Expert: Chris Wagoner - 8/27/2008

Question
Hello and thank you for what you do!!  I am 21 years old and set to graduate this spring from Western Washington University.  I have a very strong interest in law enforcement as a long term career and would like to know what it is about this career that has kept you involved for so long?  Even with times of great stress, moral dilemmas, long hours and dangerous work, what have been the rewards that kept you going?

Answer
HI Philip,

There are many reasons that I like what I do but I have to say the main reason that I have stayed in it for so long is that I get to help people out.

Imagine responding to a car crash, everyone in both cars is seriously injured. Its a mad house, you are trying to help all the injured people, make the scene safe and keep all the people away that don't belong. You administer first aid to them, and help a little 5 year old girl, who is scared to death, and has several bad cuts but otherwise is OK, mom and dad are out, and she looks at you with those eyes that say "I need help!" and you hold her hand and talk to her about how she is going to be OK, she will be fine, and her mom and dad will be OK also. You brush the hair out of her face and tell her how cute she is, you tell her that shes being a really good girl and really strong and that you will tell her parents what a big girl she was when you needed her to be. You stay with her when the paramedics work on her and her family, you help put her on the stretcher, she cries and wants you to go with her to the hospital, but you tell her she is a big girl and will be OK and she nods and gets loaded in the ambulance and goes to the hospital with mom and dad.

Now imagine its 15 years later, and your getting ready to teach a police recruit class of new bright and shining faces, and after the first hour of class a young women comes up to you and looks at you very intently. She tells you the story above, and with tears in her eyes, she tells you that little girl is her, and she is becoming a cop because of what you did for her that day and that she wants to do that for some other little boy or girl. You nod and say thank you, and quickly walk out of the room and to the bathroom where you wipe the tears from your eyes. You look i the mirror and thank God that there are young men and women out there that want to do those things you did and want to do them for the right reasons.

Thats a true story, and why I have been a cop for 28+ years, because those types of stories happen all the time in my world.

Police work is probably one of the most rewarding careers out there. The stress and danger and all that other stuff is only a small part, and a part you can make even smaller if you deal with it correctly.

Good luck and I hope you enjoyed my story, I sure do each time I tell it. Be well and stay safe and you will have a long, full, rewarding career in law enforcement like I have.