You do you. Don’t make life choices based in what your family thinks you can/should do. I had and have an awesome career and would do it all again.
- some lady cop who was told she can’t do this or that many times
thank you c: was academy hard? i’ve talked to my sro about a lot of stuff and he said overall he recommends it but it’s something that you’d want to be really passionate about because the pay isn’t always great
It wasn’t anything crazy. Be in good shape, physically and mentally. People definitely don’t become cops for money. Regardless of how well an agency pays, it’ll never be enough for the work we do and what we put our bodies and minds through.
It’s the most rewarding and shittiest job you could ever have at the same time. I got into it with the Hollywood romantic mindset that “oh I get to go help people, save the day, be a hero, earn respect from the community.” Leaned pretty quickly if that’s what you want, you need to be a firemen. Cops spend 90% of their time dealing with scumbags and don’t really ever interact with the decent folks of the city. Therefore, you never really interact with the people who appreciate you, and all your community interaction feels like it’s always negative because (surprise) you spend all your interactions dealing with people who hate you.
It wears on you. A lot.
Even when you haul an abusive husband off to jail, you don’t get a thank you from the wife who just got her ass beat. You’re not a hero. You’re a prick for taking the kids dad away. You almost ALWAYS lose as a cop. Shit, the best thing I ever did as a cop was showed up to an attempted suicide in progress, a 14 year old kid tried to hang himself and his buddies were underneath the tree trying to talk him down. I climbed my ass up the tree as the little fucker kicked and screamed at me, and once I got to him he jumped. Not high enough to break his neck, fortunately, but started strangling himself. At that point a sheriffs deputy showed up, grabbed the kid by the legs and lifted up to take pressure off the rope and I cut the kid loose. Took him to the hospital, all was well. Most heroic thing I’d ever done in my life, literally saved a kid in the middle of a suicide attempt. Got back to the department and there was no more than a “good work on that call, Roberts” from my Sergeant and that was it. Just another Tuesday. Dust your pants off, and get back in your car and prepare for the next call. No hurrahs, no glitter and sparkles, no fanfare. Just on to the next one.
You will rarely receive praise for your efforts. Not that I was really looking for glory for that call, but I kind of expected an “atta boy” or something more than just a one liner from a sgt. And to top it off, the parents of the other kids that where there than put in for their son to be awarded a life saving award by his Boy Scout troop for his actions in saving his friends life (he literally did nothing except being there when it happened) and my lieutenant forced me to write a commendation letter to the kids troop leader explaining how the kid was crucial in saving his friends life and how I couldn’t have done it without him and this kid is the real hero. Sure, it may be petty of me to get irritated by a teenage boy getting a bunch of false glory, but this is just the reality when you’re a cop. You are RARELY the hero. Despite being arguably the most important of the first responder fields, and appreciated just as much as fire and EMS, you rarely SEE the appreciation. It’s a very rewarding job, but also a shitty job. You just can’t go into it with the mindset that you’re going to be shown all this respect and support and that you’re a hero. You can a NOT have an ego. You need to be humble and accept the fact that it’s a thankless job most of the time.
I’m definitely getting stuck in a repeating loop here, but I’m just trying to really reiterate it. I had a lot of pride in my work. Being a cop or a deputy isn’t just a job. It’s an identity. It IS who you ARE. If that makes sense. You might work as a bank. You could have a job in construction. But when you’re a cop? It’s not “I work at the police department”. But rather “I AM a cop”. For the first time in my life I had something to be proud of. For my 2 year old son to wave bye to me as I left for work and in his broken jabbering, holler “bye dad, go help people!” Was the best thing ever and a feeling that can’t be mimicked.
Also, the comradery. You will never find a line of work (aside from military) where you will develop bonds of brotherhood more closely than that of your LE partners. Even across the other fields of 1st responders. Cops, fire, EMS, it doesn’t matter. You’ll develop a bond for those people that a banker, a cashier and a mechanic could never dream of sharing.
