To Serve & Protect: Rate My Cop Offers Anyone the Chance to Sound Off

We live in a world now where technology is abound. We can do anything that we want, say what we want, and now, we can rate what we want. I can remember the trend beginning with popular sites like Hot or Not, where you could rate a person's picture. When I discovered MySpace, users were given a option to rate their professors. Now, the tables have turned. The latest new trend in ratings is Rate My Cop.

Police are crucial to society. They take a vow to serve and protect the people. Rate My Cop gives anyone with access to a computer and the Internet, to rate any officer of their choosing, based on name and even badge number. It seems that Rate My Cop has given those serving and protecting a little bit of something to be up in arms about. But the question remains, does Rate My Cop actually offer anything else other than the opportunity to bash other police officers who we feel is doing a bad job? Or, will Rate My Cop be able to stand out and put those who are doing a wonderful job into the limelight?

The Pros of Using Rate My Cop

Every day we see at least one police officer out on the street, in school, or at the office. Their presence is supposed to make the public feel safe. If we ever need the assistance of a police officer whether it be for crime or just someone to unlock our car door because we locked the keys in the door, it's great to know that they are there for us.

Rate My Cop will allow users to find that cop who helped us out and offer appreciation for their deed. Users of Rate My Cop will also be able to browse through their own local police department and see how their police force stacks up. Being able to browse other people's opinions of the police officer dispatched to take care of their situation and see how they reacted can give users the faith in their police force and in their community.

Rate My Cop can also serve as a wonderful source of publicity for a city. People who are potentially moving to another city might use Rate My Cop to check out the police force in the area that they are moving to, allowing them to see how the police perform and their responses to situation which arise.

It is the hopes of Rate My Cop to try and discover cops who may be stepping over that line and participating in activities or events that might not align with the oath that they took when they became sworn officers.

The Cons of Using Rate My Cop

Well, first and foremost, the one thing about this site is that anyone can go and post their comments about an officer. Rate My Cop will give the normal person the ability to track down a police officer and offer up harsh words and criticisms. Anybody would be able to view these comments and a perfectly good cop might have his name drug through the mud.

Since Rate My Cop allows anybody to comment, an issue of public safety is at hand. Say for instance that a cop makes local news and is accused by the person who he or she arrested of police brutality. The police officer's name is all over the news and suddenly comments appear in mass numbers ridiculing this police officer. Suddenly, hundred of other people go to Rate My Cop and say that the same thing has happened to them.

Another potential problem with Rate My Cop is the fact that it has the potential of being very dangerous for police officers. Why? It's not a secret that there are some people who do not like police officers. Rate My Cop can give users the ability to find police officers in their local area, get there names, and do a Google search to find out where they live. This not only poses a threat to the police officer, but to his or her family as well.

My Experience with the Police

This sounds like a title for disaster, but it truly is not. I served as police cadet for the local police department for several years when in high school and while in college. As police cadets, we were given uniforms and participated in events with other police officers, almost like a shadow. We were given training on techniques that police officers used and learned some of the crucial things that police officers learn, some while on the job and some on the outside. As I "worked" my first even with the police department, decked out in the uniform proudly displaying my patches, I was met with harsh criticism. While most of people would just look over at us and talk amongst themselves, I received several harsh comments that were derogatory towards the police in general. While we are told as children to respect the police because they can help us when we need it, it appeared that not many people shared in that same sentiment.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Rate My Cop website has a lot of interesting features to offer a person who is looking for more information about a police force in a certain area. However, it leaves police officers open and vulnerable to unwarranted and unjustifiable harm. If there is a police officer who may be playing the role of "bad cop" then it is up to the individuals with knowledge of such events to report it, it is not up to websites such as Rate My Cop to discover.

Currently, the Rate My Cop website is down. Whether it is down for good of because of too much website traffic is not known at this point.