Who was that masked man? In Grand Prairie it might be a cop

The Grand Prairie Police Department has its own MySpace page, reports the Houston Chronicle. Like all MySpace pages, I suppose, it's a little self-involved, but perhaps for that reason it provides a potentially telling glimpse of the department's own self-image. Check out the most prominently featured photo (at left). We get a sniper, a masked guerrilla-looking character, and another officer giving a thumbs up dressed like he's about to be deployed in Baghdad. Does anybody think this actually reflects what a police officer's job is like every day? (I'd be curious about Jason's take on that.)

To reinforce the point, I suppose, GPPD included another recruiting image (see below) on its MySpace site depicting an officer dressed like Subcommandante Marcos. The goal of the page is recruitment, so GPPD apparently is appealing to the type of employee they're looking for - you know, tough guys who think it's loads of fun to wear masks, shoot guns and kick ass. Whoops ... oh ... wait a minute ... that sounds a lot like the crooks, doesn't it?

When the Texas Department of Public Safety took over supervision of the state's Tulia-style drug task forces, one of the first rule changes they made was to stop masked agents from participating in police actions. The public perception it reinforced and the mentality it promoted among officers, reasoned officials at the DPS Narcotics division, may have contributed to some of the cowboy antics that went in Tulia, Hearne, and elsewhere before DPS took charge. Perhaps some of those old task force officers looking to relive the good old days will wind up in Grand Prairie. To judge by their MySpace recruitment page, one supposes they'd fit right into the department's culture.