How come police officers don shake hands with people they meet?
There are several reasons for this. The first is that it is not safe for an officer to give up their strong hand to another person. If the person who is extending their hand has the intention to do the officer physical harm, this puts the officer at a significant tactical disadvantage. Since there is no way of knowing the intentions of someone who extends their hand to the officer in apparent friendship, the officer generally will not return the gesture. The other reason is simple health concerns. Let’s face it, police officers are intermingling with the general public the entire time that they are working. If the officer continues to have casual physical contact with the dozens of people that they meet during any particular shift, they would be sick more often than not.
Related Questions
- Will the number of people moving to Fort Meade require the surrounding counties to hire more police officers to handle the traffic around the post?
- Does the use of police officers in this way meet the MPS policing priorities for 2002-2003?
- How come police officers don shake hands with people they meet?
