A cop's `code of silence'

While the author's well written and well intentioned article on the police "code of silence" had many valid and important points, there was one major flaw that forms the crux of the whole issue. In painting the portrait of acquiescing to the pressures of the job, the author explains that if officers are truthful, the career that defines them is over.

This is perhaps the single largest stumbling block to correcting police misconduct: the fact that most officers define their whole being as cops, rather than as human beings, and consequently take the hurtful epithets personally. Without significant help and counseling from their leadership, this attitude will continue to undermine their efforts at improvement. Geoffrey C. Parker, Rockport, Maine

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