I wouldn't even know about the corruption if they were not so completely sure to be untouchable.
One anecdote: a friend moved into a new neighborhood, a gated community. One evening when walking the dogs, a neighbor who is a cop greeted her by her full legal name. She said she never uses her middle name anywhere. As far as we know, there is no way the cop could know her middle name without looking her up. Who in any social situation greets someone by their full legal name (and that too without ever being introduced)?
As far as she can tell this was their way of telling her that the officer knows who she is, knows where she lives, and is watching her. Who does that?
The cop might have been going for intimidating, but there are a number of ways he could have had access to her middle name without abusing power:
- In my county (and every other county I've looked into in the US) real estate transactions and deed recordings are public record, available online, and sometimes include the purchaser's middle name.
- If it's a gated community, it almost certainly has a HOA, which would have an application/notification process (probably including ID info, potentially including a background/credit check) to feed information to the HOA board (which cops, being local government-oriented people, might be inclined to be involved with).
Occam's razor - when your friend moved into this gated community, it is almost certain they had to provide some background information, including name to the gated community. Might even had some contractual requirements that needed background checks. This person maybe just looked at the monthly flyer that was stuffed under every owners' door "please welcome Jimmy John Joe Smith living in 123 Fancy St." ...
One anecdote: a friend moved into a new neighborhood, a gated community. One evening when walking the dogs, a neighbor who is a cop greeted her by her full legal name. She said she never uses her middle name anywhere. As far as we know, there is no way the cop could know her middle name without looking her up. Who in any social situation greets someone by their full legal name (and that too without ever being introduced)?
As far as she can tell this was their way of telling her that the officer knows who she is, knows where she lives, and is watching her. Who does that?