You know, with all the talk about how much our local police sucks, I think it’s such an unfair deal. For them, and for us, too. It doesn’t help that there’s so much news and rumours and half-baked gossip about police accepting bribes and messing around in, uh…dishonorable schemes. Their public image right now is no better than that of a bunch of ghetto hoodlums.

It’s unfair for them to have been pasted with such terrible labels. It’s also unfair for us to not know what the police have been doing to maintain order and control in society. So far, all the information we get about the police comes from the media, and we all know how we only get interested at news about how corruption and various scandals run rampant across police ranks.

I’m sure police officers, more than any other government servant, meet a lot of interesting people from all walks of life. They deal with common folk like you and me, they deal with politicians, they get into stifles with criminals, junkies, and who knows who or what else.

Their lives would probably be a lot more interesting than ours, what with the news about the capture of a drug dealer, or a maniacal driver, or a tortfeasor of fraud. The news only reports of the result of the investigation. From the police dramas we’ve seen on TV, we know that a lot of work and events go on behind every arrest.

They have their own set of worries, and they must have a good deal of gossip going around, too. They are people, citizens like you and me, earning a living by serving [or at least trying to serve] the people around them. I think a good way to regain public trust in police officers, and make people empathize them, is for the police to share their stories.

Don’t tell the public that a serial rapist is caught, or the head of a criminal ring got arrested. Telling that would be talking about the criminals and their crimes. Tell the public about yourself, as police officers. The more observant of you might probably see where I’m going with this.

Yes. I think the police should blog.

But please, by all means, don’t be an idiot when you blog. Blog anonymously. Blog as a person, not as an official policeman, or policewoman. Share the stories of how certain cases affected your lives, how public opinion affects you. Of course, don’t disclose whatever confidential and crucial information lah, like say, your station, or your designation. Fake names, change the locations, substitute the vehicles or genders. You know the drill when it comes to falsifying information, don’t you?

Don’t make it an official or formal blog. Make it casual, lively, honest. Just like every other regular blogger. Blog casual, be informal, be creative, poke humour at things and share with us the tales from living the kind of lifestyle that you live. You might be a police officer, but you might also be a father, a son or a daughter, even. You’re a police officer, but you might also be a credit card holder, a son-in-law, a victim of overpriced Cornflakes and Nasi Lemak and the attacks of Barney the Big Purple Idiot on your children.

Regain the respect of the public by showing them that you are doing a respectful job. Tell them about how you had to stand for three hours in the rain to maintain order in the chaotic traffic of central Kuala Lumpur during a stormy rush hour. Tell them about how you came home tired after finishing up the paperwork for a lorry accident that got stuck under a flyover because it was too tall and couldn’t get through.

I’m very sure that if the police can remind the public that “Yes, we’re here to protect you. I had to wake up at 3 am because because my fucking boss told me to check up on that row of shophouses that caught fire in Sungai Besi.” things will change for the better.

If the public can be made aware of what the police go through for all their efforts, I believe that it would be a great benefit to their image. Everyone’s happier that way, right?

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Small Talk:
This particular entry is partly inspired by the news of a third season of You’re Under Arrest. YUA is light-hearted action/comedy about the daily lives of the members of the Traffic Department of a local [Japanese] police station. I’ve had the pleasure of watching both seasons of the anime, and I ‘m certainly looking forward to this new season :D [Thank for the scoop, Ganaesh!]

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