Police Insight's Blog

From USNews.com's "Most Overrated Career" section, policing appears. And lets be honest, with good reason. Policing is one of those careers that everyone (well, almost everyone) has thought about from time to time. You know, making a difference, helping people, making society a better place - all that jazz. In fact when I think back to my years in the job, I recall being told dozens of times from complete strangers that they "were gonna join" but life took them along a different road.

From the policing section at USNews.com: 

Police work is stressful and dangerous, especially in high-crime areas. On the street, cops often feel they're doing little more than keeping a lid on problems that are far bigger than they can control. Police officers also do a surprising amount of paperwork; every intervention must be carefully documented. And that discourages a lot of cops—they're people of action, not of copies in triplicate.

Too true, I say, however, like some of the police I've interviewed have pointed out - YOU choose how you help society. Do you join the ever growing ranks of disillusioned cops who grumble moan and complain, or do you look for ways you can contribute? Those ways are out there, and its just a matter of finding one that's a good fit for you and your talents.

So what does USNews recommend for an alternative to policing? Homeland security. Sounds like fun!

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Below you'll find an interesting insight into the mind of a person with a mental illness, and how police can have a positive impact.

What really got me about this post was when the author is spoken to by a police officer who tells her, "You're not scum like most of the other people we deal with" and how that made the author of this post feel. Good work to the guys and gal in blue.

Read the post here.

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This is the question I was posed recently by Owen Lindsay of Merge Magazine,  who's writing an article on firearms in Australian culture.

While you'll have to pick up a copy of the mag to get all my answers, I'd like to discuss a related topic; what it's like as a cop having power over your fellow citizens.

As a police officer, you're in a completely unique role in that you can take away the liberty of another human being. It's a power that no one, not even army personnel get to exercise on a regular basis, and its something that can take some real getting used to.

Questions that came into my head when I first became a police officer, 8 years ago, were things like;

"Is this guy going to listen to me?"

"Am I going to get my lights punched out for even suggesting that I'm about to arrest someone?"

And of course... "Who am I to take away someone's liberty? I'm just a snot nosed kid."

Sure, these kinds of questions evaporate pretty quickly after we make an arrest or two, but dealing with the initial doubts you have is an interesting exercise in self development and pushing through self limiting beliefs. It's also interesting that even in today's society, you still get people that challenge your authority, and;

They don't listen to you, they try and punch your lights out, and they question who you are to take someone's liberty away- as you're just a snot nosed little kid, anyway!

Do the police abuse this power sometimes? Sure they do. Its interesting to note that while police are just normal every day human beings, capable of making mistakes- when they do in fact mess up, or act criminally, they are just that much more scrutinized than any other profession on earth. The questionable activities some police engage in are also strangely superimposed upon the rest of the police in society. 

Do we ever think that because a mechanic sexually assaulted a minor, that all mechanics are that way? Do we ever think that just because a secretary stole money from her boss that all secretaries are that way? Unfortunately being a police officer generally means that you inheret the mistakes made by all of your predecessors. 

You also take abuse because people are jealous of your power & position, and because in your presence people feel even more inferior than usual. And of course, you take abuse because you tell people what to do on a daily basis- things they don't want to do, but have to... or there'll be consequences.

Such is life in a position of power. 

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Here's one police escort you might never see again in your life time-- the escorting of a 107 year old light bulb of all things. The Livermore symbol of longevity was forced recently to be transported a few miles down the road to a new fire station, needing a police escort along the way... more a parade of honor, really, but quite touching nonetheless.

Click here for the original and fascinating story from the LA Times.

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Today I found a story over at mass live about the need for new minority police! What a happy cooincidence.

So should you be near the Springfield, MA police department, check out this news story, because they want YOU.

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Understandably the incident has made the New Zealand officer question whether he "should really be doing this". And its likely a question all police ask themselves at some stage in their career. And while incidents such as these are thankfully few and far between, you've got to ask yourself, would I be capable of this? Do I think I can remain calm and come out the other side with my life and the lives of onlookers intact?

You may not be able to say for sure- but you'll never know until you join.

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If you're  from a minority group in your country you may be exactly what your local police are after. And if you can speak the language of the country you're from, even better- you're in high demand.

Police departments all over the world are always hoping that recruits with diverse backgrounds will join up. Why? Because criminals come from all backgrounds, and so do victims. Crimes committed by people in society that have language barriers present a variety of problems, and victims who can't express themselves, or act in accordance with customs from their country of birth can make investigations difficult.

For starters, having police like yourself who can speak the language means that interpreters won't be needed- there wont be delays, and you can communicate directly and more effectively. You'll also establish repoir that officers without similar language skills cannot. 

From the investigations point of view, being able to walk amongst members of a particular minority means you may be able to ellicit more information than the average police officer. Because these members of society identify with you, they will likely trust you to look out for their safety, and they may reveal information to you that no other officer would be able to uncover otherwise.

Understanding conditions prevalent in the communities of these minority groups is also important. If you come from a country where police are viewed with the utmost suspicion and fear, you are now in a unique position to change perceptions, and to educate police who deal with that community. 

