About 8-in-10 police officers of about 10,000 surveyed this week said they would not recommend becoming an officer to their son or daughter.
A survey conducted and published by Calibre Press/PoliceOne finds that the overwhelming majority — more than 80 percent — of police officers said they would not encourage a loved one to become an officer. Just 7.5 percent of police officers said they would recommend the job.
Of those who said they would not recommend becoming an officer, 88 percent said they were concerned over a lack of support from their department. Another 83 percent cited an overall lack of respect for the profession as the reason they would not recommend joining law enforcement.
About 63 percent of police officers who said they would not recommend becoming an officer said there is an increased legal liability, while 63 percent said the duties of their job have changed for the worse. Nearly 6-in-10 police officers who would not recommend the job said they are worried about an increased safety risk against officers.
Less than 4-in-10 police officers said they would absolutely enter law enforcement if they had to do it again. More than 35 percent said they would not enter the profession again, and 26 percent were unsure.
About half of the 10,000 police officers surveyed said they were satisfied with the job, but not as much as they once were. More than 21 percent said they had little or no satisfaction with being a police officer today.
The survey comes as riots in major U.S. cities continue against law enforcement and some localities begin a plan to defund their police departments or at least cut their budget. Though the riots against police have garnered national attention for weeks, less than 20 percent of Americans support the Black Lives Matter movement’s “Defund the Police” campaign.
In New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio has cut the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) budget by $1 billion amid skyrocketing violent crime, 56 percent of New Yorkers oppose cutting the department’s funds and 60 percent oppose fully defunding the police.
As Breitbart News has reported, there is no epidemic of unarmed suspects being shot and killed by police officers in the U.S. Unarmed suspects, since at least 2015, have been shot and killed by police at similar rates as police officers killed feloniously in the line of duty.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.