Originally Posted by
chollie
You are correct. The public does not get to decide if an officer has overstepped his/her bounds. There is no outside independent oversight. There is no assurance that if the officer has behaved incorrectly the matter will be fairly addressed. This is not unique to CBP. A similar set-up is what led to Seattle PD nearly getting taken over by the DoJ - a secretive internal evaluation and disciplinary process with no independent oversight that clearly wasn't protecting the rights of police and citizens equally.
But that's an endemic problem throughout the US. It is literally, IMO, cultural: the US Law Enforcement community (in the broadest sense possible) craves & fosters an attitude of "specialness". And Americans swallow and celebrate it. And then they wonder and act surprised when US LE ranks so highly on international corruption lists and why recommendations like "Grovel so as to avoid trouble" get discussed as a rational approach to encountering US LE.
LE is nothing special. It's a job. The risks for some can be higher than some jobs, but lower than others. The stress can be higher, but it can also be lower. They applied for the job. They deserve respect in so far as they are doing their job, but all people doing their jobs deserve respect in and of that. It doesn't deserve any special respect just for the fact of the job itself.