Dirty Work: The Social Construction of Taint

9. Cops, Crimes, and Community Policing

9 Cops, Crimes, and Community Policing Shirley K. Drew & Mendy Hulvey 169 I hate that part of it—being stigmatized and stereotyped . . . [there’s a] perception that we’re bad people. . . . —Sgt. M. Schaper, personal communication, March 27, 2006 When you’re a kid . . . you wanna be the hero. —Officer J. Noga, personal communication, July 5, 2006 Introduction It is a truism that we are judged by the work that we do. For many of us, what we do is a central part of who we are and so it influences how we judge ourselves. Hughes (1958) argues that work is one of the most important parts of our social identity and thus of our lives. When society defines the work we do as dirty, then it is natural that as “dirty workers” we attempt to revise the public’s perceptions, as well as our own, in order to construct positive self and occupational esteem. Police work is physical, social, and moral dirty work. It can be physically disgusting. Police officers often have to deal with offenders, or “the bad guys” (as they refer to them), who are physically dirty, smelling of alcohol, vomiting, urinating, defecating, or spitting in their patrol cars or on the officers themselves. The work is socially dirty because officers spend their work lives dealing with stigmatized groups. In a sense it is also socially tainted because it puts police officers in a servile relationship to those same stigmatized groups and to other members of the community as well. In order to maintain some dignity and freedom, police officers construct barriers that create social distance from the bad guys. For instance, at the Pittsburg Kansas Police Department the patrol cars are equipped with cages to separate officers in the front seat from prisoners in the rear seat. Entering into the inner sanctum of the department offices and interrogation rooms requires codes (like a bank PIN) or having someone inside “buzz you in.” Finally, policing is morally tainted as well. This occurs “. . . where an occupation is generally regarded as somewhat sinful or of dubious virtue or where the worker is thought to employ methods that are deceptive, intrusive , confrontational, or that otherwise defy norms of civility” (Ashforth & Kreiner, 1999, p. 415). The media provide the public with images of police interrogators or detectives who lie or use trickery to get information or officers who abuse their positions in some way with members of the public, through brutal behavior or expecting free meals at the local coffee shop. While this behavior may be an exception to the norm, these media images contribute to a public perception of cops as morally tainted. It is probably more common, particularly in rural areas where community policing is the norm, that moral taint is attached when officers are perceived as rude or uncaring. I am curious about real police work, not the fictional representations that the media give the public. My curiosity is due at least in part to the occupation’s closed nature, its multiple cultures, including languages, artifacts, and rules. And, I must admit, I’m curious because of the life and death aspect. How do police officers do a job knowing that their lives are often at risk? Obviously others have studied police culture (See, e.g., Van Maanen, 1988; Pogrebin & Poole, 2003; Trujillo & Dionisopoulos 1987; Payne, Berg, & Sun, 2005), but I was interested in how policing is done here—where I live—in Pittsburg, Kansas. This chapter was cowritten by the two authors. My individual experiences (Shirley’s) are represented by the use of the first person . Examples of these experiences include the ride-alongs with officers, informal conversations, and my interaction with the Pittsburg Police Department’s (referred to as PPD) First Citizens’ Academy. I’ve tried to provide balanced representations of the 170 Shirley K. Drew & Mendy Hulvey accounts of the officers I spent time with. I consulted with Sgt. Roger Rajotte and Deputy Chief Brent Narges regarding who might be most willing to talk with me, as well as on many other issues. I spent time with officers across a range of ages and lengths of service (referred to as LOS from this point on) in the occupation. The remainder of the chapter is a collaboration between Chief of Police Mendy Hulvey and me. Chief Hulvey has been in law enforcement since 1985. She joined the PPD in 2000 and was promoted to Chief of Police in...