[The Goat]

I don't think it matters where you live, rich/poor, rural/urban cops way more often than not are undereducated egomaniacs who do piss poor police work even if they're not actually crooked. One of the criminology professors I had in college was a retired officer. He put about 20 years in the Bay area then became a PD consultant of sorts traveling throughout the U.S. and later the world. He was very honest, told us several stories from his career where he admitted to screwing up royally, including a time he let a serial murderer get away by mistake.

But the most notable thing that guy ever told us is the best thing that can ever happen to a police dept and the community it serves is lots and lots of legal action. It was actually pretty shocking to hear this but basically he reasoned that police work is just sloppy and stupid unless scrutinized. He talked about all the law suits against the LA PD as a good example.

In another class we had a ACLU lawyer in as a guest speaker. He had fought police corruption his entire career, told us about a lot of his cases and the bullshit that goes on within law enforcement. I think that was the only time I ever considered a law degree...sometimes wish I had done it.