by Philip Blanda
Ever wonder what the career of a police officer would be like? I think the same thing.
But being in law enforcement today is a lot different -- a lot harder -- than it was 15 years ago.
Talking with local officers in Charleston County, it's clear they love their jobs.
But it's gotten harder for different reasons. It's not an increase in crime or a lack of resources. Those have always been issues. Instead, it's a changing public perception and a social media-obsessed environment that is making police work more challenging than ever.
History of policing
Being a police officer in 2024 is a lot different than 20 years ago or even 10.
It’s a lot different than even just five years ago in 2019 before massive public protests in 2020 brought some stark realities to the forefront.
But the difference in perceptions of what it is like between officers and American citizens is part of the problem.
A 2017 Pew Research report took a deep dive into perceptions both of and from police officers on their role as protectors in the community.
One of the resounding messages from the report was that police and the public often hold very contrasting views on the role of policing as well as on major policy issues facing the country such as gun control and prejudice among officers.
And while both police and the public believe being an officer is more dangerous in today's society due in large part to protests, they view the reasons behind that differently.
Part of that is directly tied to how law enforcement in this country came to be.
The history of policing in the United States dates back to Colonial America when “slave patrols” were created to catch runaway slaves. With the abolition of slavery in 1863, slave patrols were disbanded but the same tactics were taken up by the Ku Klux Klan in its vigilante approach to terrorizing African Americans.
The first full-time funded police force in America was created in 1838 in Boston, followed by New York City in 1844 and Philadelphia in 1855.
In the Jim Crow era following Reconstruction and through the early 1900s, the distrustful relationship between police officers (who were mostly white men) and the Black community only grew.
This distrust came to a head again in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s when white police officers were often deployed with dogs to break up nonviolent protests led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights activists.
Since the 60s, the relationship between police and the public has remained tenuous as law enforcement is often viewed differently by different communities. When a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, a recently founded civil rights organization, Black Lives Matter, took hold.
BLM's prominence grew the following year after two situations in Charleston highlighted race-related killings -- one of which was the death of an unarmed Black man at the hands of a white police officer. The tension between police and the Black community hit a tipping point in 2020 as several incidents of police brutality toward Black citizens got national attention.
The country had shut down over the COVID-19 pandemic and emotions were high. The murder of an innocent Black man, Armaud Arbery, by vigilante neighbors started a firestorm that could not be contained a few months later when social media video footage revealed a Black man accused of a minor crime being beaten to death by Minneapolis police officers.
The Black Lives Matter movement, which had loosely started in 2013 and became more organized in 2015, brought African Americans together to protest in droves across cities all over the country throughout the summer of 2020.
A countermovement to the creation of BLM was Blue Lives Matter, which was formed in 2014 by retired and current officers to counter media reports they perceived as anti-police.
While attention since 2020 to inherent problems within police forces across the country has brought about a new awareness and some change, many believe there is a lot more to be done.
Part of the problem for bringing about positive change has been recruiting officers who are well-prepared for the new challenges of policing in a social media-enhanced world.
Getting into law enforcement
Being in law enforcement is never easy. The hours can be long, the work can be dangerous and the pay is rarely commensurate. But being an officer in today's society is getting even tougher. So I asked some local officers about their experience, their opinions and their motivations for doing this.
"I always wanted to be an officer since I was a kid, I joined the Marines after high school then went to the College of Charleston, but after that I still did not really know what to do," said Jon Sosner, an officer for the Isle of Palms Police Department since graduating from CofC in 2022. "But I stumbled upon a job offering and the rest was history."
Corp. Adrian Besancon of the North Charleston Police Department came to law enforcement by being around officers growing up.
"My family worked for this City Hall," he said. "I was around them growing up. I went to the Citadel and majored in criminal justice and the rest was history."
Lt. Ron Lacher's father was a firefighter but a special visitor to his school had a huge impact.
"When I was in kindergarten a police officer came and talked to the class, and I thought it was cool ever since," said Lacher with the North Charleston Police Department.
Whatever the initial interest, for most officers the continued draw to the career is to make a difference. That's definitely the case for Sosner.
"I think you get a real opportunity to genuinely help people," he said. "It's not every day, but you do really get unique chance to help."
