Ever taken notepads or pens from work?
I had a boss almost faint once when I went in and handed them a huge wad of about 30 pens saying: "Hey, they followed me home." She said that in 40 years she had never seen that happen. Eh. They were crappy stick pens and I use better ones. But, to the degree that I have ended up with pens from work at home (or anything else) I take it back.
I always thought that most cops hung out with other cops. Like criminals tend to hang with criminals. Like for someone in a gang that gang becomes 100% of their social life. Because the cops are (at least over here) just another gang (with all the same gang rules in effect - Thin Blue Line/Blue Wall and all that), they are just the gang we hire to protect us all from the other gangs. And cops and criminals have far more in common than your average 9-5er has in common with either. And, like gangs and criminals, outsiders are really, really not welcome or wanted around. And once you find that out it might make people more reluctant to form friendships as they would be limited.
And, as I know from working strange hours as many cops do, it's hard to make friends with the 9-5 types when you're crawling off to bed finishing your last beer as they are walking to work.
True of all jobs, not just policing.
Oh sure, I'm sure that there are musicians and other performers who have a very real, well-founded and intense dislike of stagehands, particularly IATSE stagehands (and there are lots of 'stars' we love to hate on too, and then... there are actors - oh no!). The same way I used to hate on the A&R guys from the record company. The difference is that outside of the actual show people no one else ever has to deal with us, so they don't know how when it comes to being dick-heads this is the major league, we're the Yankees, and this is OUR house. Same with the record company guy. Sure the band hates him. Ditto the crew and the venue people too - but very few other people ever meet that guy so they don't know.
But, lots, and lots, most maybe - close to all? - of people have had dealings with the police, and often at the wrong end of the nightstick or traffic ticket. And, unlike stagehands, rock stars, and record company lizards, that cop has the ability to profoundly change your life - and not for the better.
Heck, the reps of most cops would go up 100% if the police association could stop college towns from hiring guys who were just too much of a dick-head to be a stagehand, so they 'police' students instead. Lots of people leave college with a profoundly lowered opinion of law enforcement due to their college-town experiences with the town cops. (BTW, that's nothing new, 'Town and Gown' Riots go way, way, way back in history.)
And, of course it's not 'all' cops - not by any means. But in some situations its' 99% of them (like the college-town cops). I lived for years in a small town. One cop. He'd come around the Malibu Lounge (the only bar in town, odd name for the middle of Iowa) round about 1:30 every night and take the keys away from those who should not drive home and put them in the patrol car and drive them home and get the keys back to them in the morning, or drop 'em off with the wife. I never had a problem, I lived two blocks away. But I always liked that - that's both protecting and serving. Unlike the ones here in Santa Rosa who just wait outside the bars at 2am. It's just a small town thing. I also never have problems with Oakland/Chicago/NYC/San Francisco cops. Big city cops rarely hassle people, they have real crime to deal with. Five kids with a six pack on the beach is not going to be a big deal. If your wrong you get busted or beat - either way - and it's professional. They tell you to 'MOVE IT!' - you're moving. But the ones in the middle. The ones particularly in suburban towns - yikes!
So yeah, it's true of all jobs, but the police have a huge outreach (in usually profoundly dismal situations) that few other professions can touch.
And who makes personal calls from work anymore? Doesn't everyone have their own phone that they are using?
