• massive_bereavement@fedia.io
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    4 days ago

    In a past life I had to deal with cops on a regular basis, and now and then they’ll describe themselves as someone who can recognize criminals by just looking at them.

    One said: “If I see someone who is avoiding looking at me, I know that he doesn’t want my attention, so he probably has something to hide.”

    On a different day, a different cop said: “When I see someone that’s looking at me, that’s because they are worried I’m gonna find out something, so probably they have something to hide.”

    I learned that cops have two main traits: They are overconfident and under-prepared.

    • BlitzoTheOisSilent@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      That was actually in a training guide for traffic stops from one of those Killology-type courses thousands of cops take every year. John Oliver talks about it on his Traffic Stops episode.

      But yeah, they teach cops that making eye contact or not is a sign of guilt, as well as driving under/over the speed limit being an indicator of guilt, but also, believe it or not, driving the speed limit… Also an indicator of guilt.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      4 days ago

      Yeah, good cop is “When I see someone — probably they have something to hide.” Also, it’s not a good kind of good, that’s why I don’t want to deal with cops even when I’ve nothing to worry about, they can always come up with a reason for me to worry