The down side of working in law enforcement
For a lot of officers, the negative part of the job has been related to developments outside the police world -- such as the prolific use of social media and the corresponding negative view by the public.
Many officers feel like the social networks become a place for a small percentage of the population to complain about bad police work, giving the impression that all police act inappropriately.
One of the biggest issues for police is citizens posting video footage of them in action, which is usually only when an officer is acting unlawfully or inappropriately.
"It has impacted policing because it only shows the negative 1% of officers who do bad things," says Lacher. "It paints a bad picture for everyone and has destroyed policing."
Fellow NCPD officer Seth Deese also is not fond of how social media portrays police.
"It has probably made it harder because it pinpoints the negative," Deese said. "Overall I would say it is a negative in our work."
But Deese does believe it's more of an 80/20 split in how the public actually views the police.
"I would say 80% likes us and 20% do not," he added.
Body cameras were introduced into police work in the early 2010s as a way to offer more accountability and transparency for the public. But they became almost universally required following the shooting death in Ferguson, Missouri, of an unarmed Black teenager by a police officer in 2014.
While a body camera can make officers accountable to always act lawfully, it can also provide proof to a distrustful public of how a situation went down.
Sosner is new enough to the profession that he's only known police work with body cameras, and he likes them.
"When I started law enforcement we already had body cameras so I do not know what it is like without it," he said. "In my opinion they are good. They are only there to help."
Lacher, who entered law enforcement long before body cameras were added, believes they do provide context in situations that perhaps a citizen's video would not.
"Back in the day we did not have body cameras so something could look bad when in reality it was not," said Lacher. "I like them. I feel like it is beneficial that officers have the right actions because it is recorded."
But Lacher does see that these kinds of outside issues are impacting police recruitment, making it harder to recruit from a wide pool of highly qualified applicants.
So police departments are having to just take what they can get.
“The standards for policing in the last 10 years have dropped,” Lacher said, noting that the physical and psychologicial fitness of those applying has too often been less than ideal.
He believes a big part of this is that the people who might be inclined to the physical demands of policing don’t like the negative portrayal of the job.
”This career is portrayed badly on social media and to the public so often,” he added.
That is one reason a lot of police departments have added or improved their own official social media networks to help show the good things they have been doing for a long time in the local community but may not have been highlighted.
Community involvement
For decades police departments have been at the center of community programs to promote safety and well-being among citizens. With education programs as well as opportunities to take care of those in need, the local police department is often in charge.
Lacher noted the NCPD has several community efforts such as its annual bike collection program to give away free bikes to youth and its effort to give turkeys to homeless shelters at Thanksgiving.
One of its most popular on-going outreach efforts is the Cops Athletic Program in which officers coach local kids in various sports and activities.
"Community efforts like this really help the relationship between police and citizens," said Corp. Adrian Besancon of the NCPD.
Besancon noted that efforts like that really build trust with the public, which helps particularly when something happens and the police and citizens need to work together.
For example, he said, when a burglary happens and they talk to the surrounding neighbors, they don't just ask about that situation but also to find out if there are other issues.
“It builds the relationship with them and they tell us other concerns too," he added.
Besancon has noticed that the emphasis in policing has changed; it's not just about arresting criminals but about working to improve the community overall.
“When I first started it was based on who got the most arrests,” Besancon said. “Now it is definitely geared towards community policing where the quality of the arrest matters, not so much the quantity."
Positive social media messages from the police departments have also been a good way to work with the community and build those relationships too.
The IOP police do a “National Night Out” block party that has been very popular as well as “Coffee and a Cop” where residents can hang out and chat with the officers.
Getting the community together to see the police cars and ask questions and interact with officers can only benefit both the citizens and officers.
“We get the trucks and cars and do a community block party so kids can talk to officers and check out all the cool vehicles and gear," Sosner said, which is always promoted on social media.
Sosner believes the positive posts through social media are actually a great way to improve the public's knowledge of how police help in the community and improve their opinion of law enforcement overall.
“A lot of departments use social media in a good way," he said, noting that IOP police have a really good social media presence. "It's a good way to make policing fun and show we are
out in the community and showing support."
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