Since the inception of police forces in America, there have been people with problems with the police. While almost all of these issues are warranted and often a reaction to police brutality and violence, there are some people who just hate the police and don’t seem to have a problem sharing this opinion. In fact, last summer was by far the largest swing in public opinion of police, with more self-identified police haters than ever. Seeing this trend, a group of police offers decided to conduct an internal report of their police colleagues across the country to find out what they go through each day. What they found might surprise you.

According to the report published by the Blue Lives Matter Police Union of New York, police officers fear for their lives (on average) once every minute. This information was compiled by asking officers a series of questions, such as ‘What are your biggest fears and why are they all racist?’ and ‘What is your first impulse when faced with emotions you don’t understand and why is it rage?’

Some claimed that these questions were misleading and those officers have been put on administrative leave with pay.

After answering the questionnaire, officers were given space to leave any comments or grievances they felt they needed to air. While most of these comments can’t be repeated here, it is clear from reviewing the report that most officers truly believe that most of the people they are meant to ‘protect and serve’ are out to get them. This is where the average of fearing for their lives once per minute came from, depending on the day. Some were much higher for police working in downtown locations vs. the suburbs, according to the officers themselves.

The wildest part is that some officers see this number as low. “Once per minute? Try every day of my waking existence,” one police chief replied. “I wake up in a panic that can only be satiated with alcohol and drugs. But only off-duty, of course.”

What does it say about our faith in institutions like the police force that we live in fear of them, they live in fear of us, yet they have all the power? We’re not sure, because that wasn’t the point of the report, but it does seem like a question worth asking.

However, what we ended up learning was that most of the reports were simply from officers looking down at their guns and going ‘Ah! A gun!’ before realizing it was their own weapon. This made up close to 1 in 5 reports filed to the internal commission.