The surprise is only that it took so long.
The link says it all.
https://www.lawofficer.com/america-we-are-leaving/
The surprise is only that it took so long.
The link says it all.
https://www.lawofficer.com/america-we-are-leaving/
Sadly, this is not a new problem. It is a problem that has reached a fever pitch with this recent round of utter insanity.
I don't know a single currently badged Officer that is not dreaming of retirement and trying to retire as early as possible. A lot of good people, and literally every single one of them wants out.
It started a few, several years back with cops leaving agencies they perceived unwilling to support them.
Now, it seems they're leaving the profession.
Even the guys who stay are going to be more, shall we say, circumspect in their proactive work and investigations.
I've said it before and it seems relevant here. Nobody gets fired for not catching a criminal. Nobody goes to jail for not pursing a suspect. Catch him and he fights, it's all liability at this point.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
I've mentioned previously that one time my partner and I went out and dealt with a guy who was suspected of something or other...I forget all the details.
Anyway, he made a complaint that I put hands on him. (I hadn't. I may have have nudged him.)
When we got back to the office the SAC and DSAC were standing there and wanted a full report on what had transpired. After I briefed them they asked me why the guy hadn't been brought back to the office bloodied up and in handcuffs.
And I said, "You'd have backed us up, of course."
Crickets.
The handwriting has been on the wall for at least a couple of decades. It's just become much easier to read.
There's nothing civil about this war.
Not to thread drift, but . . . serious question . . . leaving and going where? Excluding the men approaching retirement, where are the young ones going? What skill sets have they developed on duty that (a) are transferable and (b) don't involve the liabilities of security work?
I'm thinking, Erick, that a pretty decent living might be made out of placing cops who've hadituptohere to work in veteran owned businesses. That seems it could be a kind of natural fit, don't you think?
We haven't seen a mass exodus yet, but insurance/fraud investigation seems to be a common one if they leave law enforcement. Migrating to smaller towns and less busy call loads and accepting the pay cut seems more common then leaving entirely, though. We pay enough that we gain more laterals then we lose so far, but our even accepting laterals is a pretty new thing and entirely due to reduced recruiting pools. When I came on everyone, even if they were sworn already elsewhere, had to do the full academy without exception.
Sorta around sometimes for some of your shitty mod needs.
You typed "don't involve liabilities of security work," so cull what you wish, but security consultant, alarm & home or business security system consultant, executive protection, personal defense trainer, automobile accident consultant for insurance companies, private investigator, assistant to law firms, etc (to include private/contract police force). Fairly easy for them to retool if young. Keep in mind they pass background investigations, mental health, and physical requirements that eliminate a lot of the rest of the population from consideration for hire, much less a challenging academy. I happen to believe that is transferrable to a lot of things. There are also professional associations that help with the retool. Can likely be expanded in this day and age. Personally, I think this is a case study for an "Atlas Shrugged" profession.
A few years back, an agency local to me had some internal frustrations over how an event was handled. Aside from retirements, that org would lose one to another agency elsewhere or another career every 2-3 years. In one year, they lost 12 or 10% of their patrol division. Other agencies or other states.
This week I had a conversation with a fairly young cop there with a young family. He's actively considering another line of work.
I don't know enough about business, in general, to hypothesize on former cops being a good fit with Vet owned businesses. I imagine that could work if one knew enough people in both worlds.
Unfortunately, my business sense is such that I flipped the switch on starting a new company the first week of March.
It used to be the case that certain cities sent out recruiters to poach pretty heavily. I think it was Seattle (ironically) that even had a full-time recruiter permanently assigned to NYC when NYPD was still getting paid below the poverty line. I remember one of my college buddies with DC Metro PD back in 2007 told me about a few cities in other states that still had lateral transfer agreements for them, no need to go through a full police academy again.
Is this active recruiting from other states still a thing? 'Cause if it isn't, I'm betting it will start back up in earnest with so many PDs hurting for qualified individuals.
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer