I write this for all of the bad publicity, police officers
have had lately, at the expense of a few. In all of my years of public safety,
I have known many police officers, my son included. I have found the
overwhelming majority of them to be dedicated officers but like all jobs that
serve the public, there are a few who shouldn’t be there. But when one slips
through the cracks, they all have to suffer for it. Name any other occupation
that is this way. No one hates a bad cop more, then another cop.
1. To be a cop,
first you will need a degree from a college to be considered. Upon graduation
you will need to pass a skills course, psychological tests and be lucky to be
hired at one of the few jobs that open up each year. There are often hundreds
of applicants for one job. Most likely you will spend months or years waiting
for a good position and in the meantime you will work part time at jobs as
security officers for private firms or as community service officers for local
police departments, with, little or no benefits.
2.
When you get your first job it will most likely be in a small town department,
where you will work alone most of the time, at a much reduced pay schedule from
bigger cities. Your chance of working the day shift is almost 0. There are no
holidays in police work. It’s a 24/7 job, 365 days of the year.
3.
Working your way up the ladder, to bigger, better jobs, in bigger departments
will require much relocation and often up-rooting your family.
4.
Most people don’t really like you most of the time and they see you as a threat
or someone who is just looking for a reason to pinch them for something, when
in reality most police officers look the other way a lot. They don’t like
confrontation any more then you do. They’re not out to make your life any
tougher then it is.
5.
You will have to go to people’s homes when they are sick and hurt but yet your
medical knowledge will be that of an advanced first aider. You will be bled on, puked on, spit on,
infected with God knows what, to bring it home to your family. You will see
suicides, murders, child and spousal abuse, and decomposed bodies.
6.
You will get to confront people high on drugs and alcohol acting out. They will
be irrational, sometimes violent, and sometimes with weapons but you will have
to use extreme restraint or be criticized for it by the public and the police
administrators, who have to answer to the public and ultimately the council.
Politics abound.
7.
You will have to go to accidents and try to do your best to keep someone alive
until more qualified help arrives, while the drunk who caused the accident
wanders away. In a worst-case scenario you will get to go to someone’s home, at
three in the morning and tell them that their son or daughter is dead. Then you
get to go home and look in on your own sleeping kids, your spouse and go to bed
and try to sleep.
8.
You will carry a gun but you hope and pray everyday that you never have to use
it because you know that taking someone’s life is something you will have to
live with for the rest of your life. If you are ever shot, you will most likely
be ambushed and there is no amount of training that can prepare you for that
and little you can do to stop it. You will be shot for what you represent-- not
who you are.
9.
When you retire--- and if you stick it out that long-- you will have thirty
years of memories of things most people will never see or experience, even once
in their lifetime. It makes for such sweet dreams.
10.
This is the good one-- not like the rest. Every once in a while you will find a
lost child or talk a husband and wife into loving each other again, instead of
fighting. Maybe you will do C.P.R. and save a life. Rescue someone’s dog off
the ice, talk some sense into a run away kid or get someone into a treatment
program or just give someone a ride to a homeless shelter on Christmas Eve or
give them five bucks for a meal. Yes, every so often you will feel good about
your job. Yes, number 10 is what keeps cops going.
.
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