What Do You Think It's Like To Be A Cop In New York?

Photos by Mathieu Berenholc, Tom Littlewood, Mick Johan, Elin Unnes

Anna, 40, Stockholm, Sweden

Dieter 55, Berlin, Germany

Sanne, 32, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ben, 30, Paris, France

My favourite NYC cop TV show is The Shield because I can relate to it. Paris is smaller than New York so we can come back to the office for lunch. We drink a lot of coffee too, but we don’t have donuts, instead we bring Tupperwares with all kinds of pastas, or eat triangle sandwiches from the machines.

Catrine, 32, Stockholm, Sweden

Dagny, 35, Reykjavik, Iceland

Totti, 38, Helsinki, Finland

Pieter, 40, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Franz, 27, Berlin, Germany

Linda, 32, Stockholm, Sweden

I really want to work as a cop in New York, but I’d never be at a street corner, I’d want to be in the cars, on turnouts. I love New York, I’m going there again soon to run a marathon in central park, and I’ll be visiting the NYPD stations. Since we have our Swedish police IDs there’s no problem getting in anywhere.

Mark, 27, Amsterdam, Netherlands

It’s just more dangerous. Personally I’d not be into being a cop in New York. But I like never knowing exactly what’s going to happen too. An older colleague told me that once he told someone his fog lamp was on and the guy shot at him with a Glock. The suspect missed and my colleague fired back. He didn’t kill the suspect, but he shot him in the leg. The worst part of the job is the paper work. What I do to relax? I have sex.

Hilmir, 30, Reykjavik, Iceland

I don’t really have any experience from New York cops. But I spent a month with the LAPD to do advanced handgun training, and that was great. They have helicopters, which we don’t, and the weather is always good. In Iceland only eight people, in the whole country on every shift, carry a gun. A few months ago we saw a guy walking down the street carrying a high power hunting rifle. We followed him for a while, but when he discovered us he put down his gun and stepped away from it. Turns out he was only emphasizing his will to commit suicide. When we saw him I immediately started thinking about my LA training, but of course I didn’t have a gun with me. But guns aren’t a high priority amongst Icelandic criminals. If I said we have one killing a year I would be pushing it.