In recent years, police officers have gotten a lot of negative attention for the bad things done by bad cops. However, the fact is, the majority of police officers don’t sign up for their jobs so that they can be jerks or murderers. Most of them at least start out wanting to make a difference. For many of them, they had an encounter with a police officer as a child and wanted to grow up to be like the cop they knew. In other cases, they knew a crime victim and they wanted to play a role in keeping the bad guys off the streets and the good guys safe from the bad guys. In my lifetime, I’ve had very few negative interactions with police officers, but as the wife of a Black man, I’m acutely aware of what can go wrong. Below, enjoy 18 stories about people’s positive experiences with police officers.
1/18. Peeing on a tree on church property…cruiser pulls up mid-pee, can’t stop and knew I was busted. Officer rolls down the window and says to me, “I’ll let God sort you out” and drives away.
-bentmccorndik
2/18. My tire blew out on the freeway heading down from Tahoe. Pulled over and began to get the spare out, etc. Trooper pulled over, told me to step aside, and proceeded to change the flat. I tried to tell him it wasn’t necessary but he ignored me.
-2_Sheds_Jackson
3/18. When I was a kid my mom had a seizure behind the wheel of her car when my sister and I were in the backseat and thankfully she just ran into a road sign. The paramedics took her away and the other officers just called my dad and ignored the two kids in the back seat crying.
This amazing older officer got us chicken nuggets from McDonald’s and told us about his horse. Whenever I see people online saying fuck the police I think of that nice old man that got dinner for two crying little girls and spoke with them about horses.
-Prannke
4/18. Got picked up going 25 mph over the limit in Chicago. I was on my way to college in Minnesota and I was still 500 miles away. The police officer asked where I was going and I told him I was headed to school. He asked where school was, and what I was going to school for. I told him I wanted to be a teacher. He took my license and registration, came back a few minutes later with only a warning, and one piece of advice: “Next time someone asks you what you’re going to school for, don’t say “I want to be a teacher,” say, “I’m going to be a teacher.”” And then he walked away.
Never drove that fast through Chicago again, and I took his advice to heart.
-korthlm
5/18. A traffic copter landed in a field nearby when I was about 8 and I went down to see it. When the two pilots came out of it to run to a nearby firestation they asked me to watch it for them. When they came back they gave me a set of pilots wings and a coloring book.
6/18. I was sitting in my car in the park. A cop knocks on my window and asks for my ID. I give it to him and he says “You’re legal, just confiscated this from a bunch of minors” and hands me 2 cases of beer.
-printerbob
7/18. I was six and noticed the neighbor’s mailbox hanging open and a bunch of their mail in a deep ditch across the street. I told my mom, she called the police and when the officer came out, she had me show him what I found. He listened patiently as I told him the story, I got really bold about what I believed happened. I had this theory about the bad guys and where I thought their fingerprints were in the mud, etc. He was so sweet, seemed to write down what I said for his report, thanked me and walked me back to my house. I felt so brave and so important when he was probably doing all be could not to laugh out loud at my stupid theories. The neighbors bought me thank you flowers when they got home from vacation, it was a proud moment. I never forgot his kindness.
-Ghostwistful
8/18. Pulled a cop off my back and threatened to arrest the same cop on grounds of assault. I spent the next few years being helped by my own small town Officer NiceGuy. He helped me escape my “family” and not fall into the same life as my dad. If it weren’t for him I would have been dead or in jail a very long time ago.
-TheManRedeemed
9/18. Due to being a dumb high schooler I was arrested for shoplifting. The officer saw I was terrified, even though I was big for a high schooler and he could have treated me like a threat. I was 18 so I was legally an adult even though I still felt like a kid. He was very… kind about it all. Walked me out of the store on a path that would require the fewest people to see me. Asked if I wanted the window cracked for air and assured me that it was dark outside and the windows were tinted so no one would see me. On the way to the jail he talked me through what would happen next. Community service, fines, all that.. He walked me in and as I was having my mug taken I accidentally said “yes sir uh ma’am” to a female officer who got pissed, but I saw him in the background chuckling.
A couple years later he pulled me over for a speeding ticket and a year after that he worked Black Friday security, standing right by me in the store I worked at. I’m not sure if he recognized me, I’m sure he sees so many faces in a day. I wish I would have thanked him for his kindness back then but both times I was either busy working or with people who didn’t know about the arrest.
-gilbertk
10/18. Back when I used to wait tables, we had a cop who would come in on busy nights near closing time and keep an eye on the place, like a security guard getting easy overtime and a free meal. This guy was super cool and always fun to talk to.
Well I had this table of sketchy looking hillbillies that racked up an impressive bill by ordering a lot of drinks and foods like steak and ribs… Well wouldn’t you know it after I dropped the check off, they tried the old dine-n-dash.
And they would have gotten away with it IF the geniuses hadn’t left the keys to their minivan on the table! So while I was freaking out about a table that had walked on a +$300 tab, I spotted the keys and walked straight over to the cop saying I had a table that left without paying! A minute or two later, the main heifer of the family came skulking in and tried to stealthily walk back to their table to look for her keys… Meanwhile our cop walks up behind her and says “Looking for something?” and jingles her keys. Not wanting to cause a scene, he escorted her outside and somehow made them cough up enough money to cover their bill and graciously leave me $2 tip.
One of the coolest memories I have of a cop!