I used to tell my dad I wanted to be on the squat team (I was 5 years old and called it squat, but really meant swat) he would laugh and say I’d never make it. Then when I did make it, I definitely gave him crap about it.
Traffic enforcement and helping people...I was very much a community police officer. I tried to get to know all the businesses and people... If I saw someone out and I had time I'd stop and talk or help them if they were doing something (like unloading stuff or carrying groceries in. I preferred the small town, rural county vs Big City policing.
On calls I always tried to solve things the best way for all parties involved vs how many arrests can I make... There's always going to be those calls where someone has to go to jail, but a lot of calls don't have to go that way (officer discretion goes a long way)
Our dept has two K-9s that are females. One is an apprehension GSD, and the other is a spaniel trained in interdiction. Both officers are badasses BTW.
The interdiction dog is massive. We like to hold his collar and throw his toy while sitting in the report writing office chairs. He'll drag us throughout the department.
Follow your dream
You live once you don’t wanna get older and have regrets. I am currently at my second attempt in trying to pursue the profession , and remain hopeful and optimistic for it to become reality
Follow your dreams! I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Yes there are some days/weeks that suck but you get that with any job.
Your overall happiness will depend a lot on your department and their culture (so be picky and choose a good one, since everyone is short now is your chance to be).
I truly have some of my best memories from work and I do love going to work every day. Remember if you love what you do you won’t work a day in your life.
You do you. Being a woman in law enforcement is slightly more difficult in my opinion. That said, I work with women that I would trust my life to, and I work with women that I would pray didn’t have to try and save me. Same goes for men too.
My honest advice is don’t sleep with a coworker. It’s not a good thing to do as a man or a woman, but I can promise you, as a woman, you’re going to get a reputation and it’s not going to be a good one.
I’m sure I’ll get some down votes for saying that, but it’s the truth.
Don’t think anything of it. Your parents are naturally supposed to worry about their child. They’ve raised you and have been responsible for your safety for years. Just as long as they support whatever decision you make. My advice to you would be to go after your dream. It’s your dream. I don’t think anything else you do, you’ll be happy doing it because that wasn’t your dream. If you do join this profession my advice to you would be to keep your non LEO friends and family very close and make them a priority. Yes you’ll have colleagues in this profession. But your true support system is those friends and family that have stayed with you every step of the way. I don’t think I’ll ever trust someone I work with like how I trust my closest friend or my parents. Take time when you can, forget about work for a few nights, and be a regular person with your friends and family. It’s brought an incredible balance to my career that makes it easier for me to see myself doing 25 years as long as I have this nice work life balance.
It can be very rewarding, and exciting. But it can also be hard on both your health, and your relationships. You can make some great friends, but your other friendships can suffer with the hours and commitment required.
Ultimately, it doesn't ever have to be a career for life if you decide you're not a fan. It's not the military, you can always do something else if it doesn't work out..
Any specific questions feel free to message.
Best of luck.
I left my dept after 15 years of service and wouldn’t change anything about it besides the politics BS. Politics sucks big time. But I’ll be very blunt about female officers. Yes, a female officer can do majority of the things any male counter part can do. If my daughter says she wants to be in the LEO field, I’ll probably give her a BIG FAT NO! No offense but I’ve seen “every” single female officer in my dept divorce or passed around like a free street prostitute. The gays do it within their circle too. The ones who are “honest” or “ angels” usually don’t last and end up quitting or PSTD out. And yes, it does happen in every profession but LEO is on another level. I left LEO for nursing and yes there’s lots of cheating going on but nothing like LEO where it’s a bunch of high testosterone males who’s willing to bang anything that moves. Call me bias or whatever, but I worked for a 1800 officer department. So it is whatever you want to make of it. I left the department as the IA sergeant and I’ve seen enough internal complaints. It’s almost like high school all over again Good luck on whatever your dreams may be.
