Positive Police Stories Told on “The Good Cop” Website
As if being a police officer and having a career where you risk your life isn’t already hard enough, the media hasn’t done much to bolster support for the profession as of late. Many feel like the only police stories ever discussed in the news are those that are taken out of context or portray officers in an unflattering light.
Kalamazoo-based Rhino media has recently launched a national campaign to help dispel the negative stereotypes with the creation of The Good Cop, a website encouraging people to share positive interactions they’ve had with police officers and nominate police officers to be highlighted on a monthly basis. Rhino Media partnered with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety to help them initiate the project after one of Rhino’s project manager’s, Jeremy Angeletti, approached owner Kevin Romeo with the concept. The idea began to evolve with Angeletti after a conversation he had with a friend who works for the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety.
So far, Angeletti has created the site as well as a Facebook page and Twitter hashtag #goodcop. “We know there’s tons and tons of good people in our society and the people who are stepping up in law enforcement and putting their lives on the line, we so respect you and we so honor you,” Romeo said. The Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety Chief, Jeff Hadley, is optimistic and hopes the Good Cop movement will catch on and get people to think and share the uplifting stories they have in their experiences with law enforcement.
Saw a police officer get out of his Patrol car to help push a car that was stranded on the road #GoodCop #FL #Police pic.twitter.com/V1qJmrNIEC
— Hernan Gonzalez (@HernanLivesHere) September 18, 2015
We’ve posted the short film above where Kalamazoo officers talk about a fellow officer who was fatally shot and experiences that have affected them personally. “We know that human beings are fallible human beings and we’re all capable of good things and bad things, but we believe that police officers do a tremendous role in our society,” Romeo said. “We have tremendous respect for them. We just want to share those positive stories and give people a platform to share them.”