-Not_Joshy
11/18. Was travelling in San Francisco with friends, decided to walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. Got to the lookout on the other side extremely cold (that bridge is windy, we were used to heatwave/Texas temperatures and not expecting California mildness) and tired. Began the long walk back across and ran into a policeman in a little buggy (can’t find a pic, but literally this tiny van with bars separating the back from the driver), who offered to give us a lift back across.
We happily piled into the back of this funny little vehicle and he chatted to us the whole way back – telling us the best places to visit in the city, listening to our travel stories, generally being really sweet. Turns out he was on suicide watch and just patrolled the bridge up and down all day long.
-scribblefrog
12/18. I came outside from a party where I had a few too many and stumbled up the road to find my truck where I parked. I got in and put the keys in when his lights turned on behind me. He walked up, asked who I was and where I was going. I tried answering but he smelled the obvious brewery that I had downed and he pulled me out of the truck and asked me where I lived.
I told him thinking I was going to jail. Instead he helped me into the back seat of his car and he took me to Wendy’s and got some food and then took me home. He helped me in the house and I managed to get on the couch. He wished me good night and told me to sleep it off, locked up my house and left.
I saw him broke down on the side of the road a few months later and I got to stop and help him with car trouble. It was nice to pay it back. He didn’t have to do what he did for someone that didn’t deserve it.
-ThePlague13
14/18. So last night I was so drunk I gave the cab the wrong address when I was trying to get home from the bar. He ended up dropped me off like a mile away from where I lived. I walked around trying to get my bearings and slipped on the ice, re-breaking the frames of my glasses and hurting my knee. Eventually I reached what I thought was my entrance to my apartment and tried to get in, but none of my keys worked. I smoked a cigarette and tried calling my roommate, but he didn’t pick up. I looked for my car on the street and realized it was not there, I must be at the wrong place. A few minutes later I see a cop car driving up and they stop right in front of me. They ask, “Do you know where you are?”
And I said something along the lines of, “Honestly, officers, I’m really drunk. Can you please give me a ride home?”
They looked at each other and kind of laughed and one of them said, “I’ve been there before man. Let me see your ID so I can run your information real quick.”
I gave them my ID and got in the back seat. I explained more about what happened as they ran my name on their computer. I came up clean, so they decided to give me a ride home. On the way there we talked more, but the best part was when we got close and I told them it’s a pain in the ass to get to because of one-way streets and the one driving, looks back and says, “Are you kidding? Look at who you’re talking to.”
He then flashed his lights and went down the wrong way of a one-way street. They dropped me off and told me to stay safe.
I honestly felt like I was in Superbad and thought they were awesome for not citing me or taking me to jail.
-eDgAR-
15/18. When I was young and dumb and going through a horrible breakup–really nastyI told my ex something like I wanted to kill myself. I was really down and out and feeling hopeless. She called the cops and they showed up at my apartment. He talked to me for a few minutes and ensured that I wasn’t, in fact suicidal. Then as the paramedics arrived, he sent them away and stayed and talked to me for a bit about love and loss and how these things pass with time and how none of it is worth being suicidal. Basically just helped me put things in perspective and left.
I don’t know what they’re entitled to do under the law when responding to these calls. Perhaps he could have taken me in custody–I don’t know. But he was a really nice guy who gave me a few minutes of his time when he very fairly could have to told me to grow up and don’t do shit like this that distracts them from more important things. His kindness and advice was a real turning point for me.
-arch_nyc
16/18. When I was young and my family was kind of in a bad situation, a police officer picked me and my siblings up and took us Christmas shopping. We each got to spend $100 on whatever we wanted. It was one of the best holidays I ever had.
-Torchwood110
17/18. I was 19 and took my mom’s brand new car to my girlfriend’s house. She had forgotten something at my house and needed it that night for the following morning.
I left my house without my wallet and just drove the ~mile to her. She came downstairs, took the bag from me and went back inside. As I started to pull away, an undercover car pulled me over.
Two officers approached the car. When they asked me for my license and registration, I froze. I had nothing on me. I profusely apologized and explained the whole story.
They were both very understanding. One officer even joked that “you are putting our time in, huh?”
They gave me and all visible areas of the car a once-over. When they were satisfied, they both told me to get home safely. They didn’t even hint at a ticket.
Turns out, there was a huge drug bust in the neighborhood a few days later. Here I was – a 19 year old, in a brand new car dropping off a package at midnight. I must have thrown up every red flag ever.
They could have made my life difficult. They were totally understanding and cut a young kid a break.
-_TheConsumer_
18/18. I was on vacation with my dogs in a beach town that is a 5 hour drive from home.
I took my dogs to a park. While there, I had an accident that resulted in a loss of consciousness and multiple broken bones.
I remember waking up twice at the accident scene. Once, I was still flat on my back and called out for my dogs, whose leashes I had dropped when I was knocked unconscious. We were adjacent to a busy state road.
The second time I woke up, I called out for my dogs again and a paramedic told me that a deputy had them in the back of his car. I do not remember this, but I was told later that I begged “them” not to take my dogs to the pound.
So they didn’t. The police officer who responded to the 911 call and chased them down across the park put them in the back of the cruiser and let them ride along on the rest of his shift.
They contacted my next of kin, who immediately booked it toward the hospital to which I had been taken. My bestie agreed to come get the dogs, and the officer met her half way.
Between my house and where I was vacationing. A five hour drive. After his shift was over.
-Maidmilk
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Image: Utility Inc, Pixabay
