So have you heard about this site RateMyCop.com? It’s a place where users can sign up and write reviews of their dealings with police officers, all based on this massive database of cops from across the country. Although the site doesn’t include personal information like home addresses, or the names of undercover officers, police organizations have roundly condemned the site, and the resulting controversy has gotten it kicked off a couple hosting providers. Seeing as we already have sites that rank the popularity of movies, video games, and Cracked articles, what’s wrong with a site that ranks cops? Are the police just being babies here?
Right off the bat the site has a huge problem. Any data gathered will have a pretty strong selection bias - people who have positive interactions with the police are unlikely to visit the site, so the only people to write reviews will be the ones with complaints. Statisticians refer to this as the “whiny bitch bias.” The whole site could very easily turn into a big cop-hating bitch fest. Anyone who’s predisposed to disliking cops, will upon visiting the site be presented with a litany of evidence that all police everywhere are arrogant dicks. The truth - that no more than 60% of the nation’s police officers are arrogant dicks - will be lost on them.
On a positive note, rich new veins of pig/bacon/pork related humor may be discovered and exploited within the site’s forums.
Any attempts to compare police officers or rank them will also be flawed (Try to imagine this site not having a top 10 list of the worst cops in the union.) Police officers will have different reviews based on their different duties and the community they work in. An officer who works traffic duty is going to be taking a lot more flak than that guy they send out to talk at school assemblies. And a straight laced cop might unfairly garner negative reviews if he was teamed up with a burnt out cop who plays by his own rules.
Also, how will the site handle cops who are identical twins?
From the police’s point of view, the worst case scenario here is sadly very plausible: Certain individual cops will be singled out on the site, unfairly or not, and will then be harassed by the site’s most ire-some members. Maybe that harassment will be of the legal variety (formal complaints,) but what if it’s the distinctly illegal sort (poo in the mailbox?) Clearly unacceptable, but it also hasn’t happened yet. Can a site be shut down because it may one day be the root cause of a hazmat team gingerly holding a mailbox in a pair of enormous tongs? Probably not, I guess.
Most importantly, and I say this in my full legal authority as a Cracked blogger, I’m pretty sure there’s nothing actually illegal about this concept at all. Police officers are public figures, their names and badge numbers are public information, and complaints about them are already handled in the open. Any attempts to make police officers more anonymous or to make police-work less transparent should be strongly resisted, lest it provoke a wave of bloggers flooding the Internet with clumsy references to 1984, or worse, Judge Dredd.
In short, I think the site could so either good or harm, but probably not much of either. Consequently, I don’t think it should be illegal, but I also won’t be checking it out. Kind of like fecalphilia, or American Idol.
___
Chris Bucholz is a writer and a robot. His personal blog, robotmantheblog.com contains a great deal of other humor articles, all of dubious quality and taste.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Police. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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August 13th, 2009 at 5:59 am
American Idol IS faecialphilia
August 18th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
insurance…
insurance…
August 18th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Redir?pd Link=i1 A39087 O4796 C71064…
Redir?pd Link=i1 A39087 O4796 C71064…
March 29th, 2008 at 10:51 am
These men and women are out there fighting crime for us. They get paid the less and are in a danger at all times. Give them the same Respect that we are giving to the soliders. There may be some BAD COPS! BUT FOR THE MOST THEY ARE HERE TO PROCTECT US.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I was an innocent person. The head of a police department set me up for my business insurance policy. That’s whey I found out that the Justice department is good at helping police out of a sticky situation and ignoring everyone’s rights.
I also found out that the United Nations has a task force for the Police Departments in the United States for ” Crimes against Humanity”. Please report to the United Nations if you have a problem!!!! Tell everyone.Your not supposed to know!
Also , I found out that citizen revue boards across the country were voted down. Why? Because you didn’t know about it! You were never given the chance to know.
The police ain’t afraid of being tracked down. They are afraid of being found out for their dirty deeds. I also found out that( some) police are hired because they did something illegal. That way they won’t rat out their buddies…This is called the Blue Wall…
RateMyCop.com is what the citizens of the United Stated need. There is so much police abuse, so much falsifying of police documents, so much lying under oath, so much ” BLUE WALL”. And I want to say one more thing to the corrupt police…just because you cover up for a buddy ” BLUE WALL”, DON’T MEAN YOU ARE INNOCENT! Let me say this another way…Whey you cover up for a Bud ..” Blue Wall” your as guilty as the person you are covering up for and deserve to go to prison. You violated the Citizen’s of the United States trust.
Dear Government, the citizens of the United States are tired of abusive, sadistic police. They no longer protect and serve. There are self serving and abusive. I’m so glad that you can see how everyone feels. Oh sure, you will put a spin on this site. But there will be a time whey the INTERNET will be flooded with this type of sites. This is a HUGE symptom of YOU not serving the people! It’s become a disease. All you hear about is police corruption. Isn’t it funny how so much of it is kept secret. And yet nothing happens to these guys. Isn’t that called organized crime. You bet it is. Everyone please get familiar with (1) Citizen review boards…(2)(UNITED NATIONS CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY)…(3)RICO LAW…..WHO ACTUALLY UPHOLDS THE LAW..IT SURE ISN’T THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. The guys that went after my insurance police got away with over 1 million dollars, even after there were many confessions. Yours so truly Alphy
March 24th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Dave Johnson,
A LOT of people work with the public and they get canned if they are the slightest bit rude. They (and you) CHOSE to be police officers. Deal with it or find another frickin’ career.
