Police Officer: Keeping The City Safe

Introduction
I attribute my life as a police officer to one thing: the television show Cops. As with most people, my interest in the show began with its memorable theme song. “Bad boy, bad boys, what’cha gonna do? What’cha gonna do? When they come for you?!” From this lyrical tour de force, my desire for dishing out swift justice was born. I remember chasing my brother around with a set of toy handcuffs. Anyway, the take-away from this story is that you have to have a love for the law and justice. Police officers are notoriously underpaid; so if you don’t truly love the work, don’t bother. In addition to your love for the law, all you’ll need to become an officer is to join the police academy.

Job Function
The best part of my job is helping people, which is thankfully a large part of the profession. When you get a call reporting a domestic abuse situation and successfully diffuse the situation, you truly feel like you have made a difference. The work is so satisfying in this regard. That said, the paperwork you have to fill out after every call sucks. The absolute worst aspect of my job, however, is the long, long hours of absolutely nothing happening. Seriously, there will be many nights when you are patrolling and absolutely nothing happens. Advertisement
Lifestyle
As I said, the hours are long. The locations, though, are thankfully super flexible as you can imagine. Obviously, you’ll see the most action in larger metropolitan areas, like New York City. As far as personalities go the profession does call for a strong will and a large degree of forcefulness, but that doesn’t mean you have to be a bully. You’ll constantly be thrust into crazy/hectic situations, and it’s up to you as the officer to take control and resolve it.

Additional Information
If you love serving your community, then being a police officer is definitely a rewarding experience.