In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

It's a worthwhile experiment but the first thing that came to my mind was: oh, everybody exchange cards in the locker room and give each other good reviews--it's anonymous, after all.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#5

Post by jandrese » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:18 PM UTC

cato_the_elder wrote: post #2

It's Black Mirror already.

I'm not sure I agree. If they are rating these public servants on their service to the public that would be within the scope of a job review. Or think of it as one of those "how was your service today" questionnaires you get sometimes.

This isn't about policing someone's personal life.

But on the other hand, Yelp reviews are already problematic and extending them to civil servants probably doesn't help the situation.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#6

Post by theonlybutlet » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:21 PM UTC

Hmmm should I let an unroadworthy car endanger someone's life or turn a blind eye. What about my impeccable 5 star rating?

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#7

Post by derac » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:22 PM UTC

theonlybutlet wrote: post #6

Hmmm should I let an unroadworthy car endanger someone's life or turn a blind eye. What about my impeccable 5 star rating?

Exactly my thought and this is what happens at the end of the article.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#8

Post by throwaway0a5e » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:22 PM UTC

theonlybutlet wrote: post #6

Hmmm should I let an unroadworthy car endanger someone's life or turn a blind eye. What about my impeccable 5 star rating?

If the townsfolk (who pressure the politicians who pressure the chief who pressure the officers) would prefer that to you hassling them over those kinds of transgressions then yes.

Weed, fireworks on the 4th of July, teenagers fishing without licenses, there's all manner of things that are illegal at the state level yet locally accepted when done tastefully that the cops should not be ticketing people for because they people they serve generally do not support that.

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#9

Post by daenz » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:25 PM UTC

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #8

theonlybutlet wrote: post #6

Hmmm should I let an unroadworthy car endanger someone's life or turn a blind eye. What about my impeccable 5 star rating?

If the townsfolk (who pressure the politicians who pressure the chief who pressure the officers) would prefer that to you hassling them over those kinds of transgressions then yes. Weed, fireworks on the 4th of July, teenagers fishing without licenses, there's all manner of things that are illegal at the state level yet locally accepted when done tastefully that the cops should not be ticketing people for because the…

It's not "the townsfolk" who would give the officer a rating in that situation, it's the person getting pulled over for a dangerous vehicle. "The townsfolk" very likely want dangerous cars stopped, but that likely won't be reflected in any ratings by the people pulled over for dangerous vehicles, so it's biased. It's naive to assume the thought process is "well, I was breaking the law, but the officer was professional, so 5/5"

Re: In a small Virginia town, citizens review police like Uber drivers

#10

Post by throwaway0a5e » Thu, Jun 02, 2022, 4:28 PM UTC

daenz wrote: post #9

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the townsfolk (who pressure the politicians who pressure the chief who pressure the officers) would prefer that to you hassling them over those kinds of transgressions then yes. Weed, fireworks on the 4th of July, teenagers fishing without licenses, there's all manner of things that are illegal at the state level yet locally accepted when done tastefully that the cops should not be ticketing people for because the…

It's not "the townsfolk" who would give the officer a rating in that situation, it's the person getting pulled over for a dangerous vehicle. "The townsfolk" very likely want dangerous cars stopped, but that likely won't be reflected in any ratings by the people pulled over for dangerous vehicles, so it's biased. It's naive to assume the thought process is "well, I was breaking the law, but the officer was professiona…

Why do you think people driving shitboxes (or any other crime) will give unfavorable ratings at a higher rate than people who get cited for other crimes?

If Officer Karen has a terrible rating because he's constantly enforcing unpopular laws nobody cares about to an extent people deem unreasonable resulting in "man, that's bullshit" reactions from the people being ticketed then it will show in the aggregate stats and the chief will hopefully say tell him to knock it off and do something that has a higher ratio of public safety to pissing people off.

Literally every trade where customers rate performance has had to grapple with this. It's a solved problem. The real value add is using the ratings to compare members of the team, different types of interactions, etc, etc. Anyone who's ever managed or worked from a ticketing system should be familiar with this.