This happened in Richmond over the weekend.
Full disclosure: my father was a cop. My uncle was a security officer for a private firm. Both were military police. My best friend in high school became a cop. I know the ropes.
I read this on Facebook, before the newspaper article, and all I could think is WTF? I know that my uncle used to steal little cat naps on his rounds as a private security “cop,” but how in the world did two patrol cops think it was okay to park their car, still running, and take a significant sleep? Two hours?
What worries me about a story like this is a threefold problem it illustrates:
- The odds are super-low that this was the first time these two officers ever did this; it’s the first time someone caught them with a camera and posted it to social media, but how many people get caught the first time they break the rules? This means that we have had at least one patrol car out of rotation for several hours a shift. There already aren’t enough police, and some of the people who are police aren’t very good at their jobs. But these two weren’t even thinking about doing their duty. I don’t have a job where I carry a gun and am sworn to protect, but you can bet that if I decided to take a two hour nap amid my teaching schedule I’d be fired.
- The reactions of people indicate that we don’t, as a society, GET it. The chief said these two would “probably” be disciplined. Responses on Facebook ranged from the displeasure I would expect to some people worrying about the officers but also to a sort-of shocking attempt to justify it and to feel the person who brought this to light was doing the wrong thing. And the person who brought it to light will probably get harassed. But those were cops. They should have been patrolling and protecting, not sitting in a running vehicle taking a nap. And I don’t care if someone thinks a “power nap” is okay, because it just isn’t. We don’t pay officers to sleep.
- Almost everything that involves police in racially charged. I wonder how people would react if these two officers weren’t white. But to even raise that issue in Indiana is a no-go.
I certainly don’t want to say that I feel bad about the state of RPD, but something like this gives me pause. The world isn’t a particularly safe place. Our protectors literally sleeping on the job present a pretty serious problem.
What if there’s a life-or-death emergency? I don’t want to hear that someone died because a cop was too groggy from his nap time to respond.
So many people in Richmond are worried about Narcan and how the people overdosing shouldn’t get a second chance. Let’s see some of that ire turned on this irresponsible decision. Being a Police is a noble profession, but it doesn’t mean you can do a shitty job and expect respect. Literally– wake up, people.