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.
At my department (a city agency) we frequently work with the surrounding cities and the sheriff's department on cases. We rarely have any problems, but you sometimes run into an idiot. I'm pretty sure that's the same in any job. We also work with agencies at the state level fairly frequently. I've rarely butted heads with anybody here either. For street cops, we don't deal with the feds too often. If you are in a specialized unit, it is more common. For example, our narcotics unit, gang unit, and detectives work with the feds on various cases. While I've never had any significant problems with any of the guys at the federal level, I have seen a greater tendency for their people to be a little too self-assured. I suspect that is from a lack of working the street. I've found the best investigators at the federal level started life as a street cop somewhere. Other officers at different departments may have different experiences.
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Whether or not to shoot someone. It has happened many times. One time in particular, my partner and I ran on a home invasion call. A woman called at about 1 am saying a man way trying to kick down her front door. When I arrived, I saw the man trying to force entry on the residence. Pointing my Glock at him, I ordered him to stop and put his hands in the air. Instead, he looked at me and jammed a hand into his pocket, which is a move consistant with going for a weapon. Considering that he appeared to be committing a felony, I was in uniform and he had obviously seen me, he refused to obey my lawful order, and was making a move consistant with drawing a weapon, it was definitely a situation when deadly force could be reasonably applied. For those who know the Glock pistol, you know there isn't much slack in that trigger. However, I definitely recall taking up the slack on the trigger while screaming at him to stop. Just prior to discharging the firearm, he stopped moving and got an "Oh, crap" look on his face. He stopped, and ater a few tense moments, my partner and I were able to get him into custody. As it turns out, he was just an angry drunk trying to get into a residence that he thought was his own. I never knew what he was thinking when he looked at me and then made a move like he was going for a gun. If he was trying to bluff me into thinking he had a gun, he succeeded and almost paid for it with his life. Incidents like this are all too common in police work.
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Generally departments have a process that includes pass/fail portions (such as criminal background, polygraph) and scored portions (interviews, oral boards, physical fitness, written testing, job history, veterans preference, etc.)
Everyone must pass the pass/fail, but then acrues a rank/score based on the other testing. Then the hiring is done from the list. Chances are that agency would offer jobs to the top 100, but not all of them would accept. So, the top 150-200 might get offers depending on how many are still looking for employment with the department.
There are a lot of other factors that can come into play. I'd suggest talking to your recruiter and asking them for more information on the department's process.
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If you are asking "Can I ask the officer why he pulled me over," the answer is yes. Most folks probably have a pretty good idea when they see the red/blue lights.
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Toll Collector
Do you think there will be a time where all tolls are automated?
Birthday Party Clown
OK seriously, how DOES the clown car thing work?
Chef
Has anyone ever found anything gross in their food on your watch?
I'm stumped on this one. Different officers place a different emphasis on different enforcement activities based on a wide range of experiences and motivations. For example, an officer who works my area of the world is more likely to be concerned about jaywalking due to the extremely high number of pedestrian fatalities we work every year. In other areas of the country/state/country jaywalking probably isn't enforced vigorously, if at all. I wish I could give you a good answer, but I can't think of any law that is universally ignored by officers.
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Generally speaking, yes. Judges have a lot of discretion when handing down sentences, and many factors come into play. The cooperation of the defendant can result in a less-harsh punishment.
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Thanks for reading Mark!
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