For the past week, I have been watching "Live PD" on Youtube and it's actually really interesting. Watching people give tickets and arrested for all kinds of things, high-speed chases, and shootouts... It sounds insane because it is! It is also really real and it happens because of bad choices. I assume that there are hundreds of people, probably, even more, getting pulled over by the police every couple of minutes, maybe even seconds. When driving around from city to city, I see police everywhere; especially pulling people over. Most of the time someone will get pulled over for speeding or for equipment problems. I have only ever been pulled over once in my life, for speeding, which was unfortunate, but I was speeding and now I understand the consequences - EXPENSIVE AND NOT WORTH THE TIME IN COURT.
A lot of scenes from this show are people getting pulled over for something more dangerous. Each episode of the show is police from different places all over the United States. Sometimes it's body footage (which is incredible and very scary), car cam, helicopter cam, or a cameraman. We all know these police officers much rather be pulling people over and giving them speeding tickets, but some people just don't know when to stop.
I am writing this article for all the law enforcement officers out there because I give them so much more respect upon seeing what they deal with almost every day. Not to say that all police officers deserve the same respect because some do not because of horrible mistakes and misjudgment of situations, sorry to say. Some make bad mistakes, but so do all of those people that they have to arrest. Police officers are following the law. They are taking every necessary precaution to protect the public, protect themselves and to potentially save those who could bring harm to themselves.
I searched how much energy one must go through to become a police officer and I found that on average they must spend 880 hours (22 weeks) of academy training which includes having them, "learn state laws, criminal investigations, patrol procedures, firearms training, traffic control, defensive driving, self-defense, first aid and computer skills." Along with those they must take part in, "physical training and fieldwork that demonstrates their comprehension of classroom instruction. Field exercises include investigating mock criminal scenes, directing traffic, operating police vehicles, arrest techniques, using firearms, fingerprinting and interrogation methods." Officers with K-9 units take a couple weeks to be initially placed into a department, then 3-4 weeks for actual training for narcotics or explosives. K-9 units often teach in German so when on the pursuit and they get released that those who are being sought after cannot stop or control the dog in control. Watching countless videos of K-9's responding to their owners by attacking the suspect, usually leave their mark by taking them down by biting their arms or legs. This ensures that the suspect will not go anywhere and it gives the police officers a chance to catch their breath, evaluate the situation, making sure it is safe, then arresting them.
Another show, taken place in the UK ("Nothing To Declare") deals with suspicious travelers in airports going through security (border patrol). They arrest countless people laundering money, and others traveling with (smuggling) hundreds of pounds of cocaine, marijuana, and other miscellaneous substances or objects. Within the show, officers work in tandem with sniffer dogs to detect possible packages of those illegal substances and excessive amounts of money. It is really very fascinating and impressive what the dogs find. They stop hundreds of people and arrest plenty of them. Before watching this show, I had no idea that dogs could detect large amounts of money. When traveling out of the country, one is only allowed to carry up to $10,000; if more then police have the authority to confiscate it from the owner.
People become erratic and make bad decisions. People have to understand that there is a law to follow and if they don't then there are serious consequences. A lot of the videos from Live PD are people that have warrants, illegal substances, DUI's, assault charges, and the list goes on… I'm not going to type out every reason for you to be an advocate to either side; law or injustice, but people have to understand that when police get involved it is for the fear of the safety of the public. The police are here to bring justice and to protect us. Not everybody does their job right. We all do things wrong, sometimes with other peoples lives in our hands. Hear me out- it is easy to avoid mistakes, it is easy to get yourself into dangerous situations. Watch the people who influence you; if they act poorly and have attitudes and behaviors then get away and STAY CLEAN. The world wasn't meant for violence. The reason why we have police is to KEEP THE PEACE.
