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.
I would imagine most states require police officers to receive emergency vehicle operation training in the academy.
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No idea.
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I've not had the chance to observe the dispatch center of a very large agency (such as a NYPD, LAPD, Chicago, etc.) What I've seen in medium sized departments (100-200 officers), you would have a dispatcher on each channel. A single channel might be dedicated to a specific area or precinct, while another might be dedicated to records checks.
So if a department had three precincts, there might be four channels (a dispatcher for each of the three precincts plus one for running warrant checks, license checks, etc.) Then there would be at least one supervisor who would make sure everything is running smooth. There would be call takers (people answering the phones) who might be cross-trained to dispatch.
Typically, there will be extra people available to bring up an extra channel if a special event happened. For example, lets say you had a vehicle accident with a death. The traffic homicide unit plus the officers working that scene might go to an extra channel to work and keep their radio traffic off of the precinct channels.
I hope that helps.
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Except in unusual circumstances (police funeral, working a disaster, etc.) a detective never wears a uniform. They typically wear business attire.
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What kind of mark-ups can you fetch on the clothing you resell from thrift stores?
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New officers go through a period of on the job training called Field Training. Experienced officers with specialized training take new officers and teach them how to employ the things they learned at the academy in the real world. This is also a time when the new officer is closely watched in an effort to determine if they are a good officer/person or if they should be terminated because they are unfit for the job.
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If someone is not going to be charged with anything, detectives are not likely to hold the subject for any period of time. States vary on how long an officer has to charge someone (generally 24 or 48 hours).
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The desire to help people - to make a difference. All of those things I mentioned above suck the life out of you. But with good friends, family and faith in God supporting you, the job can be done.
There were many times that I was going to a call that I would have preferred avoid, but I knew I had the skills and disposition to handle it. Who wants to go to the call where a man just committed suicide in front of his wife by sticking a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger? No one. But, as I often questioned myself, "if not me, then who?"
There are upsides to the job, though they are rarely visible to, or understood by, anyone outside of law enforcement.
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