There have been many stories in the news lately of police supposedly abusing their positions as officers of the law. These stories have inevitably led to many people feeling as though they can’t trust law enforcement officers anymore. They feel as though police can’t be trusted at all. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

If there is one group of people that you should trust, it is the police. The police are there to do one thing; to protect you. When they pull someone over, when they arrest someone, or when they take someone in for questioning, they are doing it to protect the population. Yes, this includes you.

Many times when a police officer is accused by the news media of “abusing their power,” the officer was justified in what he did. For example, what happened in Ferguson, Missouri with Michael Brown. Many in the media tried to paint Brown as an upstanding citizen who did nothing wrong, when, in reality, he had just shoplifted cigarillos from a nearby convenience store. According to testimony, right after stealing from the store, he came at a police officer and came after him. The officer then shot him.

Things like what happened in Ferguson have happened throughout the country, especially in the last three years. Oftentimes, the officer in question was completely justified in what he did.

But what about the ones who actually take advantage of their power, you ask? Surely there must be at least a few! Well, you’re exactly right. Whenever you have people in a position of power there will always be a few who take advantage of said power. This is the least bit surprising.

There are about a million law enforcement officers in the United States, so even if there are a thousand who take advantage of their power every day, that is only a small portion of all of the officers that we have. The number of corrupt cops is so much smaller than the number of good cops.

I am not saying that people should not be cautious around police officers. Of course they should be. Like I said, there will always be ones who abuse their power, but just because you should be cautious doesn’t mean that you need to give up all trust. Police are there for us. Police protect us, and we should be thankful for that.