Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. SUZI HUNTINGTON INSIdER RUMINATIONS here’s been a lot of spirited commentary on the issue of professional courtesy in our pages recently. Most everyone weighing in on the subject has examined the topic with a good amount of common sense. But let’s look at courtesy — or rather, discourtesy — a little more closely. And I’m talking about the kind of courtesy we should be extending to everyone we deal with. I received a letter from a man whose anger and contempt for police was clearly visible. His words poisoned from a few interactions with his local gendarmes — interactions, which probably didn’t even register on the cops courtesy radar — but ended up leaving one family hurt and angry to the point of believing all cops are uneducated, knuckle-dragging dolts. Now I’m not going to get all high and mighty and claim I was a perfect officer — never lost my cool at someone, never stacked charges just because the guy pissed me off, never behaved like I was queen of the Grumpy Forest — because that would be a lie. I will say, however, this man’s disdain for cops struck a chord with me; it was the slap back to reality I remember getting from other citizens when I’d behaved badly. It’s NOT About you T examples is to give a quick wave (with all your fingers) and then move on, and take a little time to help the girl get her bearing — or maybe even give her a ride. Doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest thing to do — especially when we spend most of our time pointing out other people’s faults. This may seem like small stuff to most of you, and it is when you consider the number of times cops find themselves clearly on the wrong side of the law — being arrested for DUI, drugs, sex crimes, domestic violence and even murder. But the small stuff occurs much more often and is the bigger picture by which people judge us — that’s right — they judge us. And we judge each other in the same manner. There’ve been many times when I thought cops were jerks because they were being bullies for no particular reason, or they were spending more time trying to get out of taking a report, than if they’d just taken the damn report and done their job. Bad Hair Day I’ve been to too many cop funerals, seen too many battered and maimed bodies, consoled too many families who’ve been dealt a serious blow — I’ve seen firsthand too much of man’s inhumanity toward man — but none of that matters to the guy I stop for a traffic violation. And I shouldn’t expect him to understand all the bad baggage I may be carrying around with me. All that junk should be left back at the station house door. His only concern is how much the ticket is going to cost, how it will affect his insurance and whether I was a turd, or decent and fair. We owe it to the communities we police to suck it up — to always take the high road, to be courteous — even when they’re interrupting our day. Being nice and doing the right thing doesn’t take any more time than being snotty or going off on someone. In fact, it usually will use much less time because you won’t have to justify the merits of your own stupidity when the lack-of-courtesy complaint comes in. I wish I’d learned this earlier in my career. INSIdERRUMINATIONS Do The Right Thing Just as we’re trained to look at body language, we must remember we telegraph many of our own thoughts and attitude to the general public. From the roll of our eyes when someone interrupts our lunch break to ask a “stupid” question to the “dead eyes” look my husband said I got when I was irritated with someone. That’s being discourteous on my part, and it’s wrong. It can be more pervasive too, like conducting a prolonged traffic stop on someone who dared honk at you because you were sitting through a green traffic light. Or yelling at a girl — instead of helping her — who’s managed to get lost in the wrong part of town. The right responses to these 70 INSIdERRUMINATIONS Continued on page 69 WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009