Expert: Jack Toomey - 9/23/2008

Question
Hi, I am a senior in High school, 17 y.o., and am still slightly unsure of what path i want to take in terms of a career. Recently I was thinking about possibly Law enforcement, because I know several military/ law enforcement people, and two of my close friends will be joining with hopes of SWAT and federal posistions. I am more realistic, and was just thinking police. I have done some research, and learned that they work long hours, often overtime, and do lots of paperwork for not the salary that i expected. For a while I thought it would be fun and enjoyable, having people respect you and have authority over the public, but now I am unsure. I was wondering if you had any suggestions/ ideas to help me understand what it is like to be a police officer. Thank you.

Answer
Adam,

  I don't know too many kids, who in their senior year of high school, who turned out doing what they thought they could do in 12th grade.  In other words their college experience changed their mind and they ended up doing something else.

  But I am not going to disuade you and can only encourage you.  

  There is no typical police job.  Some departments are rural and you might not have a call all day and spend your day roaming the countryside.  On other departments you might be working in the worst ghetto's in America and be in a war zone on some nights.  And then there would be the middle of the road which would be a suburban department where your duties would be different than the first two examples.  I wouldn't say that there are "long hours".   You would either work a four or five day work week of forty hours and everything about that would be overtime.  I don't know where you got the idea of low pay unless you are talking about some little town in the South.  The starting salary for police officers in my county is almost $50,000 and they just negotiated a new contract which would make the salary higher.  Paper work seems to be lessened with computers in the cars and now officers can send their reports electronically and many departments are paperless.

   There is no typical day for a police officer so there is no sense trying to describe it because it will only give you the wrong idea.

   What I would suggest is that you do some ride-alongs with your local department.  You are old enough and almost every department that I have heard of has a ride-along program.