When my van was hit by a drunk driver the police officer asked where the “citizens” came from. Then he asked what the “citizens” did. Nearly every question he asked for his report used the word citizen.
Every time he said citizen, I heard the idea expressed in the second definition of citizen on Dictionary.com: an inhabitant of a city or town, especially one entitled to its privileges or franchises.
We were on the edge of a highway, my experienced eye could tell, not everyone at the scene was an inhabitant of any particular place. Probably the police officer, by the looks of him, a seasoned professional, could also tell. Was this police officer trying to exclude people? Would he exclude me, if he could?
When I asked the officer why he specified citizens, he explained he meant the “not police, or other responders”. On Dictionary.com, the last definition is “a civilian, as distinguished from a soldier, police officer, etc.”. I suppose “etc.” would include firemen and paramedics.
Luckily for me, this incident happened during a time I was working as a taxi driver and settled in a city. I was treated with respect, others at the scene were asked to “move along” with no more than the usual rancour.
I know from my time working in government, police are trained to use the word citizen when referring to members of the public. It is meant to be a respectfully neutral term.
After the way the onlookers and helpers were summarily dismissed and asked to “move along” with, I repeat, no more than the usual rancour, I wonder, do police, despite their training, and others in government or broadly, any citizen, believe in that second, more common definition?
Do you have to be an inhabitant of a town to be entitled to its privileges?
References
“Citizen.” Dictionary.com. February 9, 2019, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/citizen
When Everywhere Is Home 
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