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:19 pm
That does not give the right to act like an asshole. If most people acted toward the people they serve like SOME police officers do they would be fired.
March 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pm
The reason so many cops (I am a former police officer) act like assholes is because of the public that they serve, You guys suck. A lot.
March 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
‘Sow’ isn’t spelt ’so’.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:54 am
I was given three tickets in one day by a cop for nott wearing a bicycle helmet.
And, according to the judge, he does it a lot.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I’m disappointed. I went to that site and it doesn’t allow anonymous rating. I was planning to say “didn’t give me my crack back even when I said pretty please.”
March 19th, 2008 at 11:07 am
One of the taglines I remember for that stupid Van Damme movie was probably than the actual movie.
TWO MUCH VAN DAMMAGE!!!!!!!
March 19th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Don’t we already have copwatch.com for cases of police corruption?
March 19th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Also, what a cute baby cop! Aww!
March 19th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Looking at DOB’s comment, I would like to point out that rating the cops could be just like the rate my professor (link anyone?). Rating the professors is not for the benefit of the professors but for students looking for the best choice in classes. Rating cops could benefit people by A) helping people decide where to move (or not to move) and B) by displaying targets for likely poo-related mailbox attacks.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:33 pm
Having dated a LEO, I can tell you they don’t all START that way. Many of them sincerely belive they are making the world a better place, safer for the children, blahblahblah. But once they get a taste of power, their little heads just swell up.
And their little balls shrink up bc of the steroids.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I would beg to differ there O’Brien, in a smaller town where everyone knows everyone or at least who the dickhead cops are if enough people bitched about a certain cop and this information was pointed out to the right person and that person reviewed say , the patrol car videos of that dickhead cop two things would probably happen,
a. the officer would have some kind of accounting for their actions, if deemed out of line.
b. the video tapes would disappear.
I would bet money on b.
March 18th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
I think the sad truth is that Ratemycop.com will have no effect on anything. I mean, you might feel empowered. “Ooh, I can say whatever I want about a cop. Ooh, I can call him a bigot and give him an arsenal of thumbs way, way down. Ooh, I’m making a difference. Ooh, Democracy. Ooh.” Bucholz’s poo-in-mailbox theory is intriguing, but ultimately unlikely.
Can you imagine any scenario where a cop will get fired as a result of a scathing review on Ratemycop.com? No. Of course not. No mustachioed, cigar-smoking police chief will ever pull an officer into his office and say “Branigan, even though you have a sterling record and your coworker’s like you and I personally have seen you in action and can attest to your services as a law enforcement official, CupsSuckDik8800 thinks you’re a ‘racist shithead ball-lickr. Now, you know this department’s policy on ball-licking. I can’t in good conscience allow you to keep working here.”
No. No one’s going to get fired. People can keep loading the site with whatever they want and believe they’re making a difference, just like they believed they were making a difference in college filling out evaluation forms for their professors.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
And yes I have the whiny bitch bias when it comes to cops
March 18th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
If I could be accused of being a bigot it would be against law enforcement officers and vampires, I really hate vampires. A lot of LEO’s are hard working, decent, honest people just trying to do their jobs like everyone else. That being said most LEO’s are egotistical, lazy, racist, dishonest dickheads, who think that carrying a gun and the ability to tell people what to do shows everyone how big their penis is, mostly to the trailer park queen working at the convenience store or Krispy Kreme. I dislike the majority of them.
Ratemycop.com is a stellar idea and please don’t get me started on how much I hate vampires.
March 18th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Really? I thought the answer was 36….
March 18th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Pharaoh Mustafa, the answer to your question is yes.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I love cops! I mean police officers; I love police officers. Is that right? Is that what you want me to say? Can I go now? Thanks, officer.
March 18th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Hey Chris, I’m not trying to sound sarcastic or anything, but did you write this whole thing to say that rating cops from around America may or may not be a good or bad thing?
March 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am
As a side note, when you just read the bold text from that movie poster it seems a little… well, I was going to write ’simple’ but ‘moronic’ seems to fit the bill a bit better.
Double Van Damme, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Double Impact, Feel the Impact
What’s the name of that internet law that says you lose the argument as soon as you refer to someone as a Nazi or Hitler? I suspect a lot of that will be going on. Or a lot of people threatening to get even with cops who stopped them from doing stuff they really shouldn’t have been doing in the first place. Those Nazi Hitlers! Just like Judge Dredd in 1984.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Was anyone out there really thinking we needed more avenues for after-the-fact second-guessing and overly critical public analysis and harassment of the nation’s police force?
I’m going to go out on a limb and be the first to say that I’ll bet Hannah Montana is behind this.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Police officers could combat the Whiny Bitch Bias by referring everyone they help out to the website. “Please take this satisfaction survey to let my bosses know how well I did” for police officers.
Cracked should probably root for the database as well, because what better fodder for a top ten list, am I right?
JUST LIKE IN 1984!!!!!!1111ONE111!