Career Question[s] for all the Cops Out There

[mjs1217]

Well, this is probably the 4th or so thread I've started reguarding careers or jobs, but I've been wanting to start it for a while now (before any of the others). So, here it is:

Out of all the career options im considering, I think one of the jobs I'd be happiest in would be a Police Officer. However, mainly because the huge amount of misconceptions about the police that are fed to the public, I don't know much about the profession. So, here are some of the things that I do and don't know:

Things I Know:

Being a cop isn't easy.
Being a cop doesnt mean just eating donuts.
It's extremely rare that a cop ever has the need to draw his or her gun on duty.
Cops need to wake up very early in the morning.
Being a cop is fairly to extremely dangerous, depending on your duties and location.
Being a cop is nothing like Reno 911 (unfortunatly :p).


Now for the things that I want to know:

How much paperwork is usually involved in your day-to-day routine?
How much free time do you have?
During your free time, are you required to do police- or community-oriented things (attend events, community service, etc)?
If you could change anything about your job, what would it be?
For the most part, are your superiors nice to you, or .... ?
What is an average day for you like?
And, most importantly, Are you happy with/do you enjoy your job?


So, thats about it for tonight...I'm sure that I'll have some more questions tommorrow though. Thanks in advance!

-mjs

[LunchBox89]

ok im not a police officer my grand father was and i have all the paper work every thing up to his isssue berretta it does not appear to have a large about of paper work i know you have to fill out police reports and that sorta thing

[dj89]

Well, this is probably the 4th or so thread I've started reguarding careers or jobs, but I've been wanting to start it for a while now (before any of the others). So, here it is:

Out of all the career options im considering, I think one of the jobs I'd be happiest in would be a Police Officer. However, mainly because the huge amount of misconceptions about the police that are fed to the public, I don't know much about the profession. So, here are some of the things that I do and don't know:

Things I Know:

Being a cop isn't easy.
Being a cop doesnt mean just eating donuts.
It's extremely rare that a cop ever has the need to draw his or her gun on duty.
Cops need to wake up very early in the morning. lie
Being a cop is fairly to extremely dangerous, depending on your duties and location.
Being a cop is nothing like Reno 911 (unfortunatly :p).


Now for the things that I want to know:

How much paperwork is usually involved in your day-to-day routine? Depends on how many people you pull over/or are on call for
How much free time do you have? on the night shift there is alot of down time
During your free time, are you required to do police- or community-oriented things (attend events, community service, etc)? Some but not many things. mainly stuff like DARE
If you could change anything about your job, what would it be?
For the most part, are your superiors nice to you, or .... ?
What is an average day for you like?
And, most importantly, Are you happy with/do you enjoy your job?


So, thats about it for tonight...I'm sure that I'll have some more questions tommorrow though. Thanks in advance!

-mjs

try my best but to get better awners you will need to talk to my mom and/or dad

[PyRo]

It's not at dangerous as it is made out to be. If you look at the fatality rates per 100,000 (I think ive seen it measured that way) it's around 7 for cops, and 11 for construction workers. There are much more dangerous jobs out there.

And if you work for the Brookville police you can just go back to sleep after you get to work. There is a park that they go to sleep in. They just drive to the end of a big feild and sleep, i've caught them a few times.

[FutureMagOwner]

Now for the things that I want to know:

How much paperwork is usually involved in your day-to-day routine?
How much free time do you have?
During your free time, are you required to do police- or community-oriented things (attend events, community service, etc)?
If you could change anything about your job, what would it be?
For the most part, are your superiors nice to you, or .... ?
What is an average day for you like?
And, most importantly, Are you happy with/do you enjoy your job?


my dad is a cop and ill tell you what he would say (since he tells me everyday lol, and i had to ask him similar questions for school a few times)

he does about 2 hours of paper work

basically the entire day, hes a detective sargent so he is usually just sitting around all the time playing with photoshop or hearts.

