Monday, August 04, 2008

Police Image

I don't usually talk about personal feelings in my blog, not because I'm cold, or indifferent, but because when I vent out, the dark side of me surfaces, and it is not a pleasant one. I don't usually talk about politics because I know that I have friends with many different opinions and views, and I try very hard not to offend their beliefs.

What I will talk about is constructive ideas. Which might be destructive, but I will try making the best of it. As we now know, the people of our country are having problems in trusting the authorities. Particularly, the authorities that are meant to uphold the law and justice are now questioned for their veracity. The recent events in our country made the police looked bad. The "vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified" (quoted from the movie V). True indeed, that once, we respected the police, we consider them protectors and they were the heroes that would voice out the truth and yet today they vitiate and we stand flabbergasted as their actions seems to be full of debauchery, and nothing less than having venal arrangement with what the people perceived as villains.

The police image is definitely infected and what they need are new ideas on how to help their image, to help morale in the police force and get citizen support to help them in their investigations. The sad thing is, there are a lot of honest police out there, and they are being discredited for their hard work. When heroes are looked upon as villains, the law and order of things will break down. And so, thats why we must help remind the good police officers the reasons for them being in the police force. People should know about their sacrifices, and the media should help in giving credit to good man and woman working in the force.

Unfortunately, for the police, everything they do now cannot be right. If they issue a summon, people will hate them, and if they don't people say they are not doing their job. If they do investigations, they are abusing their power and if they act on a hunch, their are not being thorough. So how can the police fix their image.

The solution is a reality show for police.

What if the public knows what police are facing everyday? What if a hidden camera is set up to follow a traffic police everywhere? How sneaky drivers would offer bribes to them, and how they are trying hard to avoid such corrupt practices despite their poor living conditions with the salary they are getting now? This will immediately give credit to the honest traffic police, the heroes that help our streets save, and give the respect that they deserve. Of course they are corrupt traffic police everywhere, and we can't do much about it. However, we can give credit to those who have abstain themselves from the path of corruption.

What about other types of police? What if the media shows the challenges of police officers in narcotics are facing. The fear of being poke by a needle as they come to arrest drug addicts. The fear of being shot at by drug offenders high in cocaine. These are the things that the people might not know.......and the reality of things is that the police is earning less than comfortable income, support a family with small kids while his wife worries everytime he walks out of the door, for he might not come back alive one day.

Of course I'm being dramatic. But politicians are also very dramatic, and the media extol their actions as if they are heroes. As they make seemingly biblical proportion sacrifices infront of the media, they still go back to their nice banglo houses, and tinted black luxury cars. So why not the poor man and woman who serves our country with no intention of gaining political power, owning nothing more than a motorcycle and living in rundown flats like our police, fireman and soldiers too get the attention of the media? They are well more deserving....as their sacrifices are real.

12 comments:

  1. I think it's time for Robocop.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yea, we sure needs robocop. But how is that going to fix the police image. If we have robocop, are we going to make our own robocops, or are we going to buy it from germany? And that would be another issue between cost of buying one, or cost of maintaining one..

    ReplyDelete
  3. Joey, when you first started this article, I was wondering what you were going to be talking about. Your opening statement was very tantalizing. Ha ha ha ha ha. Anyway, I only know half of your V-words. I need to prep up some more on GRE words!! :-P BTW, I am sorry to say that I don't have much faith in Malaysian police. Too much horror stories on their incompetence, corruption and arrogance has been laid out for public consumption, and it takes more than good PR to clean their images.... Just my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ash: Yeah, like most people on our beloved country, we all feel that the police are broken beyond repair. But I believe that there are a lot of good police out there. Bad PR does not fix the problem as well, in fact,the bad PR could be a self-fulfilling prophesy that will just bring them to a spiral down condition. It is up to the public to believe, have a reward system for heroes and self-fulfilling prophesy will not only clean up their image but also the police force. Plus, I think, the police are also being demonize just as much, as the other parties that are being demonize. Blame the news for not showing both sides of the coin.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We should provide these cop's car embedded with hidden camera, now we can know whether exist such dealing or misbehave...! I think States do that, don't they?

    Even worse, since there were cases where TKI were raped in the cells, such things of course tarnishing their image.

    I think since cops are a lot.. so we always heard the bad part, not much appreciating their effort on keeping our land peace.

    But personally I don't think being a cop is rather interesting... I would like a job where I can sleep when I wish, excrete as I wish and etc for you own good!

    ROTFL.

    ReplyDelete
  6. so who watch the watchmen? coming to a cinema near you soon

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mnajem: Well, yea. Remember the personality assessment when we were in school. Anyways,some people are just build to be a cop. So yea, I suppose there are people who finds it interesting.
    We can't all be lecturers can we....

    Anyhow, yea, I agree with having cameras with the cops, and GPS tracking on them. Baru lah senang dorang nak monitor surveillance.

    ReplyDelete
  8. apa robocop. terminator la best hehe

    ReplyDelete
  9. robocop? apa kejadahnya....we should abolish cops!!!! Just let the judges decide what to do on the spot!!!! Judge Dred's style lah bro...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Remember when you're kids, the elder will always say "Stay put/B quite or that policeman will catch you." This shows that ever since we are kids, we have been instilled with the fundamental idea that police are bad, or can be nasty. They are as much as we are, are human being. They have limits (patience, fatigue, wellness, even temptations).

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow.Patutlah shows like 'COPS' garnered a lot of audience (camera following the cops on daily basis).The only thing I could say about PDRM is that they have (1)a good hockey team and (2)cycling team.But there are good cops out there, doing their best to keep their job honest and all.By the end of the day, bila dah mati, no amount of political rally, tinted black cars, European holidays, trophy wifey cum celebrity, can save you from the gates of Hell.

    ReplyDelete
  12. MRs. C.: True, at the end, it doesn't even matter....but sometimes, I do hope they go to hell much sooner.

    ReplyDelete

I don't really wish to moderate any comments, but its necessary to avoid spammers.