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Officer Friendly Meets Sir Lancelot
In my second career, I taught criminal justice, a natural progression from a first career as a judge and the various roles I played in the justice system before taking the bench.
Sometimes people assume that all my students were future police officers. That’s not quite so, but they were a practical bunch and most were happy to describe their ambitions
More of them intended law school than were destined to get admitted, and I got more than an even share of them because I taught all the law focused courses at one time or another. I did my best to match them all with a law school where they would have a chance.
From watching my graduates, it appeared that most of them spent time as probation or parole officers. Maybe a third of them became law enforcement officers, and some of that third were getting out of debt before attempting law school. Of those intending a law enforcement career, they most often had one of two views of policing.
I call the first one Officer Friendly. They emphasized the community caretaker part of policing. Calling somebody at work to tell them their garage door is open. Hunting for lost children or the other way around when a small child is found without an adult. The…
