Why did you become a cop?

Question

I can see five possible reasons. 1. A sense of duty. 2. A stable paycheck and decent retirement benefits. 3. Power and control over other people. 4. Action junky. 5. Not good at anything else.

Answer 1

I really felt the opportunity to help someone - especially those taken advantage of - I guess his goes along with sense of duty.

Action was great - in the first 10 years - but somewhere along the line I developed a genuine preference for peace and quite.  Promotions along the way - only subjected me to more action - because now I have to go to all of it - instead of the stuff in my beat.

Stable paycheck and some form of recession proof job was awesome.  I must tell you - I have no fear of being laid off - that is changing abit now for the new guys - some dept's have laid police officers off.

I am not controlling - most police officers are not.  I have becaome a bit more judgemental and opinionated over the years - but hey, something was sure to change me.

I am very good at many things - have been offered jobs in other fields - but I find my true love is here - could never do anything else is better said.

The benefits are good - retirement at age 50 w/20 years is awesome - and I'm getting close!  My pension is transferable to my wife if I expire.

Most guys probably don't have a list of reasons - there is a calling however

Answer 2

Where to begin.  I always wanted to be able to help people.  I guess you could say that is a sense of duty.  Most folks say that police officers don't help anyone and they only lock people up.  Sometimes this is required to help someone else.  My family is a law enforcement family of Irish-Catholic descent.  So, we're very close.  My dad always wanted me to be a doctor or anything that I would make good money at, as he has been a cop for 34 years.  But, I never wanted to do anything else.  

Yes, the paycheck is stable and there are decent retirement benifits.  

I'm not a controlling person nor are any of the officers I know.  

I guess I thought that it was all about the action until I started actually doing the job.  Having to wake someone up in the middle of the night to tell them that their relative is dead or having to go to someone's house and take their children from them on a holiday, because you have been court ordered to do so, are not things that I thought I would be doing.  Well, I guess I knew that I would have to do these things.  However, I had no idea how hard these things would be until I had to do them.  When you show up to a scene and someone is dying, you are the only first reponder there and all of the person's loved ones are begging "please save him/her".  Let me tell you, it is a very helpless feeling.  All you know is CPR and your praying that the next vehicle coming down the road is the ambulance.  It's not an ambulance. It's just another car passing by.  Everyone is still looking to you, because your there, you have a badge and a gun so you must know how to make it all better.  Jesus, helpless isn't even the word to describe that feeling.  So, you do what you can and you try to save the person.  Everyone is repeatedly asking you "Is he/she going to be OK?"  Even though you know they're not going to make it, you tell everyone else "Oh yeah, he/she is going to be fine."  You're just trying to keep everyone calm and try to make them feel better.  Even though that's not the best thing to do, it seems like it at the time.  When it's all said and done, you hope that you have done the right thing.

To tell the truth, no I don't think I am good at anything else.  I have several hobbies that I like to do in my off time, but I can't seem to find anyone to pay me for doing a hobby.

In a nutshell-That's why I became a cop.

Answer 3

It all comes down to one thing with cop i have concluded, there are two types, 1- those who do it because they love it, not the money because after working there a long time they might be making $23 an hour, or 2- they do it because they got picked on, theres your answer

Answer 4

My dad is a LEO and I always wanted to be a LEO too, it was a calling for me.  I guess that might fall under sense of duty.

I like that I am not confined to an office; that would drive me insane.  Right now I’m very happy in patrol.  I do like the action to some extent, but I hate the paperwork that follows.  I hate death notifications and when family members show up at MVA’s.  How do you tell a father/husband two days before Christmas that the drunk driver of a tractor trailer killed his wife and 6 month old son in a head on collision. How do you explain to a mother who is screaming at you to get her child out of what is left of the car that her daughter is dead and there is nothing you can do.  It is horrible to see the pain people experience because of some Alpha Hotel and there is nothing that you can do to change it.

I never wanted to go in LE to help people, I strongly dislike the general public and my dislike has only increased since I became a LEO.  Most people do not want my "help" and I deal with very few people who are truly victims.  There is no such thing as innocence in my book, just varying degrees of guilt.  I’m not a controlling person; don’t know any LEOs who are.  I am cynical, very judgmental, untrusting, and have no tolerance for stupidity.

The benefits are great and add OT to my paycheck, its all good.  And thanks to the general public I’m guaranteed a job, nice to know there is something good about them.

I was encouraged by a number of people to pursue a degree in law, apparently they felt I would make an excellent prosecutor.  I wasn't interested and I love what I'm doing now.

Answer 5

I originally got involved with Law Enforcement because I needed backup with my existing efforts to fight organized crime coming from the highest levels of "protected cults".  Results have been mixed.  For example, who do you complain to about all the mob activities inside of Yahoo Answers?  Society resists more ponderous agencies because of the decrease in public freedoms, yet public safety reduction from this also reduces realized freedoms.  I have no plans of ever retiring, but am realistic about a criminal species like humans ever becoming crime-free. Regards, Larry.