and american movies made me think we would be delivered to our parents house in handcuffs or something. But instead they just rolled the window down and asked us nicely to not leave a mess. Then drove away.
But then they suddenly reversed and i almost shat my pants again. They said they saw we had a beer keg. So pro tip: take that to the recycling place and get some money back for the scrap aluminum. Then they left for good.
Needless to say we got up early the next morning to come back and clean up, whatever trash we may have overlooked the night before. Place was probably cleaner than before we got there.
In the UK, the police *are* civilians. The idea of the military policing civilians – a gendarmerie – is considered very “un-British”. In fact, one of the Peelian Principles (the original guiding principles for our police) is that “the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.” The reality isn’t quite like that but I think it’s still a fair summary of what British policing should be.
I think the role of the police officer is different. The police do petrol but they are there to be visible but also to check how a neighborhood is doing. I think their stance is to avoid violence as much as possible. They are trained to de-escalate and prevent any problems. There is special police officers called neighborhood officer who you can contact for small crime. They often are known figures in said neighborhood.
However, the are also police officers who don’t interact at all. I think when you go to a big city at a crowded place the police officers will be more distant.
Romania
Q / what’s the diff betwewn a policemen and a bucket full of shit? A/ the bucket.
That joke still summarizes our relationship with the police. 30 plus years later. They are either incompetent or corrupt or they do not have the means to act to enforce the law.
Sort of like soccer referees. You don’t want them to notice you, but if you need them you‘re glad they are there. And most people argue they are incompetent in what they’re doing. In General friendly relationship but you want to avoid them. However for petty things like small theft (eG bikes or phones) they seem to be utterly useless. Also there are a lot of jokes around them. If I encounter them at festivals, nighttime, train stations or on patrol I feel safe though, so that’s good (but then I’m not in a minority). If you just mind your own business they won’t notice you and you won’t notice them. You don’t need to be afraid of them, I’d argue. Usually they are rather civil in arresting people if need be. If not, there’s huge media outcry and coverage but it rarely happens. I know a couple of people who are policemen (just acquaintances though, so I don’t know much about them) and they are pretty chill. They won’t tell you they are working for the police or make it obvious in any way, don’t carry their guns everywhere, don’t spoil all fun and it’s just a job, not a personality / the essence of their being.
The biggest difference is that most european police has at least 2 years of education and normally beteween 3 and 4 years. Some countries sees the education to police officer as a bachelor degree.
The result is that the officer will learn a lot more tactics, psycology, human intaraction, deescalation and so on. Yeah there will always be groups in society that hate police officers like the extreem left and so on. But that’s an outligher.
You also see the education and know how in the way the equip. Some countries like UK and Norway, they don’t carry firearms. Other countries the firearm is located in the car in case of problems.
I have had interactions with the police in Denmark, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Italy, and it has always been fine. Mostly if i do a stupis ass thing as Jaywalk, biking without lights or just getting help if i am lost or recomendations. Most officers are part of the city/community so they know a lot and can help you if you need basic knowledge.
I think the most weird thing was when my friend was almost shitting his pants becours of a turist trap, and we really neede a toilet. They helped us by asking nearby stores if he could use there privat facilities as we did not really have the time to translate my question.
I sometimes see them patrolling in cars but other than having my papers checked like three or four times the past ten years (usually around holidays trying to screen drunk drivers) there is no real interaction or relationship between the police and the population.
They are generally seen not so favourably though. Few people have any stories about them but the sentiment is that they are too lazy, scared or corrupt to crack down on actual crime and they like to harass people for minor things if they are members of the opposition. Most stories about the police are about them cracking down on NGOs, harassing opposition politicians and activists and cracking down hard on protesting students and teachers while illegal races in towns keeping everyone from sleeping keep going on night after night year after year.
Depends on who you ask and where, but generally speaking the relationship between the police forces in Italy (both civil and military, local and national) is quite good.
The carabinieri are the overall preferred and most trusted ones due to their territorial oganization covern most of the Italian territory, while the local police corps tend to be at the bottom due to them handling the vast majority of traffic violations, and telative fines, in the country (which many Italians hate).
If I need help with information or directions, and I see a police officer, I’ll ask them, and they’ll help me. If I see someone is sick and there is a police officer nearby, I’ll call them to help. If I have a problem with anything illegal, I’ll call the police. When I see them on the street I feel safer, although we don’t have that much crime here anyway. The only time I witnessed an actual crime was a store robbery, the guy had a knife and threatened the cashier. I hid in another part of the store. When I called the police they came in 3 minutes. Basically they’re in public service and are paid to help others. I treat them with as much respect as I treat any other person. And I’ve never had any problems with them. The only 3 times I was in trouble with them was when I was outside after 11 without an ID to prove I’m an adult (and I look really young for my age), but they just told me to carry an ID with me next time. When Obama came to visit the city so everything was on lockdown, I was walking home from school and since there weren’t any cars, I just ran through a red light. An officer saw and stopped me, checked my ID and told me to respect traffic rules in the future. And another time when I got into an argument with a drunk loud neighbour at 4 am on a weekday, who wouldn’t let my mom sleep. She called the police on us (lol), we talked to them and gave a statement, they were understanding and apologetic and that was that.
