Passage 4

British and American Police Officers

Real policemen, both in Britain and the U. S., hardly recognize any common points between their lives and what they see on TV---if they ever get home in time.

Some things are almost the same, of course, but the policemen do not think much of them.

The first difference is that a policeman's real life deals with the law. Most of what he learns is the law. He has to know actually what actions are against the law and what facts can be used to prove them in court. He has to know nearly as much law as a lawyer, and what's more, he has to put it into practice on his feet, in the dark and, running down a narrow street after someone he wants to talk to.

Little of his time is spent in talking with beautiful girls or in bravely facing cruel criminals. He will spend most of his working life arranging millions of words on thousands of forms about hundreds of sad, ordinary people who are guilty—or not of stupid, unimportant crimes.