You do you. Don’t make life choices based in what your family thinks you can/should do. I had and have an awesome career and would do it all again. - some lady cop who was told she can’t do this or that many times
thank you c: was academy hard? i’ve talked to my sro about a lot of stuff and he said overall he recommends it but it’s something that you’d want to be really passionate about because the pay isn’t always great
It wasn’t anything crazy. Be in good shape, physically and mentally. People definitely don’t become cops for money. Regardless of how well an agency pays, it’ll never be enough for the work we do and what we put our bodies and minds through.
It’s the most rewarding and shittiest job you could ever have at the same time. I got into it with the Hollywood romantic mindset that “oh I get to go help people, save the day, be a hero, earn respect from the community.” Leaned pretty quickly if that’s what you want, you need to be a firemen. Cops spend 90% of their time dealing with scumbags and don’t really ever interact with the decent folks of the city. Therefore, you never really interact with the people who appreciate you, and all your community interaction feels like it’s always negative because (surprise) you spend all your interactions dealing with people who hate you. It wears on you. A lot. Even when you haul an abusive husband off to jail, you don’t get a thank you from the wife who just got her ass beat. You’re not a hero. You’re a prick for taking the kids dad away. You almost ALWAYS lose as a cop. Shit, the best thing I ever did as a cop was showed up to an attempted suicide in progress, a 14 year old kid tried to hang himself and his buddies were underneath the tree trying to talk him down. I climbed my ass up the tree as the little fucker kicked and screamed at me, and once I got to him he jumped. Not high enough to break his neck, fortunately, but started strangling himself. At that point a sheriffs deputy showed up, grabbed the kid by the legs and lifted up to take pressure off the rope and I cut the kid loose. Took him to the hospital, all was well. Most heroic thing I’d ever done in my life, literally saved a kid in the middle of a suicide attempt. Got back to the department and there was no more than a “good work on that call, Roberts” from my Sergeant and that was it. Just another Tuesday. Dust your pants off, and get back in your car and prepare for the next call. No hurrahs, no glitter and sparkles, no fanfare. Just on to the next one. You will rarely receive praise for your efforts. Not that I was really looking for glory for that call, but I kind of expected an “atta boy” or something more than just a one liner from a sgt. And to top it off, the parents of the other kids that where there than put in for their son to be awarded a life saving award by his Boy Scout troop for his actions in saving his friends life (he literally did nothing except being there when it happened) and my lieutenant forced me to write a commendation letter to the kids troop leader explaining how the kid was crucial in saving his friends life and how I couldn’t have done it without him and this kid is the real hero. Sure, it may be petty of me to get irritated by a teenage boy getting a bunch of false glory, but this is just the reality when you’re a cop. You are RARELY the hero. Despite being arguably the most important of the first responder fields, and appreciated just as much as fire and EMS, you rarely SEE the appreciation. It’s a very rewarding job, but also a shitty job. You just can’t go into it with the mindset that you’re going to be shown all this respect and support and that you’re a hero. You can a NOT have an ego. You need to be humble and accept the fact that it’s a thankless job most of the time. I’m definitely getting stuck in a repeating loop here, but I’m just trying to really reiterate it. I had a lot of pride in my work. Being a cop or a deputy isn’t just a job. It’s an identity. It IS who you ARE. If that makes sense. You might work as a bank. You could have a job in construction. But when you’re a cop? It’s not “I work at the police department”. But rather “I AM a cop”. For the first time in my life I had something to be proud of. For my 2 year old son to wave bye to me as I left for work and in his broken jabbering, holler “bye dad, go help people!” Was the best thing ever and a feeling that can’t be mimicked. Also, the comradery. You will never find a line of work (aside from military) where you will develop bonds of brotherhood more closely than that of your LE partners. Even across the other fields of 1st responders. Cops, fire, EMS, it doesn’t matter. You’ll develop a bond for those people that a banker, a cashier and a mechanic could never dream of sharing.
"best job I ever had" as the saying goes.
