BlueSheepdog
10 Years Experience
Around the Way, FL
Male, 40
Cheating death and fighting communism: that is how a fellow officer once described our job. It was meant to be funny, but as time went on it seemed all too true.
I spent more than ten years in law enforcement, all of it on the street in uniform patrol. I've been a patrol officer, instructor, sergeant and lieutenant.
Do not report crimes here. Nothing here should be considered legal advice. All opinions are my own.
Every department is different on degrees. Some require 4 year degrees, but most do not. A college education is ok, but other than giving you general knowledge, it isn't of much use as a street cop. For promotion, it is requirement for many positions. Frankly, the problem with many new officers is their sense of entitlement and lack of worldly experience. Generally, I have found that new cops that were in the military are far better equipped to be police officers. Most of them have had life experience beyond sitting in a classroom and partying all weekend. At the end of the day, officers are required to seek out the most dangerous elements of society and confront them. When someone starts shooting, everyone runs away except a police officer, who runs toward the danger. Most colleges don't prepare people for that action.
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Depends on the department. Most agencies do not have mounted officers. However, horses are very good for assisting with crowd control. I think New Orleans and NYC still have mounted units exactly for that reason. Also, for rural areas, horses can go a lot of places that vehicles cannot. So, they also make sense for some departments that have to patrol or conduct search and rescue in rugged environments.
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I enjoy working in uniform patrol as I am responding to crimes and emergencies as they are happening, not merely following up on a case later. A detective's life is fairly routine, whereas a patrol cop's day is completely unpredictable. It isn't a simple matter to quantify who wants to be a detective. Some officers make the move because they like taking a major case and running it to its conclusion no matter how long it takes. Other guys make the move simply because of a pay increase or they want the weekends off. A lot of officers transfer over just as a change of scenery. There are a lot of perks for being a detective, but its just not a job thats interested me.
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Always.
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I'd never allow anything that puts the public at risk to happen in my presence. So the idea that I'd let a friend/family member drive if he/she is intoxicated is alien to me. I deal with the consequences of other people's actions all day, and I don't tolerate stupidity around me. The family and friends I associate with aren't involved in criminal activity, so it isn't typically a problem.
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Not really. Chances are I'd decline to give consent to an officer for search my vehicle as well. Of course, I wouldn't ask for consent to search a vehicle without some suspicion of criminal activity to begin with. So, the mere act of declining consent wouldn't affect my suspicions one way or another.
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I don't know what the specific rates of divorce are, but I suspect the numbers are higher in law enforcement than in other professions. There are probably many more people that are better qualified to answer the "why," but I can give you a few things that don't help: shift work, working on holidays, working on off days, sitting in court all day instead of taking the kids to the beach, rarely seeing your spouse due to your work schedule, the high-stress environment tends to negatively affect the home life, spouses don't like the idea of their cop being hurt or killed and pressure them to leave the job, etc. There are a lot of things about police work that negatively impact a marriage. Many cops will tell you that you're still a rookie if you are still on your first marriage. Sad, but closer to reality than comfortable.
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