When I am travelling in other countries and see the police, I always ask myself what the public perception and satisfaction with the work of the police is in the respective country. In Germany there is the saying: "The police are your friend and helper", although I don't get the impression that many people here see it that way. Are there similar sayings in your country? Do the general public perceive the police in your area as friendly, competent, helpful and reliable? Or do you feel unsafe, are there cases of corruption or police violence?
34 comments
I dont know, most of them try to do their job the best they can. Like in any job some are good, some are bad. But police officers are also your neighbor, friend or that guy from the gym. I rarely deal with the police to be honest. The few occasions I did have to deal with them they just did their job, but a had a few bad experiences but that is probably on that individual officer. I know the police is a bit under staffed so sometimes they cant do all the things they need to do.
I am utterly satisfied with the police in Austria.
They truly are a friend and helper.
They are capable of being stern when necessary, but in every interaction I personally have had with them, they also acted appropriately to the situation at hand, with the understanding of them serving the people.
Seeing that Austria is a pretty peaceful country over all, they do a pretty good job of keeping order, all the while being friendly and polite, despite often having to interact with people that don’t return the same politeness.
If anything, the police need more legislative basis to take action. And of course a higher budget, as they are understaffed and, at least in my opinion, underpaid.
The Finnish police is generally well trusted by the Finnish population – they have world record [trust ratings at 91%](https://poliisi.fi/-//25254699/suomalaisten-luottamus-poliisiin-on-pysynyt-vahvana) – but it’s criminally underfunded. So, it’s not that people don’t trust they act well when they come, it’s if they start investigating to begin with. It doesn’t matter which color of government you have, all of them cut funding from police & security.
Nothing extraordinary in Czechia. The country is super safe in general so you rarely have to interact with them. Since they have to usually solve some petty stuff you sometimes have to insist that you want to report it. Because the standard police tends to be lazy and if you go there to report a stolen bicycle for instance the common experience is that they persuade you not to because there is low chance it will found anyways. In reality they are just pissed they have to the paperwork. The specialised departments do a good job though. Murders have for instance over 90% clear-up rate.
I never had a problem with the police in Germany.
As far as I can tell, they make a good job (and often a tough and ungrateful job).
There is saying “Poliisi on ystävä (The police are your friend)” in Finland because police are trusted, act helpfully in communities, rarely use force, and are mostly seen as part of a supportive welfare system.
This is the case at least in Finland because the police are trusted, corruption is low, police training is high-quality, and they serve in a supportive role as part of the welfare state.
In Finland, police training takes about 3 years and consists of two main parts:
1. Basic studies (about 2 years)
2. Practical training (about 1 year) at a local police department.
The training leads to a Bachelor’s degree in Police Studies (Poliisi (AMK)), which is a university of applied sciences degree.
Edit: Typo
What experience you’re likely make with the police in Germany depends heavily on your skin color.
I don’t think they changed from 50-55 years ago. There are a lot of them who are in it just to bully. Some others try to do what a police officer must do. I don’t know the ratio of bullies/good police officers. Other times, it’s just people who don’t do their job. Last year, I think, a young woman was murdered outside a police station. She was screaming for help and no help arrived.
Good. They have an average reputation, but I have had solid interactions all of my life. UK and Spain.
Low level crime is legal in the UK. It’s not the police’s fault and they do stop a lot of major incidents but the crimes like theft and shoplifting might as well not be illegal.
It’s basically the fault of the Tory party underfunding public services for years.
Extremely good. Actually, I’d say that the most incompetent and badly-behaved police I’ve ever met in my life was … Norwegian police.
French police, Russian police, German police, Ukrainian police (ye), Swedish police, Finnish police, Japanese police, Chinese police, UK/Scottish police were all ok.