he would probably change everything, he really doesnt like how other people in his station dont have the real reason why they are cops in focus (like they will get a case that requires a basic followup to save someones money or something and they wont bother)

his superiors are nice to him and hes friends with a majority of the department

most of the time he just types beauracratic garbage all day

like i mentioned in the what can you change thing he really doesnt like how people do the bare minimum and its sorta like in school when your in a class that you really love to work in and everyone is dicking off and making it impossible to do anything productive, it just sucks...


so im guessing it really comes down to the department and whether people are really passionate about what they do

[Mango]

I was a police officer in south jersey for about 8 months in a not so good department. I can tell you that WHERE you work and HOW the department is ran makes a huge difference. Also the fellow officers you work with and thier attitudes. I miss a lot about it and plan to return to it someday (maybe soon). One thing you should know is you basically only get called when there is a problem. Most calls you go on the people will hate you the moment they see you for no reason at all. They will punch/spit/yell (in no particular order) at you for no reason, only later to announce your name and vow to kill you and your family later on.

That being said, it has its moments of reward (I set a tiny bat free that was stuck in some ladies house, thats was fun) and normal patrol can go from boring to speeding to a cardiac arrest or gang fight. I still to this day can see the faces of those I did CPR on, never to find out if they ever lived or whatever.

Overall I had gone into the career expecting *most* people to at least be friendly to me but they were not. Like I said, WHERE you work makes a huge difference. Most of the fellow officers I worked with really disliked what they were doing but had no where else to go and the rest of them were FTO's (field training officers) who were doing it for the free vacation time. They told me that to my face too. But like I said, really miss it and want to return, but if I dont I am happy to do what I am doing now and love school. Whatever you do, DO NOT get your bachelors degree in Criminal Justice. Get it in something ELSE because like I experienced, it may not always be your thing. Every instructor at my academy said the same thing.

Oh also, in terms of paperwork, every department is different. If they are techno-savvy they will have all documents in computer form and that speeds things up. If they are like my former stone-age department they have typewritters...and it takes 4 hours of paperwork when you arrest someone. Thats 4 hours that I was off the street. I couldnt live with that thought.


So good luck and let me know if I can answer any other questions. Catch me on AIM @ sprayingmango if you want.

[Steelrat]

Like Mango said, do NOT get a degree in criminal justice, especially if you have aspirations of becoming a federal agent. My recommendations are:

-Foreign language: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Arabic, etc
-Accounting
-Computer science
-Law

If you want to do patrol work and the like, go local. If you want to do investigations right off the bat, go federal, but be aware that all federal agencies are NOT the same. Postal Inspectors start off as GS 10 investigators from day 1, US marshalls start off as GS 5 prison guards. Big difference. Look around and see what there is, and dont be afraid to talk to the recruiters to see what they like.

Oh, and last thing:


It's extremely rare that a cop ever has the need to draw his or her gun on duty.

Wrong. Cops are forever taking the guns out and pointing them at people or things (doorways, windows, cars, etc.) Action is faster than reaction, and if someone wants to draw on you and fire, chances are they will beat you to the punch, so you need to have the weapon out if you anticipate any danger. Now, its extremely rare that its ever FIRED, but they are commonly taken out. Just wanted to clear that up.

[dj89]

Wrong. Cops are forever taking the guns out and pointing them at people or things (doorways, windows, cars, etc.) Action is faster than reaction, and if someone wants to draw on you and fire, chances are they will beat you to the punch, so you need to have the weapon out if you anticipate any danger. Now, its extremely rare that its ever FIRED, but they are commonly taken out. Just wanted to clear that up.

depends on were you are my mom only pulled her gun once in 20 years :)

[Mango]

"Pulling the gun out" really is nothing. How many times you FIRE it is what matters. Police can pull out thier weapon to deescalate a situation as they see fit. Whether they can legally FIRE it is a TOTALLY different question. There is no case law stating when an officer can and cannot draw his pistol.

[CasingBill]

Don't do it. In a little while you'll be makin penguin pictures on you computer and posting them all over the internet :D









J/k ;)

[bornl33t]

if you ever pull me over, don't take offence that I ask for your buisness card and write your badge number on it. I collect cards and have pins on the street address of each office that's ticketed me and some from officers that though they had a bigger penis then me ... which reminds me, I still haven't proven them otherwise... I need to do that this week.