It's mixed. Alot depends on first-hand experience dealing with police. If you've been helped by police its + ...if you've been harrassed ...it's not.

I'd hate to think of where we would be without them. I think they are way under Paid. Policeman are human as everyone else, so there's every now and then a bad one. Overall I have all positive thoughts about them.

It's negative. The police here aren't your friendly guys with uniforms, last year some policeman beat up someone and they've committed so much infrigments. Not all of them are bad, but just that group influenced a negative look on them.

Though most sensible people have some level of respect for the police and the difficuult job they do, there seems to be a lot of frustration with the whole adminisrtation and justice of it - for example police taking a long time to respond to break-ins and incidents of domestic violence, whereas there was a newspaper article in my local paper recently about two police officers being set round in a police car to deal with some young child and a trivial incident (can't remember the actual incident but it was something as minor as the child phoning pixxa shops and asking for daft things). Furthermore, there is a tremendous amount of public frustration and anger towards the "open arms" policy Britain seems to have to asylum seekers and the lenient way in which they are dealt with. In the hospital I work at, there is an asylum seeker who has been refused status to live in England. She fractured her leg, is quite capable of walking, refuses treatment and there is no reason for her to stay in hospital other than the fact that she knew she would be deported back to her own country is she was discharged. So she purposefully kept throwing herself on the floor in an attempt to appear as though she couldn't mobilise independently, and stayed in, blocking beds and costing the NHS so many hundreds of pounds per day in resources. She has now been given her own house for just herself to live in, fully paid for by the taxpayers of this country. Going back to the police, I think they try to do a tremendous job but as with most professions nowadays(especially the NHS), the problem isn't the officers themselves but the beureracy and politics of it all, reducing the efficiency of the service rather than improving it. And who gets paid the most - the fat cats who make all the red tape for everybody else to wade through.

I think that most Australians are fairly positive towards police. We whinge about them sometimes, but we mostly agree they do a good job. There are, however, small enclaves within Australian society (mostly those who have had regular dealings with police) who are negative towards them.

I have to be positive my brothers a police officer so i get a insight to the working of the police and what a hard job they have to do.

(F)the police. They were all brain washed to think they're above every body else. If they murder someone they get slap on the wrist

It has become more positive here, especially after 9/11 There are still some crooked cops I guess, but not as many as what used to be.

Its positive- most Police are respected here in the USA. Its my experience that most criminals or drug addicts dont like them, but who cares what they think. Oh yeah, sometimes ultra liberal jackasses dont like them either because some libs are just plain morons.

The Us is a big country. Attitudes towards police vary. It's almost like asking what is the attitude towards police in Europe. There are a number of factors that determine how police are seen. Where i grew up police were viewed negatively because they had a horrible reputation for corruption and police brutality. As I grew older and moved away I saw differences. There are also huge differences between how minorities see the police as compared to white people. The "stop snitching" mentality is very strong among minorities because their really is little trust. It's a dangerous attitude because it makes it more difficult for police to investigate crimes that involve minorities.

I think it's usually negative. I've been pulled over 14 times for speeding, been caught once for drinking underage (wasn't causing trouble; first drink of the night), and have been annoyed by them following me just because I happened to be out late in a small town. And STILL I like cops. I think they're sexy, but more importantly they are out to make our cities safe and in my experience, they are pretty reasonable and polite if you treat them with respect.