French police is doing an exceptionally good job, considering we have a pro-capitalist-pro-kleptocrat-moron-cum-traitor as a president in power, and an assortment of shitheads as parliamentaries, and considering they’re frequently given directives which are aimed at suppressing the public and ignoring the criminals (during the Yellow Jackets protests, for example the police was explicitely told not to follow the store break-ins and professional burglars and “remain in place where the protestors were”), under the threat of losing their job (they also don’t have fewer retraining/readaptation resources while they’re fired or on administrative leave, compared to normal people – which is a social risk for the French society and I’ve told the French government many times about it, they should get the same kind of opportunities to retrain and thus be able to find another job).
Edit: Plus the “vigipirate” which is just exhausting for both the Army and the Police, so yeah, given the facts they’re doing amazingly well.
Depends on what you mean by work.
If serving their personal interests then they are doing great.
If serving the community then absolutely not.
This depends a lot I think.
Of course the actual police officers are individuals.. like in any job, some of them are serious and competent, some of them aren’t.
But it also depends greatly on who you ask.You will get a very different answer from a well-off white middle aged man than from an African immigrant in Italy.
The police are widely regarded as politically on the right,so often disliked by the left.
They are also traditionally disliked by organised crime and the environment around that part of the population.
I had a friend who was a carabiniere here in the city,he moved into one of the ‘popular’ areas in the historical centre of the city but didn’t last long…he got a lot of abuse from the local people, they didn’t want police around where they were living.
I think this attitude is less widespread in the ‘richer’ areas of the city though, even if the mafia exists there too… these people are much less likely to be openly hostile to the police.
Never had a good interaction with them.
They couldn’t bother to look some of their highway cameras for a hit and run. Told me this isn’t the Cia.
they gave the impression you are bothering them and didn’t want to be helpful after I was assaulted.
At best they are incompetent at worst they are corrupt/assholes.
Belgium btw
Sometimes “please license and registration” and sometimes they break my teeth because I don’t have the same opinion with the politicians. For the rest they are good guys.
The perception here is that they are lazy and take “easy” work like traffic stops, breaking up peaceful protests and hassling young fellas over more serious crimes like theft, sexual assault, violent extremist protest riots etc. They’re all assumed to be at least mildly corrupt in that if they pulled over a car on suspicion of drink driving or speeding, and it turned out they knew the driver, they’d likely let them go.
My partner is Polish. Every time there is a serious crime, the news reports seem to be “crime occurred” -> a few moments later -> “police catch the criminal”. There was a horrific murder of a young woman in Warsaw last year. The woman was attacked on the 25th Feb early in the morning, the guy was arrested at his home a few hours later. The only other place I saw such effective police operations was in Singapore.
They are definitely doing their best, but there is for sure room for improvement. A lot of improvement.
Overall I think they are good. In the rural areas (such as where I live), they are not consistent in their standard. Ours are pretty poor (no interest in investigating crimes, including murder, even where the evidence is abundant and easy to piece together).
Generally helpful. Some align with right wing. In freedom day we had some smart asses right wing party that wanted to grill a pork in a area of Lisbon that is known to have a lot of muslims and that is also very close to where the main manifestation with hundreds of thousands of people was happening. This right wing party gathering was not approved by our police because they considered it provocatory and there would be a risk for public order. They did it anyway. Police intervened and arrested the leaders.
So even if some police officers align with right wingers they did their job impartially here.
I think personally it’s quite decent for the most part, but with the disclaimer that I come from a country where they are often the criminals, so it’s quite a night and day difference and may be a bit biased compared to how others from developed countries may feel about them
I feel like the police are regarded quite positively in Sweden, and that seeing the police about on town gives people in general a greater sense of safety and security.
They do have a very difficult job on their hands though, due to the widespread organized crime in Sweden, with a high amount of gang crime, shootings and bombings, which sadly also all too often impact innocent civilians.
I think that the general feel is that the police are doing the best they can with their still limited resources, and they have definitely become a lot more visible and active with patrolling both in the cities and on the roads, after gaining some more resources and increased staffing in the last few years. That is very noticeable Hopefully this increased visibility will also help deter crime in the long run.
