I don’t want to be the guy defending cops, but there is usually more than one officer in a squad car. There is no rule against a passenger being distracted.
In Europe, it’s exactly because they want witnesses, cops’ words don’t carry more weight than yours by default, so if they ticket you, they want at least two testimonies on their side.
I think higher numbers would lead to reform on its own. When you’re scraping by at the bare minimum, a lot of stuff gets overlooked just to maintain numbers.
More cops would make it a lot easier to have better standards, and raise the average competency level.
I don’t want to be the guy defending cops, but there is usually more than one officer in a squad car. There is no rule against a passenger being distracted.
You’re thinking of cop shows from the '70s and '80s, not reality.
No, I am thinking of what I have seen in real life. In my area there is almost always 2 cops per vehicle. I was unaware this was not standard.
Where I live it’s strictly one cop per car unless they’re training. That’s why they pull people over in packs.
That’s something I never got about cops in the US. Everywhere in Europe, there are always two cops per car, at least in the places I have been.
Fewer witnesses.
In Europe, it’s exactly because they want witnesses, cops’ words don’t carry more weight than yours by default, so if they ticket you, they want at least two testimonies on their side.
Okay, but in the US they don’t want to risk two cops messing up their witness testimony. Better to just have one, because a cop’s word is law anyway.
That sounds like even their leaders assume they’re horribly stupid…
It’s to create the illusion that there’s more cops than there really are. Same reason behind take home cars.
My city of about 300k people has about 30 cops patrolling at any given time.
San Jose, California has some wild numbers perhaps like that.
Would you take more if you could? Assuming no reform, just more of the same.
I think higher numbers would lead to reform on its own. When you’re scraping by at the bare minimum, a lot of stuff gets overlooked just to maintain numbers.
More cops would make it a lot easier to have better standards, and raise the average competency level.