Rate My Cop, please!
12 03 2008Reading some of my online news sources I came across this little gem (http://cbs13.com/local/rate.a.cop.2.673410.html). It’s a news article about a new website that allows people to rate their experience with any particular police officer in their area. The website (http://www.ratemycop.com/) has the local police officers’ first and last names available on the site, but not other personal information.
Now the concept of a site for rating people of a specific profession is not really a new one, http://www.ratemyprofessors.com has been around since 1999, but I am a little concerned that the police are trying to have it removed. It seems that the police don’t like to be policed themselves. They are seeking legislation to have the site removed by saying that it is putting their families at risk, though the site claims no other personal information is shared on the website.
I, myself, am all for this site as I believe that people in positions of power should be monitored and held accountable for their actions. I always have been as I feel that too often people in such positions find the temptation to abuse their power too great to resist (on a somewhat unrelated I saw a cop turn on his lights to make an illegal left turn and turn them off immediately after again in Toronto this week).
What do you think about the concept of this site? Should it be shut down by the police or do we as citizens have the right to this information as well as the ability to comment on police officers’ behaviour?
note: This is an American site and has not been made available for Canadian residents to comment on Canadian police yet.
Your online news sources. :p
The idea of this site is great, but for it to be useful people need to deal with a certain police officer frequently. Or at least people need to be able to chose which cop to deal with. Neither of these is the case, you can’t pick a cop that will give you a ticket nor will you have to deal with the same person on a regular basis.
The point isn’t to choose your cop, the point is to be able to rate their effectiveness so that people can report police who frequently offend or are unreasonable. The site offers a forum to voice for people to complain anonymously and also to warn others of unjust activities (ie: unlawful searches, investigation without a warrant, etc…). It is also a chance to voice good behaviour and praise officers for going above and beyond the call of duty.
I just think it’s a great service. On a slightly related note, when I posted this item the 2nd related news story was of an officer that fell asleep at the wheel and killed 2 bicyclists, for this he was put on probation.