This describes a lot of jobs. Statistically, police work is less fatal than roofing, truck driving, garbage collecting and farming [1]. With respect to dealing with non-dangerous people who simply aren't nice, talk to a server or bartender or anyone who works in retail.
> will likely fight and resist
A small fraction (about one in eight) resist arrest [2]. Most of this is due to police having been thanklessly given, fairly recently, the job of dealing with our mentally ill [3].
> can just avoid risky situations by doing absolute minimum and not showing up or not engaging
Again, this describes a lot of jobs. If a department is staffed by people who won't work unless they feel free to break the law, it's crying out for overhaul.
We've given police tremendous pay, perks and employment protections. If it turns out a good fraction of a department's staff are too lethargic or terrified to do their jobs (for which we have zero evidence), they were improperly staffed.
[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-23/how-da...
[2] https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/36600547/Terrill_Polic...
[3] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/William-Terrill/publica...
There's essentially no penalty for being a cowardly cop. The las Vegas cop who chickened out of confronting the shooter got fired, for instance, but even he was reinstated.
Just checking are you aware that this isn't how it is in most other countries?
The people in similar countries manage to get by with a whole lot less violence just fine.
Lol what?
Training to be a cop often is less than to become a Teacher.
Cops aren't even in the top 20 most dangerous job in America. Loggers, Sailors, Fishers, pilots, construction, oil-industry, roofers, drivers, farmers, etc are all more dangerous jobs.
Honestly, cops should be paid somewhere around what a security guard at a bank is paid.
Below is a list of the top-10 highest-paying states for police officers:
source: https://www.businessinsider.com/teacher-salary-in-every-stat...
- national average: $67,600
- California average police officer salary: $105,220
- Alaska average police officer salary: $87,870
- New Jersey average police officer salary: $86,840
- Washington average police officer salary: $80,200
- Hawaii average police officer salary: $78,720
- Illinois average police officer salary: $78,350
- New York average police officer salary: $77,490
- Colorado average police officer salary: $75,720
- Delaware average police officer salary: $73,740
- Nevada average police officer salary: $73,660
Compare with teachers, the highest state (New York) averages $85,889 with national average $61,730.
Source : https://www.businessinsider.com/teacher-salary-in-every-stat...
"As of 2018, the average U.S. household income was $87,864, while the median household income was $61,937.
When the median is considerably lower than the average, it means that there are outliers on the top end. In short, a few people who make a lot of money boost the average. So $61,937 may be a more accurate representation of typical household earnings."
Source: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/research/average-us-income/
Have you considered maybe teachers are poorly paid, rather than police are highly paid?
> Cops aren't even in the top 20 most dangerous job in America
Did I say they were? Did I say they should be paid based on danger? So why do you think this is relevant?
> national average: $67,600 .. median household income was $61,937
All your numbers say they earn roughly a basic middle income for their locations. That's not 'highly paid'.
> cops should be paid somewhere around what a security guard at a bank is paid
Why would anyone take the job of being the officer over being the security guard in that case? Why take on the additional duties and responsibilities, the being in hazardous environments like messy crime scenes, and why take on the intellectual work of detection?
I don't get why any member of society would argue for another memory of society to get less money for their job.
‘What we need is lower wages for the working class!’
Baffles me.
Police report to elected governments. They are checked the same way the rest of the state is: through elections.
Police pay is high across America because they're widely seen as bringing value to the community. Their strikes are feared by politicians; the cops turning on the mayor signals instant political death in most cities. If that perception of police frays, their leverage disappears.
More pointedly, if a civil servant decides it's too much legal responsibility to not break the law, they should find another line of work.