Part-time or Reserve Officers?

[Jeff22]

I retired in 2011 at 53 after 31 years.

I continued working at my PD at about 50% for the next ten years, both patrol and as a dispatcher.

I enjoyed it but everything comes to an end eventually,

[KeeFus]

I retired on June 30,2020 after 30 years…I was 49. (I had over a year of sick leave and I purchased my military time and rolled it over into my retirement). I went back part-time/reserve a couple months later still conducting training and running backgrounds on applicants.

About a year later I got a state job (different retirement system) and began teaching LEOs how to run breath tests and SFSTs on impaired drivers. I also maintain 42 breath testing instruments in 13 counties. Best decision ever.

[Alaskapopo]

Hey all,

I have a decade of experience in police work. I left the job two years ago due to my spouse's ultra demanding and lucrative career situation. I was lucky enough to leave from a special assignment in good standing, on my own terms (from a dept standpoint), with a clean personnel file and no injuries. Now I'm flirting with a former employer about potentially returning as a part-time officer. This position doesn't really exist yet, and a lot of factors still need to be clarified and defined. I would be very careful about not putting myself in a situation where I would be taken advantage of.

As much as I'd love to return to "how things were," no man crosses the same river twice, and all that. I am still constrained by a need for flexibility, which is why I had to leave in the first place. This position will likely be one where I cover vacancies in patrol shifts while full-timers are injured, at training etc. I realize that my vacancy will require me to attend training, a probationary period, field training from people with less experience than me. There's a chance I will be supervised by people with less tenure than I had. I'm okay with all that. I feel like I'm not done serving my community and this would be a happy compromise between full-time work and doing nothing at all.


Who has done something like this?

It’s hard enough hiring folks getting volunteers is impossible. The ones who would be willing to do it for free often are not the folks wou want being a cop