Cops Are Furious At RateMyCop.com

By Boogie

It isn’t breaking news that citizens and police officers accross the US haven’t had the most cuddly relationship in about…forever. Going back to Hip-Hop icons like Ice Cube’s “F*&^ The Police” and Ice T with his controversial release Copkiller, who ironically plays nothing less than a detective in long running series Law And Order (God can be pretty freakin funny), to of course the more contemporary middle finger displays to the authorities by everyone who could put a rhyme together it seems, they have been a reflection of what citizens where feeling and how far in the wrong direction we were headed.

Well, here’s some kerosene to sprinkle over that fire. Some of our cities finest are just a little bit hot under the collar these days. Police agencies from coast to coast are not in love with a new web site RateMyCop.com, which makes available the names of thousands of officers, and many officers believe this is actually putting them in danger. Those who have been marching in the hate parade, are saying, “now we aren’t the only ones with that feeling”

But listen up people. For one, I definitely do not support any kind of stereotypical or discriminatory views of any groups of people by any definition or category, including cops regardless of the situation. I think that in every situation, or group of people, there are always some that deserve a good swift kick in the ass and cops are most definitely no exception. I do have friends and family that have chosen a career in law enforcement at many levels, even Swat (some more irony). But most of us in the inner-cities particularly, know damn well we need a site like this.

However, from the officers point of view, it is a safety issue. Officer Hector Basurto, vice president of the Latino Police Officers Association, commented “I’d like to see it gone,” “Having a Web site like this out there puts a lot of law enforcement in danger, It exposes us out there.” he said in a report by CBS station KOVR-TV in Sacramento.

Creators of ratemycop.com say no personal information will be made available on the site, which I agree should be the case. They say all they are doing is providing officers’ names, which are public information anyone can access already, from more than 450 police agencies nationwide.

The site helps people rate more than 130,000 officers by rating them on authority, fairness and satisfaction, site co-founder Rebecca Costell said in a statement.

She adds, “Our Web site’s purpose is to break the stereotype that people have that cops are all bad by having officers become responsible for their actions.” What a concept. Shouldn’t we all be held accountable for our actions? I’m all for that, but I do want to make one thing clear. No, I don’t think officers should go out there giving hugs to resolve domestic disputes, and drunken brawls. It is a tough job, and lets face it fellow citizens, some of us do act like reckless orangutans out there. But there also has to be a way for citizens to rate the performance of officers, some of which act like reckless orangutangs themselves.

First of all I think it’s written somewhere that we have the right to do so. Secondly, like any other service provider in the corporate world, the service of their representatives is rated and reviewed, at least in theory, to monitor and control the quality of their work. It turns out that we are the employer. Why shouldn’t we be able to perform such a review.

Having said that, of course there has to be a responsible way of doing this. I mean, we do need cops out there doing their job. But at least now, chiefs may have to pay more attention to the few a-holes that made this site happen in the first place. I guess now where watching each other.