Police officers weigh in on the MMIWG crisis

Cross Country Checkup | CBC News | Posted: July 17, 2017 10:23 PM | Last Updated: July 17, 2017

• On police misconduct
  There's bad apples in every bunch. I think that policing and police officers are no different. I think that there are those types of police officers that step across that line. I think that the RCMP is now taking a very different look as to the consequences for those members who are making those poor judgements. I think that it's about time. I don't think that just because you have a badge, it gives you a 'get out jail free card.' As police officers, we need to do things better than other people. We need to live our lives in such a way that is a higher standard because of the type of responsibility and authority we have over others. I don't think it's right to have police officers breach that trust.

• On maintaining empathy
  It's a tough job. You have to work hard to maintain your empathy because of the other pressures on the street. I think that in recruit training, you're given these empathy classes and most recruits come in with the goal that 'I'm going to be the best police man there ever was' and as soon as they hit the streets, they realize that it's a way more difficult task than they thought it would be. There's got to be some way of re-charging that empathy.
  
• On lack of policing resources
  I did that job for a long time and what the average Joe on the street has got to realize is the resource strain that street work takes on the department as a whole. While I shut everything down and spend six hours or six days looking for some girl who may or may not show up, the calls don't stop coming in. Somebody's got to go to the theft. Somebody's got to go the break and enter. Somebody's got to go to the assault. It never stops.