So if you do come from another country that forms a minority group in your new home, consider a career in the police department, you may find you're much more valuable than you first thought. 

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Lack of sleep is one aspect of life as a police officer than you'll find inescapable. No matter where you go (especially in your early years) you'll find it almost impossible to get around shift work. Most police find shift work very draining- having to work day shift one week then night shift the next was not what the human body was made for.

You may also find that other people in your life simply don't understand how tired working shifts can make you. Your wife might ask you to take the kids to school at 10am even though you just worked a night shift that finished at 7am, or your parents might call you at 9 o'clock in the morning after a grueling evening shift that finished at 3am. Just be aware your sleeping patterns are about to be at the mercy of the job, and the "normal world" generally stays oblivious to your plight.

On top of that, most police agencies have new patrol officers working night shifts only for very long periods of time, leaving very little time for family and friends. And of course this throws you out of the time zone the rest of the country is living on, and that can be a lonely feeling. It's also common practice in police departments around the world to implement what I know as a "rotating shift", that is, you work a 5 week roster which repeats itself, and during week 1 you work day shift, during week 2 you work night shift, during week 3 you do evenings, and week 4 and 5 you do a combination of day and evenings.

On the other side of the coin- once you've been around a little while, units like community policing or station duties can be 9 to 5,  Monday to Friday jobs, never requiring overtime, and never recalling you to duty. These positions are great for people that like a balance, and that like a little sleep! You might also find your agency allows you to nominate to only work a day shift, or only work evenings, or a combination of the two.

There's also the bonus of being able to catch up on sleep easier than our 9 to 5 working cousins. Your sleeping patterns will have you generally more tired than they are- but working a day shift, and then an evening shift the next can offer the easily taken opportunity to sleep for 10 or 11 hours if you want to. And you'll want to!

These kinds of shifts play total havoc with your personal life- so while this might not dissuade you from joining, prepare yourself, your family and your friends for this reality, because you're about to become a whole lot less available, and perhaps a little bit more cranky! Just be sure to use this to your advantage sometimes!

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What's life really like as a police officer? And what does life hold for a cop outside the job? Is the "cop switch" turned off whenever the holster slips off their waists, or is the switch hard wired, leaving our police officer's life in constant work mode?

To understand what its like to lead the life of a police officer, we need to understand:

An answer to each of these will be answered during our "Life as a police officer" series of blog entries, but today we'll start with Life on the job.

Life on the street, in your patrol car is what we associate the most about policing. We think about television reality shows like "Cops", and rightly so since all the action you see there is real. Despite that, in order to produce an interesting television program, Cops must edit out the boring stuff, and lots of it. The other thing Cops edits out is the positive aspects of policing that we can't generally get from watching an action reality t.v. show.

So while "Cops" edits out the boring paperwork and the hours of patrolling without results, it also removes us from the satisfaction these police feel. Should you embark on a policing career, you'll find all sorts of satisfactions in your job that you might not have considered before. Simple tasks like assessing crime scenes for evidence routinely turn into you trying to put the victim's mind at ease and dispensing security advice.

Repeated contact with youth both on the street and via school talk programs expand your sense of pride at helping these young people stay on the straight and narrow. Even minor things like how you deal with a member of the public while issuing them speeding fines can give you an opportunity to make a difference- you can make the experience unpleasant (and sometimes that's exactly what you should do) or you can relate positively to this person and leave a good impression of police.

Most roles you'll encounter in policing consist of these things- consider them the core of activities that you'll engage in day after day.

Response: responding to crimes from any unit requires gathering as much information as possible about the situation at hand. To be brief- this involves liasing with dispatchers, combing computer records, and speaking to other police.

First Contact: the initial assessment at the scene of the crime. Is this scene dangerous? Does anyone require immediate medical attention? Where is the offender? Who witnessed the crime? And many more... whether you're a patrol officer or a detective there will be similar procedures to be performed at this stage which lead you to...

Investigations: Once you've assessed the scene at first contact, you'll be investigating- investigating who caused a traffic accident, investigating where a crime was committed, knocking on doors to ask who saw what, and so on. This stage also involves gathering and compiling packages of information to substantiate a case... which is commonly the longest and most boring part of policing in my eyes.

Conclusion: This will be either a court case to prosecute an offender such as a car theif, or a family conference with a youth to try and bring about changes in behavior. Conclusions are generally completely reliant on the investigations and quality of evidence compiled in the previous stage.

You'll find the excitement that t.v. shows like Cops show is in the response and first contact stages- and these two stages are very short in comparison to the investigation and conclusion stages. If you're lucky you might find yourself engaged in the response & first contact stages for 50% of your shift (on busy nights with lots of minor incidents). But more commmonly, if you hit a major incident, or the shift you work is slow, you'll be engaged in significant investigations (read: paperwork) for most of your shift.

Tomorrow we'll look at how a normal week of shift work might play out for a police officer on patrols, and what different duties you'll be performing on each shift.

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