Christianity and Police Officer

As a christian police officer. I started out with the concept that  I would not write other christians tickets

Simple yet difficult thing to do. At first it was easy, See certain bumper stickers, maybe a bible laying around in the car. Easy to spot clues of faith. However after a few months on the road it became harder to just give free passes to the faithful. Even the Bible speaks of not showing favortisim to anyone. It came to ahead when one person was fleeing from the police in a pursuit, during the pursuit the suspect hit a child on the side walk. The child was seriously injured ( Not going into specifics ). When the suspect was caught it was learned that the suspect was on his way back home from church and he expressed carelessness over the fate of the child.

Thats when it hit home and I decided I needed to change my internal discretion process. I was more content to just let it go and be a fly by the pants officer. But I believe that If a cop doesnt have some sort of internal structure set in place. Such officer is more subseptable to being biased, manipulated, coerced. But also understanding every situation is different. So flexability is always nessessary. Still..

Applying the Bibles moderation generality to my way of patroling. I think made me a better cop. Now I show much less favortism. Excpet to other local cops. They still get free passes on tickets. Unless they cross the line as one cop did. Even he got a ticket. Ill go into why cops let cops go a lot in another blog. I even caught a officer DUI once. I was still new freash out of FTO phase. I saw a senior patrol officer DUI behind the wheel. At the time I wanted to fit in among the other cops so I played it cool and gave the officer a ride home and had family come get the car.

If done the same for other civilians occasionaly and actually a lot... Mostly because lawyers make it so hard to get a conviction in DUI cases. A DUI report is generally the largest report an officer will ever complete. The avg.decent DUI report is 5 pages in length sometimes longer.  The avg murder or sex crime report would be two to three pages tops.  One DUI arrest equils to about 12- to 20 hours of time that officer will spend on that one person. 2 hours to process the guy into holding cell and jail. 2 to 3 hours to complete a report. 1 to 2 hours on a deposition for the case. 2 hours on a DL hearing.  2 -3 hours to testify in court.  Court can easily be longer and If one thing is out of line in the report say the officer forgot to ask If he had any medical conditions. The lawyer will get his client off with no consequences. SO 20 hours of work for nothing... Yeah... Better off just giving a ride sometimes.

My hats off to the officers who like duing DUI's. Most cases its a personal thing.

Hmm I went a bit off track.

After studying the Bible in great detail, going on pastoral retreats, perticipating in church politics and activities and ect. One come to learn that when speaking in generalities the Bible is about well... Redemption from sin first , then moderation. Moderation because wine isnt bad , unless your become a drunkard. Food isnt bad unless you become a glutton.

Writing tickets isnt bad or warnings arnt bad but be mindful about how and why your doing it, and pay attention to who your doing it to.

Dear other officer in my agency who has no discretion yeah Im looking at you right now as I write this , you *^&   *#&$. That girl your wrote three tickets to a few minutes ago. She was a recent widow with three children and no family.. Whats wrong with you she was a stay at home mom.. She has no job !!! She cant pay for groceries let alone your $733 worth of tickets you just gave her..  Maybe thats why there was a lapse in her insurance !  Id like to taser you right now and write you some tickets myself after I slap you in your face. Granted she was doing 16 over the speed limit.  But lets put it into perspective.