Challenges of social media

As police officers, we are professional problem solvers. There are multiple ways to solve every call we go on. Trying to figure out the best way to help someone, and do it within the law and your department’s policies, while trying not to piss anybody off—that’s the tight rope we walk.

Social media isn’t helping. We’ve got people on social media telling others that if a police officer pulls you over, not to talk to them. This, along with the misleading and out of context negative viral posts, can really make it difficult for us to do our jobs.

It is a continual challenge to stay in touch with who we are from day one to the end of our careers. It’s not just how police are so often berated, but it’s also seeing so much negativity and the dark side of the world. It can definitely cause a person to become negative or shut down toward society.

For me, trying to keep things in perspective and seeing the bigger picture is important. A big part of that is remembering why I got into this profession, which is that I genuinely wanted to serve and protect my community.