Mike Brown Law. Requires all state, county, and local police to wear a camera.

[TorchTheWitch]

78. You can ask but I'm not saying

Too personal for public consumption. I live in a Philly suburb in Delaware County though my street is just two or three away from the county line and across that line it's like a whole different world - and one I don't want to live in.

This part of town is about half white and half mostly black and a lot of other minorities. The local police are very racially diverse. Since I also live a few blocks from the police department I run into officers all the time. I buy my smokes at the mini-market that's next door to the department, and there's always officers in there particularly at the deli (they have an awesome deli), and they all go in early in the morning for the muffins that are still warm from just having arrived before the day shift starts. All the time I see officers chatting with people of all races in there. A lot of times there's a few hanging out in the parking lot in nice weather shooting the breeze and saying hello to people.

The captain is great though and I think it's largely due to him that the officers are fine with anybody no matter what color or gender or age or whatever. He insists that all the officers have to just talk to people and always smile, wave or say hello when they're out and about - be part of the community they serve. I think this has a lot to do with how well things work here. It makes people feel more at ease around an officer and reveals them to be just average people that happen to wear a uniform, but maybe more importantly it makes them feel more at ease with the people in the community whatever color.

The hiring processes is REALLY difficult though, and they weed out anyone right off the bat that has even a hint of any issues with minorities or women or teenagers or any other biases that would throw a wrench in the works. Because this department is one that officers practically kill themselves to get to work in anyone that does really doesn't want to run the risk losing their job since they won't get to work anywhere that comes close to as good. It's like winning a coveted prize just to get hired.

Now, I'm sure if I lived in Philly or the town across the country line it would be very different. I don't worry about what those officers might do to me though since I've never had any problem with any of them anywhere that I've lived or visited. Probably because I'm nice, I don't do anything criminal or anything that looks suspicious of something, and If I ever get stopped by a cop I cooperate. It isn't hard.