—Josh Allen, B1Daily

A police officer changes a flat tire. Another buys groceries for a struggling family. Someone helps an elderly woman cross the street. Within hours, the local news has a heartwarming headline, dramatic music, and a glowing segment celebrating another supposedly extraordinary act of police heroism.

But here’s the question that rarely makes it into the broadcast: Why are taxpayers expected to applaud public employees for performing the very duties their salaries are supposed to cover?

Police officers are paid to serve the public, protect lives, respond to emergencies, and assist people in distress. Those responsibilities are not charitable favors bestowed upon grateful citizens. They are fundamental expectations attached to a publicly funded profession.

Yet some mainstream news coverage treats ordinary police assistance as evidence of exceptional character, while misconduct, questionable arrests, and failures of accountability often require considerably more effort to bring into public view.

The Media’s Favorite Superhero Wears a Badge

Local television news has long maintained a close relationship with police departments. Reporters rely on officers and department spokespersons for crime reports, incident details, press conferences, and breaking-news updates.

That relationship can produce valuable public information. It can also encourage coverage that presents law enforcement primarily through the perspective of the institution itself.

A police department publishes a photograph of an officer purchasing lunch for a homeless person. A newsroom repeats the account, adds an admiring headline, and presents the encounter as an inspirational community story.

The public sees a generous officer. What it rarely receives is any examination of whether the department consistently serves homeless residents fairly, how it handles complaints, or whether the encounter represents broader institutional practice.

Individual kindness deserves recognition. But it is not a substitute for evaluating an agency’s overall performance.

Copaganda: When Public Relations Becomes News

Critics have a name for this phenomenon: copaganda, a combination of policing and propaganda.

The term describes media content that promotes favorable perceptions of law enforcement, sometimes by emphasizing individual acts of kindness while minimizing systemic problems.

This isn’t merely a matter of enthusiastic reporters. Police departments operate sophisticated public-relations operations, complete with communications officers, videographers, social media teams, and carefully packaged human-interest stories.

In San Francisco, police budget documents examined in 2022 revealed a nine-person communications team, while larger departments in Los Angeles maintained extensive public-information operations.

These departments have every reason to promote positive stories. Favorable publicity can improve community relationships, recruitment, and public confidence. But journalists have a responsibility to distinguish legitimate reporting from institutional marketing.

A police press release is a source of information, not a finished news article.

The Double Standard Black Americans Recognize

For many Black Americans, the relentless celebration of routine police conduct exists alongside a very different experience of law enforcement.

A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 40% of Black Americans who received crime news directly from law enforcement believed that information was unfair to some people based on race. Among White Americans, the figure was 17%.

Research from the University of Pennsylvania also found that local reporting on policing frequently relied heavily on police perspectives, even during the nationwide racial justice protests of 2020.

That imbalance matters.

When police rescue someone, their actions may receive immediate praise. When officers injure or kill civilians, news coverage can initially depend almost entirely on official police accounts, sometimes before independent evidence becomes available.

The murder of George Floyd and the killing of Breonna Taylor demonstrated why independent reporting, witness testimony, and public access to evidence are essential.

An officer’s badge should not automatically make the department’s account more credible than the experiences of the people it polices.

Nobody Throws a Parade for the Sanitation Worker

Consider the ordinary public employees who keep American communities functioning.

Sanitation workers collect garbage, sometimes under dangerous conditions. Paramedics respond to medical emergencies. Firefighters rescue residents from burning buildings. Public school teachers routinely spend their own money on classroom supplies.

These workers occasionally receive deserved recognition, too. But police departments occupy a particularly prominent place in local crime reporting, giving their positive stories a ready-made distribution network.

The distinction isn’t that police officers should never be praised.

An officer who demonstrates exceptional courage, risks their life to save another person, or performs a genuinely extraordinary act deserves recognition.

But ordinary professionalism should be the baseline, not a public-relations achievement.

A respectful traffic stop is not a miracle. De-escalating a confrontation is not an unexpected act of generosity. Treating a frightened civilian with dignity is not a special favor.

Those are expectations of the job.

The Press Should Investigate Power, Not Polish Its Badge

A 2025 academic analysis of local police coverage found that reporting remained generally favorable toward law enforcement, with criticism often increasing temporarily following major incidents before returning toward previous patterns.

The finding challenges the popular claim that local journalism has become uniformly hostile toward police.

It also raises a question about journalistic priorities.

Why devote extensive coverage to an officer buying groceries while giving comparatively little attention to complaint investigations, disciplinary records, settlement payments, or the effectiveness of crime-prevention strategies?

Community outreach can be valuable. Positive police stories can be legitimate journalism. But neither should replace independent examination of public institutions.

Newsrooms should ask whether a celebrated encounter represents unusual generosity or simply competent public service. They should examine whether an agency’s public image corresponds with its documented performance.

And they should apply the same scrutiny to police departments that they would apply to any other taxpayer-funded organization.

Public Service Is a Responsibility, Not a Personal Favor

American taxpayers finance police salaries, vehicles, equipment, training, pensions, and departmental operations.

In exchange, the public is entitled to lawful, professional, effective, and accountable service.

A department that treats citizens respectfully should be meeting expectations. An officer who helps someone in distress should be fulfilling the responsibilities associated with public service.

That doesn’t make kindness meaningless. It means kindness should not be treated as extraordinary simply because the person demonstrating it wears a badge.

The deeper issue is the relationship between journalism and authority.

When news outlets repeatedly celebrate government employees for ordinary conduct, they risk transforming public accountability into public admiration.

Police officers can deserve appreciation without being placed beyond criticism. Their work can be difficult and dangerous without making every routine interaction heroic.

The public doesn’t owe police officers a standing ovation for doing their jobs. It is owed competent service, constitutional policing, and meaningful accountability.

And the media’s responsibility is to examine whether those obligations are being fulfilled, not to serve as an unpaid advertising department for the people carrying badges.

—Josh Allen, B1Daily