This was the question a friend posed to me recently. More of a challenge, actually.

She said the becoming a cop series had been nice and all, but when was I going to show how the cadets were going to go from being regular people to becoming jerks? When was I going to show how the department trains them to be mean and rude to everyone?

Geez. How do I even begin to answer a question that is so loaded with bias and personal opinion?

Well, one I can actually answer quickly. From what I've seen, they do not train them to be jerks. There is no 'Theories in Being Rude' course. They take every opportunity to train them to be professional and courteous.

But I suspect that there a lot of people out there thinking something along the same lines as my friend. Sure, these guys SEEM nice now, but wait until they get out on the streets and don't have a reporter watching them.

I intended to delve into this question in the Museum of Tolerance article. Since the cadets have never really been in the street interacting with public, I decided to ask the cops. I interviewed Lt. Cantrell, who heads up Internal Affairs, along with Training Officer Feola. I talked to Sgt. Mullins and Lt. Nuriddin about it too.

But when I went to write the story, it just wasn't working. I was trying to shove a square issue into a round article. To stay true to the project, I cut the interviews with Cantrell and Feola completely, and really limited the stuff from Mullins and Nuriddin.

But getting in the stuff there wasn't room for was the reason this blog was created. So I started to tackle the jerk question by trying to break down why my friend was asking it in the first place.

There are dozens of examples throughout history and in the news today of cops grossly misusing power. You don't have to look far. Pretty soon the people of Kern County are going to have decide if three sheriff's department detentions deputies murdered an inmate.

But was that why she was asking? Or was it because when she's had interactions with cops, she's found them to be curt and sort of bullies?

"As Americans we don't like to be told what to do, and that's what the police do," Sgt. Joe Mullins said.

Lt. Mike Cantrell agreed. The Internal Affairs department investigates all of the community's complaints about the BPD. In addition to the complaints that are potential violations of law, like excessive force, fabrication of evidence, filing a false report, illegal arrest and improper search, IA will investigate complaints of rudeness.

"When people come in contact with authority, through some type of detention... a lot of people take exception to that," Cantrell said.

Cantrell said that they will investigate those complaints, but often they are very difficult to prove or disprove.

"Maybe an officer was curt to them, didn't seem interested in what the citizen was reporting, was indifferent. It could be a facial expression," Cantrell said. "It's just a feeling the citizen had in the contact with the officer."

Regular citizens whose only contact with law enforcement is getting a traffic citation will often find that experience unfair and be unhappy with the officer.

"The proper venue for that is traffic court. That's a fair shake for citizens," Cantrell said.

How an officer interacts with someone, whether that person is a witness, suspect or a victim, is often determined by the behavior of the other person, not the cop, Officer Chris Feola said.

"People have their own bias, their own opinions, their own views of what police officers should be," Feola said. "The citizens you contact dictate how you react to them."

Historically the relationship between some police departments and some minority groups has been adversarial. Departments across the country have come under attack for their treatment of minorities at various times. Officers have often accused of racial profiling, or treating a minority person as a criminal simply because he is of a certain race.

As recently as 2003, the BPD faced accusations of racial profiling and excessive force, which were investigated by the Department of Justice. The allegations could not be proved.

While use-of-force and citizen complaint policy changes resulted from the investigation, the BPD is still struggling with an issue departments are facing nationwide. It is overwhelming white and male.

At the end of October, the BPD had 319 sworn officers, and 298 were male and 261 were white.

"We continually work to have an organization that's reflective of our community," said Lt. Hajir Nuriddin, who is a black woman.

Mullins said that there is no correlation between the race of an officer, the race of a suspect, and the likelihood that excessive force will be used.

"Race is very rarely an issue. It's usually a training issue, a leadership issue, a professional culture issue," Mullins said.

Nuriddin said the department has been working to recruit more women and minorities by establishing community outreach programs like the Police Activities League.

"The historical negative things that have happened in this profession, we still have some people of color who have not come into the department to see the changes that have been made," Nuriddin said. "It takes more than just a poster. It takes more than just a billboard."

-- CS