"Dont Become A Cop"

[voodoo_man]

"Wow. You hated bad supes so bad, you chose to work weekend nights, aka the "accelerated learning program" of coppering? And bad supes hated you so bad in return, that not even the kind of people you interacted with as a cop on weekend nights disliked you as much?"


Dealing with crooks was easy. You just look each other in the eye and communicate. I had no issues in the field with my "clients". When I retired one of the Captains confided in me that he had told many of the other supervisors that they should have been listening to me. He said that the problem was that my delivery was always so harsh. I told him that when I was dealing with veteran police officers with decades of experience, a gun,am badge, the power to take life and I need to sugar coat my delivery of information to not hurt their feelings. He said "yea, you always seemed to be right". This was true.....not that I was always right, but if I was passionate enough to be going nose to nose with upper management, I wouldn't have been doing it unless I was right.

Here is reality. Police agencies are dysfunctional government organizations. A lot of that dysfunction comes from supervision. Thus....it helps to avoid them. So yes, I worked 19 years of weekend nights. It also made it easy to be a dick.....I mean what were they going to do, make me work weekend nights? If they ever figured out that if they put me on days with weekends off it would have been total punishment. I did it for six months for my wife......worst six months ever of my career and I hated it.

Basically sums up my experience and probably the next few years of my LE career.

I quit narc because of a supervisor doing stupid things and putting people into dangerous situations without even the concept of safety. When I handed in my transfer paperwork I got hazed for ten minutes by this supervisor and then I hazed him back for about the same amount of time.

The only time I ever opened my mouth to a supervisor or brass was when I had hard facts to back up my statements, each and every time I got the BS "we'll look into it" answer and I can count on one hand how many times things changed during the dozens upon dozens of instances I pointing things out.

LE doesn't like change, and in that is the worst thing because LE has to change to survive and allow for the best possible outcome for every situation. When you run a department like a company you stop trying to change anything, you want the norm and that's it, that's failure in my book.

[voodoo_man]

That's a fact. We've got many, many officers who go their whole careers without attempting to go beyond PTL or DET. Our pensions are based on the base pay of a 3rd year patrolman so there's no big pay off in retirement to do so. Plus you lose shift bid, you can be assigned anywhere in the dept without your consent, etc. They can't take me and put me in Child Abuse, for example. They can only leave me where I am or kick me back to the street unless I agree. SGT and up, nope, you go where they send you.

My PD is the same. You make Detective or SGT you are going anywhere they need you. SGT and above you are management equivalent of a pinata, they put you wherever they need you. Worse yet, every three or four years you will do a year of last out/midnights. I did midnights for years and they can keep that.

[John Hearne]

Many people don't care about the moves, or the ass kissing required to promote. For me, the juice is not worth the squeeze. ... Besides, my personality and mouth pretty much guaranteed I was not moving too high even if I wanted to...

Interesting how this holds true across the Fed system. The primary driver for promotion in my agency is willingness to move. A very good proportion of our high level management are where they are because of their willingness to uproot their family (if they have them).

I am (in)famous for telling the truth. I've learned not to offer it unless asked but I haven't learned to deliver it in a way that doesn't step on toes. My only saving grace is being highly competent, having a reputation for being able to get things done, and being able to write effectively (probably the real key). While people like me aren't necessarily popular, the head shed likes to keep a few of us around to make sure the trains are still running.

[secondstoryguy]

I've done many different jobs including the several enlistments in the military and as a full time nights patrol officer I don't really think police work is much different that any other demanding job. Sure the stakes are a bit higher but much like any other job you are trapped between an administration that is out of touch and a customer that has unrealistic expectations.

The one thing I can say is police work is definitely "serving". If the public only knew what we did on a daily basis their minds would be blown. I think President Kennedy's quote about the CIA sums it up best, "...its successes will be secret and it's failures will be trumpeted..."

Was Yeager ever full time LEO? If not, IMHO he can kick rocks.

[LSP552]

LE is generally pretty bad about not providing good LEADERSHIP training for supervisors. Newly minted supervisors may go to technical schools but many agencies just have a complete lack of real leadership training.

I suspect we have all worked for supervisors who couldn't spell leadership, much less show any. Learning to lead is not an inherent trait we are born with, it's a learned skill you hone over a lifetime. You learn from good leaders and bad. Some of my best learning moments came from saying to myself if I'm ever in a position to change things, this shit won't happen again.

Not worrying about political considerations brings it's own rewards. You just have to know and accept the consequences of limits on how far up the ladder you go.

[John Hearne]

There are limits to what good leadership can accomplish. The effects of bad leadership are limitless.

[LSP552]

There are limits to what good leadership can accomplish. The effects of bad leadership are limitless.

Absolutely golden John!

[LtDave]

For years, my old place did absolutely nothing in the way of mentorship or development for supervisors or managers. It finally took an outside chief to begin fixing that oversight. I think the point was rammed home when an outside oral board interviewed lieutenant hopefuls and no one scored well. I have no doubt the chief was told why. Shortly thereafter, I was only the second Sergeant from my agency to attend the Sherman Block Supervisory Leadership Institute. I made lieutenant off that list, but it was a squeaker.

[MD7305]

I was promoted to SGT about 4 years ago...and it was probably the worst mistake I've made career wise. I've had excellent officers assigned to me (patrol) and we work hard. I've always liked sports and I approach it from a team perspective, we work together to accomplish our tasks. I'm not immune to calls because I wear collar brass. Our Chief shields a lot of the political crap but there's always the admin crap/drama. I miss the days of running calls with no other worries than being effective and keeping my bros safe. Now I have an entirely different level of issues to deal with. I still run calls and help out, I'm still a sh!t magnet, and I try to avoid my office but its like I got a freaking tether pulling me back. Stripes took all the fun out of my job. I took the exam thinking that it'd be good experience to go through the process never thinking I would have a chance and.... I ended up getting it. It was the proverbial "dog chases car, dog catches car, WTF now?" So my advice is if you're already a cop, don't test for promotion....unless you REALLY want it cause you might just get it. The only saving grace is now I have an itty-bitty amount of influence to help improve the department and even though these stripes weigh me down sometimes maybe I can make the PD a little bit better for those guys working patrol and toughing out those weekend nights. Overly optimistic I suppose.

[serialsolver]

Wow, this thread is a way-back machine for me. I worked for supervisors that I had to treat like a rattle snake cause you had to watch every move you made around them. I had a list of topics that my administration had ordered me not to talk about. When they reclassified my rank and I was no longer a supervisor I told everyone "thank God I've been delivered from the bonds of supervision". My advice to the folks I worked with is this, be the best cop you can be but don't do it for the administration or the politicians or the people in the city. Be the best cop you can be for yourself cause when your career is over knowing that you did your best is what will matter. That and they put money in my bank account the last business day of the month for the rest of my life. I'll be on the couch lurking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk