In most European countries you need a 4 year university degree in criminology to become a cop. They have the same standards for average police officers as we in North America have for Federal law enforcement. So while it's certainly true that some European countries have shitty cops, the ones with stricter barriers to entry have slightly less shitty cops.

Here's an interactive map although it does seem to be missing a fair bit of data for Europe. The USA has the most abysmal Police training time at just 500 hours of training between being a civilian and being a Police officer.

edit: lol whoops I never actually posted the link earlier. Here it is: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/police-training-requirements-by-country

[–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 37 points 10 months ago (9 children)

between being a civilian and being a Police officer

Also, in Europe, police are considered to be a part of civilian society. Here, "civilian" means "not part of the military". Police officers are civilians.

[–] verstra@programming.dev -5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

That could be a part of the problem. I consider police to be a respected and trusted role that comes with certain privilegies, like carring an overwhellingly powerful weapon (a hand gun).

That's very different from a civilian.

[–] maynarkh@feddit.nl 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The point is that they are not a thing unto themselves, they are people hired by the commons to do a job. They have the same rights and responsibilities, they go in front of a civilian judge if they fuck up. Also, as a rule, non-civilians are not permitted to police civilians, at least here. Being a civilian BTW is, and should be, a higher status than not being one, not a way to say "not part of the cool in-group".

Airline crews are also in a respected and trusted role and operate machinery that can cause the deaths of hundreds to thousands of people. They even have ranks and stuff. I've never heard anyone say airline crews are not civilians.

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