End edit: LONG! I tell a bunch of different stories here that don't have anything to do with the original question, but the answer is in there. It might jump around a bit, things just kept coming to mind and I tried to get it all in there. Sorry if I get a little preachy at times too. I tried to make it entertaining. Thanks for reading.
My dads worked 25+ years a for the largest city in a metropolitan area. He walked a beat in the 80's during crack. He worked patrol for many years, mostly graves, was a detective, patrol sergeant, K9 sgt, and was sgt of a squad that did drug-bust and search warrants. He also worked for both a town and county sheriffs office for 7 or so years before moving to the city. He never once fired his gun in the line of duty and he is proud of that fact.
He knew who the dirty cops were and hated them. I'd hear him with my mom or his cop friends talking shit about guys, usually higher ups, getting let off after being pulled over drunk. He told me he got pulled over once after work while drinking a beer that his cop-friend had brewed and that he hid it between the seat and door and got off, he didn't know if the cop had knew if he was drinking or not.
He never really drank much, but always drove fast. Its only in his retirement that he's really become affectionate for his single malt. He told me one time that his entire squad waited around a corner, unbeknownst to him, while he drifted his squad car around it. And another about a car dealership had an off-terrain course setup on their lot, and he and his squad had the cops called on them (noise complaint) by neighbors while they were all speeding around it one night in their squad cars.
He would always get express his disappointment whenever local cops would get arrested or do something bad in the news. Though he's usually on the cops side until there's evidence to show ill intent or wrong doing. When there was a fairly clear murder by police caught on camera, before case was resolved, told me how it would play out and how the union would have the cop working again in a year after the firestorm calmed down. He wasn't too fond of that. There is a system, and the system itself is corrupt.
Besides the dirty individuals, the systematic corruption is a large part of how and why this is allowed and continues to goes on. I personally believe the entire justice system needs to be re-examined and changed, but, I also believe that we've all known that this brutality, injustice and racism has been going on for years, just not as frequently or as brutal as we all thought. Seeing it with our own eyes through cellphone cameras and the media exposure has made us examine this issue, and ourselves.
If you think about it logistically, sometimes its nearly impossible to fire people. Even with internal affairs, (which, movies at least, are always hated by "regular" cops) you would need solid evidence to convict someone of wrong doing. Character witness, which are proven to be awful, are also going to withhold evidence especially when they are cops who may be friends with, work with, and in some cases, must trust their lives in the hands of the person being investigated. It all becomes very clear why more cops don't speak up.
He himself exposed corruption at the sheriffs department, fraud and stealing evidence from the evidence room, which lead to several people stepping down, one who later was convicted of other crimes and subsequently committed suicide. Knowing him, it was a likely a personal beef that drove him to do this. He had been fired a year before from the same dept after filing a report for unsafe working conditions. After the corruption case he left the department fearing that day when backup didn't come.
I'm more aware of all these problems due to my father's job. I remember one of his friends refereed to black people as Canadians in his stories I suppose so his son would be afraid of Canada instead of stereotyping and profiling black people. I've never really heard him say anything racist. Maybe some jokes about Asian drivers. He votes for the black candidate in every election regardless of their political views which is kind of anti-racist racism. When things in the news pop up like the Baltimore riots, he seems more frustrated than angry. He also told me that he called a black guy he was arresting a "peckerwood" to which the guy gave him the most confused look. That being the only ethnic slur I've ever heard him say.
He has always had a small group of cop friends. I only went to a few work type functions, and there was always one or two guys he would make remarks about. Usually not complaints of corruption, more nepotism, or people sleeping on the job, bad workers, etc. He was disgusted when we had an incident with a neighbor and the officer who showed up had been exposed in the media years before for theft. Everything was resolved, but it was clear he did not want to speak to this guy or be involved with him in any way.
He burned quite a few bridges on the force. He never received his gold watch.(He still can, he just has to make some apologies that I doubt he will be making anytime soon) Talking about it with him, part of this was because he had prior experience working for a sheriffs department and also being somewhat of a know-it-all and smart ass. (his 4th grade report card said so!) but also due to working with incompetency and in some cases dirty cops. He told me what makes a good cop is more about knowing right and wrong than knowing the law.
He always complained that the police department hired too young and not the new guys were too gung-ho and didn't have enough experience dealing with people to do the job well. I think he attributed that to a lot of the recent problems on the force. During his retirement party, one of his first partners said he used to own a pair of leather gloves that he would put on when they got a DV call. He said my dad wouldn't hesitate to beat the shit out of the guy if he wasn't careful. Guess he wasn't so clean cut after all...
almost done.
He told me a story once, reminiscing, that reminded me of the end scene from No Country for Old Men, about when he was working for the Sheriffs dept. This was in the late 70's in a very rural area. He said there had been an assault on a local and the suspect was a known criminal from the county over. He called the Sheriff to tell him he would be conducting a warrant. Now this Sheriff was waaay old school. Not only did he wear a cowboy hat and boots, but he was conducted himself like an old west sheriff would. The tone in his voice almost expressed sentiment that this type of lawman no longer existed. So, he calls up the sheriff and tells him what happened, that he's got a warrant, etc. This old tymer tells him "Not to worry about it" and that "I'll have a talk with him and get everything straightened out" and that was it. My dad knew that whatever justice that sheriff brought down on that guy would be sufficient and that he needn't question or bring up the matter again.
Alright, that's all folk. Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed. Idk how much of your question was answered. Any questions, feel free to ask I can get much more into detail if you'd like.