As a Dane .. The police is doing their job in the background. They are rarely visible at all and always friendly and helpful.
In France there is 2 police corps , “la police nationale” which depend from ministry of interior and mostly work in Big cities , and ” la gendarmerie” which depends from ministry of défense and work in coutryside/does road policing outside cities etc , usually getting into gendarmerie is harder , you need your high school diploma and to pass some exams etc. Usually they are nice and some what compétent, police on the other hand have had huge controversies with racism , racial profiling , beating random people up , non justified killing , giving sensitive informations to far right médias etc. While there are very nice and compétent police personel , the institution is quite rotten and your mileage with them will vary if you appear Maghrebian or black
UK police are generally slated by the news and a lot of the public.
They do a great job but have no funding, are paid less than a lot of other European countries, the laws and legislation hinder police from getting anything done. The court and prison system is a joke.
The new degree rules also mean it is becoming harder and harder to get decent experienced officers on the street. It brings only specific people in and limits a lot of those that are needed who are ‘street smart’.
The leadership and management is appalling. So much middle management when the money should be spent on officers on the street and dealing with incidents.
Single crewed officers expected to cover huge patrol areas. You would be shocked by how few officers there are on duty in some of the major cities even in a Friday or Saturday night.
The laws and legislation that got bought in over the past ten years including GDPR make it almost impossible to investigate crimes in any reasonable time frame. Simple cases involve tens to hundreds of hours or work for almost no reason. The CPS are atrocious and just make it ten times harder.
Then when the case gets to court they get no real sentence and for most the prison system is no deterrent.
Makes the job impossible yet sadly the news and public don’t generally see that side.
(8 years as detention officer and investigator)
Finnish police are well respected and trusted but customer service is non existent. Had a case I reported. Never heard from the police. Received a letter that went to court and got an outcome 2 years after I made the report. They are also pretty well paid and staffed compared to the UK.
Trusted but are seen as under resourced and a bit incompetent due to the judiciary and political decisions
NL: 7/10 (pretty decent)
But I’m Swedish so I’ll rate them too: 4/10 (mostly useless)
I’m Maltese. They’re fucking useless. Totally in the hands of our corrupt politicians. Never really doing their job. When you go to the station to file a report they will most likely tell you that there isn’t anything they can do and that you should just ignore the fact that something happened. Police related scandals swept under the rug, chief of police barely ever makes a public statement. Zero enforcement of laws. It’s better if i stop the rant here…
I have very good, positive experience with police. They’ve greatly helped me, they were lovely and understanding, I admire people who want to protect others. I like Czech police, I trust them. Unfortunately, criminals don’t always get the punishment they deserve, but it’s not the fault of police.
I can’t rate their work in Spain. Every single time they show up, I rate their looks. Such beautiful people!
On a serious note, they seem to react very fast and operate well.
The police are polite, professional and helpful. They don’t carry guns (apart from certain forces) and police training standards are pretty high.
In general – my feelings are positive.
But Polish Police suffers from understaffing ( 10 000 vacates ) , underfunding and lack of training. Also nepotism.
I think you’ll find “Freund und Helfer” is sarcastic. Late one night on a train station platform in Germany, I saw the police moving on a (presumably) homeless person. The guy was shitfaced and could barely stand, let alone walk. They picked him up and told him to walk towards the very long flight of concrete stairs. He did. He obviously tumbled down the stairs. He was still most of the way up the stairs. “Aufstehen. AUFSTEHEN!” He got up. “Weiter.” The guy didn’t want to, obviously. “WEITER!” Forward he went, and down here tumbled again. This process went on until he reached the bottom. They didn’t even seem to care that I was there.
Never, ever, put a German in uniform.
The Austrian police are bad, but not as bad as that, and UK police, despite all the shit we give them, are the best I’ve ever dealt with.
Like most other public services in the Netherlands, they have been underfunded for a long time and it shows.