Janie Wagstaff: Examine expectations for police

Local law enforcement is now the firewall of society’s failures. Failure of a largely monopolistic public education system. Failure to hold up a two-parent family as the strongest foundation for children. Failure of the “war on poverty.” Failure to hold people accountable. Failure to end bad policy. Failure to instill a strong work ethic and provide good jobs in a growing economy for all.

Failure after failure ends up at the door of law enforcement. When people hold officers to a standard of being psychologists (responding to domestic disputes, hostage-taking), psychics (is he armed or not?), intolerance for human failings (yes, some have racist tendencies as all humans are subject to) and now even spotting signs of terrorism (think Boston bombing), it is no surprise that society thinks that police departments are failing.

It is the expectation that is failing – the expectation that police will handle every situation perfectly or be the “fixer” of problems that have occurred along the way. It is time for all of us to seriously examine the expectations. It is beyond time to fix the problems that lead up to a bad ending instead of looking for internal signs in police departments that they can point to as the failures.

This story was originally published March 17, 2015 at 1:16 PM with the headline "Janie Wagstaff: Examine expectations for police."