Are you satisfied with how the police works in the U.S.?

My personal dealings with the police have been pleasant. Or at least as pleasant as getting a citation for speeding can be. The officers have all been professional and have done their job. But, then, I have never given an officer a reason to be nervous around me. I don't argue with the man doing his job. I argue about that with the judge, who's job it is to determine who wins the argument.

I don't think that police departments have reached the low levels of corruption and nastiness that many officers displayed in the 50's and 60's, especially where race and hippies were concerned. These behaviors by police are nothing new in the US. It is a constant battle to protect the rights of the citizens against an overreaching government and an overzealous police. Our forefathers understood this and gave us the tools to protect ourselves. Taking back the tools of government will put a stop to most of this..

It seems the police are losing sight of why they're hired, namely, to enforce law as deemed necessary and to keep the peace.

They are not hired to be a military presence in lieu of a REAL military presence (as forbidden by the Constitution) in the United States, although of late and after reading account after account of the militarization of both the police and their mission, I'm beginning to wonder if this might be someone's way of getting around the rights and protections of the citizenry.

I think the question itself is too broad. Except for personal encounters with the police, our perceptions of the police for the entire U.S. come from what we see/hear in the media, what we've heard our friends tell us, and from unconsciously absorbing views of the police from what we see on television dramas. The media tend to report the extremes because those are exciting and draw an audience. Stories of extraordinary bravery or of extraordinary abuse, or what is perceived as abuse, make interesting stories, but they don't inform us about police behavior as a whole. If a friend tells you about his/her negative encounter with the police, the story may or may not be distorted by his/her personal stake in the situation. People don't like being confronted with the wrongness of their own behavior. On television shows, the person who is arrested is almost always guilty, and we may have even seen him/her commit the crime, but real life doesn't present such certainties.

I can say that on the whole, my interactions with the police have been positive, but I've never committed a felony or been accused of one. I've always been guilty of the traffic violations for which I was pulled over, and I've always been taken seriously when I report a crime. In the few arrests I've seen, the perpetrator offered no resistance and the police weren't rough with them. That's all I can say for sure.

I am unhappy with the amount of screening that is performed to audit for ethical faults. I am also unhappy with the low amount of psychology training that goes on. Officers are too well protected against being held accountable. Cameras need to be built into the badge, and career actions taken when officers uniform-camera repeated 'malfunctions'

When the professionals paid to uphold the law become above the law, there's a problem. When they, the police, aren't accountable to the people who pay their wages, there's a problem. When there's no way to reign them in due to policies in place from top to bottom in law enforcement, then there's a problem.

I'm not even saying that "all cops are bad", unfortunately, the bad ones are really giving a black eye to all of them. And if they, the police, feel they can police themselves, then I say "get with it and let's see it".

So far, there's been nothing, or very little.

The cities pay good money for the police and yet it seems that money is spent buying thugs to put in uniform.