zlacker

In the Netherlands the police's motto is "waakzaam en dienstbaar" meaning something like "vigilant and at your service". I like it, it means they are servants you can ask things and they are there to help. They are trained to always de-escalate. Tbh they sometimes get a lot of foul language addressed to them by certain individuals, yet they usually remain calm. I have a lot of respect for them.

>>teeker+(OP)
I think this is what the "serve" in popular US police mottos like "protect and serve" that some departments use was intended to convey. I suppose the message got lost (in more than a few cases in the US) somewhere between painting it on the car and training and managing officers inside the car.

It definitely feels like the police in the US are generally less trained than those in most western European countries (or at least the one I live in), and while this doesn't necessarily make them more violent, it does seem to increase the variance in attitude and behavior I've experienced among cops in the US. There are those I wouldn't trust to use physical force even when necessary, and clearly others I would not trust to use force as a secondary or last-resort option. It's rather concerning when you don't know what you will get.

This is definitely not equally true of every department. I've lived in some smaller towns where the police are noticeably more compassionate, as well as some cities like SF where the presiding strategy seems to be avoiding the overuse the police partly because of their inherent unpredictability, an overly punitive justice system, etc.