I love teaching but often wonder if I should have pursued police work of some flavor. My mentality meshes well with experienced police officers.
I love teaching but often wonder if I should have pursued police work of some flavor. My mentality meshes well with experienced police officers.
Me too, though I’ll be pushing 40 next year so my window is closing or closed. I also have a family whose needs would need to be negotiated.
That said, I’ve been interested in a law enforcement career for quite a while now. I’m successful in my current career, though I find it unfulfilling. The idea of being of service to the community is very much of interest to me.
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Like others have said, communication makes up the majority of the job. I know entire departments that haven't fired a shot in the real world in living memory. Smaller departments, mind you, but there are a lot more small departments than big ones.
Being a salesman who can think on his feet is a much bigger part of this job than wrestling folks and wrestling folks is a way bigger part of the job than shooting folks. You need to, at some level, actually like people. You need to want to change the world while realizing you probably can't change much about your town..but every now and then you're going to make a real difference to an individual. It's a hell of a thing.
Keep in mind that hiring processes can often take the better part of a year, at least for bigger departments.
However before worrying about any of that, I'd schedule a couple ride-alongs with various departments in the areas you think you'd like to work. See what the job looks like day to day.
Finally, some places have maximum hiring ages. Depending on exactly where in your mid-30s you are, you could already be passed that here. You could still work for a sheriff's department or anyone who funds their own pension, but couldn't hire on to any state or local department using the state fund. Other states don't have that sort of requirement, as long as you can pass the physical you are good to go.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
Thanks for the replies everybody.
I have a very good friend who was in sales and became a corrections officer. He echoed something similar in that a big part of being able to do the job successfully is being able to talk to people. Good food for thought.
Overall, I've loved the gig.....but at the risk of sounding arrogant.....most everything associated with it came pretty easy to me. My first academy started with 56 people and graduated 21....and I was the Honor Grad with the top grade. FTO months I struggled with staying up all night but 2 weeks into it I got into the groove. I was blessed to have had good, hard working FTOs that were the foundation for my success in this field. Without them it would have been much harder.
Finance degrees are a good thing to fall back on should LE not work out. And the entire time I've been in LE.....we've never laid anyone off so there is job security as far as that is concerned. There is the inherent risks to body and mind involved plus the latest fad of indicting/convicting cops is going to worsen before it swings back the other way. We have one currently facing a murder charge for an on duty shooting that was found "in policy" by the shooting review board.
It's a great job...or rather was......but it is brutal on a family and marriage. We enjoy a 90 percent divorce rate. We have family drama constantly at work and since we are sort of a family ourselves, the rumor mill airs your business to the entire place.
Know all of that and seriously reflect on how shift work and police life can devastate your family life. I've been on for 23 years and the first time my wife and I both had weekends off together was just a couple of years ago. People take that for granted in the regular world. We cherish our weekends together and wonder how we did it all those years (almost 25 together) when I worked nights and then days with Tuesday/Wed off days.
As far as the job itself, know that going into it this late may mean you have to work 25-30 years until you are retirement age. If you were to get hired here (and we are desperately looking to fill slots), you would have a 30 year state retirement to draw full benefits and the job is not an old man's game. I'm almost 50 and it's wearing me down. I just ran our mandated PT test last week and with a 70 second max I got 44 seconds. 35-38 seconds will get you a ribbon to wear on your class A so I felt pretty good about my time. Only problem was I ached for four days.
Now....define "OK money"?
I'm topped out and make about 30/hour. I get a COLA that is about 1 percent a year. My insurance usually increases every year which soaks up the raise and then some. Recently, the city made this big ta-do about paying us more for "retention" purposes. I had to wait to see what the hard math was because their flowchart was pure voodoo math. My big, retention raise?
0.08 cents per hour.
Yeah, that was it. And my dental went up for 2020 so it's going to soak it all up and then some. Once I topped out here, my take home pay went down every single year since. My agency used to be one of the top 3 as far as pay in the state......we are now not even in the top 10. At no time did I expect to get rich but I didn't expect to lose money every year.
Police work, locally, is a shell of what it used to be. It's a liability/asset protection game now and not about law enforcement. That may differ where you are.
Go on some ride a longs if your local agency allows it and see if it cranks your tractor. We have had men and women your age and older start up and stick with it. Just know that you are going to be asked to put a whole lot on the line for those that may not appreciate you nor have your back if hard times befall you job wise.
Good luck to you.
I'm not sure of your personal situation, but look beyond your local agencies if you're able to. If the pay isn't good where you live at, find a place where it's decent and consider relocation.
Decide what size agency you want to work for. There's a big difference between small, medium and large departments. With a larger department you can have several careers, it just depends on what you want to do. If you have a problem with someone you can change a division and never see that person again for the rest of your career. But then comes the bureaucracy of working in a large department.
Also when talking with recruiters ask about the pension, DROP (if available), incentive pay, shift differential, extra jobs, healthcare costs, sick time / vacation time accrual, tuition reimbursement, weapons policy, fleet issues and if they have a union and how strong is it?
If you're going to put up with this job for the next 20 - 30 years get the best pay / benefits / retirement you can up front. You might find that you love police work but took a job at an agency that pays peanuts with a horrible retirement. You don't have to take the first thing that comes along, find a department that fits well with you and what your goals are. Most people simply let the agencies pick them.
Last edited by andre3k; 10-28-2019 at 11:58 AM.
Everything that Andre3k said is correct. You want to choose an agency that will allow future career development, ideally in a locale with a good tax base. Working for a small department could mean you will be stuck in patrol or forced to rotate back there several times during a career. If your goal is to be a detective or work in a specialized area, that is probably not the agency for you. Promotions may come more slowly. In my agency, there was a span of 10 years between Lieutenant exams for example.
Depending on where you work, you may or may not be a cog in the machine. The good thing about working for a smaller agency, say 100 or less, is that you will know everyone and everyone will know you. The bad thing is that everyone will know you and your history. If you screw up, or piss off the wrong supervisor, there is no where to hide. A large agency allows you to transfer to a new part of the organization and gives you the opportunity to start fresh again.
I spent most of my career in an agency of about 85 cops. When I started there, we had the worst retirement in the state. Eventually that changed and I wound up with the best retirement available in my state. We never were paid at the top of the salary scale, but we always had good vehicles and equipment and a nice facility for the last 10 years of my career. We had a rotation policy that made it mandatory to return to patrol after 2-3 years in a specialized assignment.
The first indication a bad guy should have that I'm dangerous is when his
disembodied soul is looking down at his own corpse wondering what happened.
You sound like a prime candidate to voluteer as a reserve officer/deputy. I did it for several years and found I enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.
As my career and family grew maintaining the necessary in service training became increasingly difficult to keep up with and I eventually bowed out. But as my kids are getting older now I've considered doing it again.