A couple of months ago I was going home from work and a young guy (18) passed out in the bus and we couldn’t wake him up. He was drooling and since it was so hot we got really scared he was having medical issues. We called the nearby patrol over and they took care of him. 8 police officers showed up. Turns out the kid was just really drunk (celebrating the end of school), was even talking back to the officers and wouldn’t give them his ID. But they were still kind with him, and made sure he wasn’t sick.
In the only interaction I had with police (specifically with carabinieri, the Italian gendarmerie) as someone accused of wrongdoing I found them respectful and helping. They did their best do de-escalate the situation without putting pressure neither on me nor on my accuser.
But I must admit I am the equivalent of middle-class American white male, I actually believe they would have behaved differently if I belonged to a *less privileged socioeconomic segment*.
CanAm > Fr > UK > NL and Dutch are, in our experience, almost always good, nice, chill, helpful.
When we lived in the UK, my *very* left roommate kept a tally of their policemen’s crimes.
She still does and sent us an update recently. It was loooong. And initially terrifying.
Until we remembered our days in NA.
The police training here is two years and only the special weapons unit carries firearms.
Also the cops aren’t much out and about here. We rarely see them in traffic so they mostly just show up if we call them.
There is some hatred for cops here though I suspect that has more to do with the American police rather than our own police national.
Generally speaking, we don’t have such negative connotations with them as you in the US. They are just people, you can talk to them, you can joke, you obviously won’t get shot.
But recently there was a big change in our police system due to the very conservative government. Short story – we don’t agree with them as a society so nobody wants to work for them. There’s a big shortage in literally every city, they’re encouraging people to come for a job interview and they’re basically reducing the requirements to “just finish any high school please”.
We used to work hard to get that job. Now literally everyone can go for interview which results in less professional police officers.
I used to have a lot of contact with the police when we experienced domestic violence and they were just amazing so I don’t feel any negativity towards them now. I mean if I am lost and need to find my way, I’ll rather ask for help the police officer than a random person since they obviously know the city.
I’ve smoked weed with more than one police officer
The Police Service of Northern Ireland was formed in 2001 after the Royal Ulster Constabulary was disbanded when the troubles ended.
There has traditionally been a lot of distrust in regards to the police from Catholics/ nationalists whilst Protestants/unionists had a much more positive outlook of the police, especially during the troubles.
They actually had to hire 50/50 catholic Protestant for the first 10 years of the PSNI im pretty sure, so until 2011. It’s been 12 years since that ended and now Catholic to Protestant amounts in the police service is approaching just 20% Catholic and 80% Protestant, so like only 1 in 4 or 5 police men are catholic, when NI is equal in population between Protestants and Catholics.
A good few people in nationalist/catholic community still have a distrust with the police, due times when they colluded with the British army during the troubles in the shooting of people etc. So it’s pretty complicated here.
There was a few riots in Derry yesterday
Londonderry: Sixteen police officers injured by young children in Creggan https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66748886
I think in general the police in Europe don’t have that sense of constant danger that they can have in the US because there are no guns on the streets, so they can act in a more relaxed way. I’m not saying they don’t stay alert, but their interaction with people is not like “any of these guys can put a bullet in me”
In my country, Spain, they are also career civil servants (for life), so they don’t have to worry about being fired if they don’t keep the mayor happy. Also, their main functions are to protect the members and facilities of the municipalities, traffic issues within the towns/cities, enforcement of municipal ordinances and collaborate with other security forces in the surveillance of public spaces, but who is really in charge of crimes is the Guardia Civil (which is a military body despite its name), so it seems to me that the police here have fewer functions than in the USA
Ireland’s police service ‘Garda Síochána’ (literally means police Guardians of the Peace) are normally unarmed and very civilian in how they operate. We tend to use the term “The Guards” to refer to them if it’s ever translated. The term police is rarely used.
There’s a rather easy going relationship with them and they tend to be very community policing focused. You definitely wouldn’t get any sense that they’re scary or intimidating, quite the opposite.
There’s often more of a sense that they’re a bit too soft for dealing with serious crime and serious anti social behaviour.
In anything I’ve ever seen them interact with, they’ll aim to calm a situation down rather go in heavy or seeking to be confrontational.
Also for some reason their new uniform has a bit of a Star Trek security vibe to it, which hasn’t exactly made them look any more intimidating. It’s all reflective high visibility yellow and blue.
In my country you seldom see police outside of their cars. More or less the police have a more investigative role rather than hands on fighting street crime. In Stockholm (capital) most of the time that something happens it is an ordningsvakt (guardsman with 2 week education by the police) that does the job and the police arrive later to pick up the criminals. The police are really only interacting with society in some rowdy places or at football games, protests and the like.
[Generally the police here are trusted.](https://eurocop.org/eurocop-conference-norwegians-have-high-degree-of-trust-in-police-service-thanks-to-nordic-model/)
There are still scandals, and it is the opinion of some that the officers who are violent are let off too lightly. And it’s my opinion that power always come with people who abuse it, I’m sure there are police who act like dicks because they can. My own experiences have been positive, but I look Scandinavian and I suspect that might make a difference.
But the police are well-educated and trained compared to their counterparts in the USA. And Politi are a national service, it’s not like someone who is dismissed can rejoin somewhere else, and [I know this happens in America.](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/22/ron-desantis-police-relocation-violent-records)