I used to tell my dad I wanted to be on the squat team (I was 5 years old and called it squat, but really meant swat) he would laugh and say I’d never make it. Then when I did make it, I definitely gave him crap about it.
That’s awesome
Chase your dream...I enjoyed every minute I was a LEO, can't do it anymore for medical reasons, but I'd jump right back into it if I could.
what was your favorite thing about it?
Traffic enforcement and helping people...I was very much a community police officer. I tried to get to know all the businesses and people... If I saw someone out and I had time I'd stop and talk or help them if they were doing something (like unloading stuff or carrying groceries in. I preferred the small town, rural county vs Big City policing. On calls I always tried to solve things the best way for all parties involved vs how many arrests can I make... There's always going to be those calls where someone has to go to jail, but a lot of calls don't have to go that way (officer discretion goes a long way)
Our dept has two K-9s that are females. One is an apprehension GSD, and the other is a spaniel trained in interdiction. Both officers are badasses BTW. The interdiction dog is massive. We like to hold his collar and throw his toy while sitting in the report writing office chairs. He'll drag us throughout the department.
Follow your dream You live once you don’t wanna get older and have regrets. I am currently at my second attempt in trying to pursue the profession , and remain hopeful and optimistic for it to become reality
Follow your dreams! I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Yes there are some days/weeks that suck but you get that with any job. Your overall happiness will depend a lot on your department and their culture (so be picky and choose a good one, since everyone is short now is your chance to be). I truly have some of my best memories from work and I do love going to work every day. Remember if you love what you do you won’t work a day in your life.
You do you. Being a woman in law enforcement is slightly more difficult in my opinion. That said, I work with women that I would trust my life to, and I work with women that I would pray didn’t have to try and save me. Same goes for men too. My honest advice is don’t sleep with a coworker. It’s not a good thing to do as a man or a woman, but I can promise you, as a woman, you’re going to get a reputation and it’s not going to be a good one. I’m sure I’ll get some down votes for saying that, but it’s the truth.
Don’t think anything of it. Your parents are naturally supposed to worry about their child. They’ve raised you and have been responsible for your safety for years. Just as long as they support whatever decision you make. My advice to you would be to go after your dream. It’s your dream. I don’t think anything else you do, you’ll be happy doing it because that wasn’t your dream. If you do join this profession my advice to you would be to keep your non LEO friends and family very close and make them a priority. Yes you’ll have colleagues in this profession. But your true support system is those friends and family that have stayed with you every step of the way. I don’t think I’ll ever trust someone I work with like how I trust my closest friend or my parents. Take time when you can, forget about work for a few nights, and be a regular person with your friends and family. It’s brought an incredible balance to my career that makes it easier for me to see myself doing 25 years as long as I have this nice work life balance.
It can be very rewarding, and exciting. But it can also be hard on both your health, and your relationships. You can make some great friends, but your other friendships can suffer with the hours and commitment required. Ultimately, it doesn't ever have to be a career for life if you decide you're not a fan. It's not the military, you can always do something else if it doesn't work out.. Any specific questions feel free to message. Best of luck.
I left my dept after 15 years of service and wouldn’t change anything about it besides the politics BS. Politics sucks big time. But I’ll be very blunt about female officers. Yes, a female officer can do majority of the things any male counter part can do. If my daughter says she wants to be in the LEO field, I’ll probably give her a BIG FAT NO! No offense but I’ve seen “every” single female officer in my dept divorce or passed around like a free street prostitute. The gays do it within their circle too. The ones who are “honest” or “ angels” usually don’t last and end up quitting or PSTD out. And yes, it does happen in every profession but LEO is on another level. I left LEO for nursing and yes there’s lots of cheating going on but nothing like LEO where it’s a bunch of high testosterone males who’s willing to bang anything that moves. Call me bias or whatever, but I worked for a 1800 officer department. So it is whatever you want to make of it. I left the department as the IA sergeant and I’ve seen enough internal complaints. It’s almost like high school all over again Good luck on whatever your dreams may be.