We tend to think of police officers as stern symbols of justice. It can be easy to forget that Officer Smith sometimes takes off the badge and is just John or Jane. The transition between the two seems like it's difficult. One reddit user must have been wondering about the off-duty lives of police officers when they asked:

Cops of Reddit, how do you respond to your friends doing minor illegal things?

The answers were actually pretty surprising. We're not sure what we were expecting, but it wasn't this. A surprising number of people had buddy cop stories. Alright hollywood execs, get ready to take notes!

If by minor you mean something like jaywalking, having a drink on the beach or smoking a j, I generally don't care. I tend to ignore these things even if it's not my friends doing it.

When I say I generally don't care, that means the person committing the offense isn't acting like a douchebag and is being safe. If someone is walking through 3 lanes of busy traffic, causing a safety hazard to themselves and others, then I'm gonna stop them if I can and tell them they're being an idiot. I've never given a ticket for that before, but there's a first time for everything. If you're drinking or toking in a public place and you're being rowdy and disturbing the peace, then I'm gonna take your stuff away and tell you to get lost.

If they don't comply, then we'll go from there. Communication is always the first line of action.

My brothers a cop, he didn't care that I would drink underage. But he did tell me if I ever even sat behind the wheel of a car while drunk he would tase me into next year.

Were all about 19/20 at a party at someone's house.

Thom (yes, Thom. Not Tom. Thom. We used to pronounce it "thommmb" to annoy him, with the h) arrives, having been attending Police college for about two weeks.

He literally went around checking there was no-one under 18 drinking. He was told to f*** off.

Then he found a bunch of us in the garden, passing around a j. He grabbed it, stamped on it, and warned us

"If anyone has any more DRUGS on them, I will call my boss and get you arrested."

We thought he was joking. We rolled up a new one. He was not. He actually called his boss. I can only imagine the hilarity at the other end of the phone. Thom left the party, red-faced.

My buddy is a cop. He knows I smoke. It's not legal here. He has told me that he doesn't care as long as he doesn't see it.

**"The moment I see it, I have to do something." **

That's his line and I respect that.

My friend's dad was a cop growing up. minor illegal things he also did like piracy, and fire works.

Back in the 70's, it was my cop uncle who would bring the fireworks to the 4th of july party. We always assumed it was fireworks he had confiscated. Yeah, he was kind of a d!ck in some ways.

They all have a line which they do not like being crossed and will give you a heads up/signal for you not to cross it. Disregard it, and they will turn on their business face.

I have several friends who are - and in various stages of police authority.

The general consensus seems to be that it's not worth the trouble to be so pedantic about them as to harass on their friends and play the cop around them.

One of my close friends summarized it as, 'if you're not hurting anyone - I don't really care.'

We have a cop at our poker night we do almost every month and private (or not certified) poker rounds are illegal where I live.

The cop just said

"For a fiver noone's gonna stand up and arrest you, so why should you care?"

My brother is a cop. If he's not on duty and I do something minor, he doesn't care. If he was on duty he would probably look the other way.

Cops lose friends that aren't cops. Cops end up with very few friends outside their law enforcement circle. The jokes aren't funny and everyone thinks the job is cool/neat/interesting and wants to tell you about the ticket they got or that time they did something illegal... Rapidly...the friend circle goes away. The job is isolating.

I'm a felon with several friends that ended up being cops.

They mess with me all the time.

Former Cop - if what my friends were doing had no fall back on my life, I didn't care. If it could cause issues in my job I just removed myself from the situation. All of my friends are big enough to get themselves out of trouble

Some things don't bother me.... so I ignore it. Others do and I remove myself from the situation. Most of my friends hit a stage where I tell them to never put me in a position where I need to choose between my job and a friendship. It's disrespectful for them to even think it's okay to do that.

Speeding tickets, sure...everyone speeds. Some crimes, my hands are tied. There is no discretion and I have a responsibility.

As a cop I feel there are two different kinds of law enforcement officers.

A Police Officer - concerns himself with trivial matters and likes to wield their power, will ticket anyone for anything and thinks every law has to be enforced.

A Cop - Joined the job to put bad guys in jail, actively seeks the worst crimes. Understands that people make mistakes and leveles with people that are just living life. If you are a good person and don't try and bullshit the Cop he will look after you and try to do his best not to f*** your day.

I would prefer to go after actual crooks. Cops will joke with you and have fun on the job.

Myself and my team luckily are Cops.

I lost a few friends as a result of becoming a police officer. When I got back home from training, I went to go see a buddy and it was like seeing the bad guy walk down the street in an old western, where shudders close and doors lock and all that. They thought that because I was now a police officer, I was going to run in there and arrest them all.

First of all, I was an MP in the Air Force (Security Forces, as we call them). My primary mission was nuke security, and the other was the law enforcement. Sure, on the base we had all the same kind of stuff you see in any town. Suicide, homicide, vehicle accidents/incidents, larceny, burglary, and on and on.

I have written many speeding tickets, and other traffic tickets. I've let just as many people go with a verbal warning. I've responded to many things, including a child being run over and killed by an SUV backing out of the driveway, and a suicide via gunshot to the head.

Sometimes it is tough to go about the day in the same state of mind after your response. When people are awful to cops because they got pulled over, it really isn't fair. You broke the law. If I just came from a scene watching them scrape a toddler off the pavement because of negligent or reckless driving, how do you think I'm going to feel about you driving like an a**?

I did not mean to vent here. It just sucks being treated like garbage because you have a badge. Cops are people, too. They've got emotions just like everyone else. Why don't you hold yourself to their standard?

Also, as an MP, I didn't even have jurisdiction outside of a DoD installation, so my friend was foolish for thinking that I could do anything anyway.

I lost more friends when I became a correctional officer, because they had been to jail and were apparently mistreated all the time, so I must be a CO, too. This is a big reason why cops end up with cop friends.

Too much hate, guys. Good and bad people are everywhere.

My Brother likes to scream "STOP BREAKING THE LAW A**HOLE!" when I am driving and then he giggles like crazy when it startles me.

H/T: Reddit