On this episode of We Live Here, we introduce you to four police officers who discuss not only what life is like during the day-to-day grind of work, but also the question of whether or not race makes a difference for African-American officers in majority white police departments.

The reason we are presenting the police perspective to you is that we feel it's a point of view that hasn't received enough attention. And that's not just our idea.

St. Louis Public Radio consumers are opinionated people. They are quick to point out what we’ve left out of stories, what we talk about too much and even what we never seem to report on.

Ever since the protests in Ferguson started after the death of Michael Brown, one of the persistent questions we’ve heard is about the police perspective. We’ve been accused of not considering what police have to go through when they’re on their beats or when they’re confronting protesters (in our defense, read about the threats officers faced during the protests or about rallies in support of Ferguson police officers.)

To be honest, we admit that our coverage isn’t as in-depth as it could have been. But that’s because it’s really hard for police to trust the media. They’ve been burned a lot and they worry about the potential for harm that any additional attention could bring to their officers.

After many, many phone calls and assurances, we tracked down several officers who opened up to us. And for that we are grateful because as a result, we learned so much about what it takes to be a police officer, what a daily beat cop experiences and what it’s like to be an African-American officer on a mostly white police force. So, in this episode — which we’re calling “A Cop’s Life” — we introduce you to four protectors of the peace.