LEO Thread

Not surprising, with the current culture, why would any one want to pin on a badge.

 

Not LEO, just saw this thread. My 18 y/o son is now hell bent on becoming an LEO, more specifically a homicide detective down the road. First, being in SoCal, there is no way in hell doing that here makes any sense at all for me. Far away from here in a more civilized smaller community, maybe, but even then my view is why the hell would anybody with any brains want to do that these days. Y'all have any thoughts, would be appreciated!

 

LAPD union leader tells cops to leave city: 'Go somewhere that respects the work you do'

https://www.theblaze.com/news/lapd-...fNWxp7NhHcfxwdRM2VV6AiJbeERbxcT1kGI56XW6hFfbQ

 

I was hell bent to get hired back when people actually wanted to be the police (12 yrs ago). It was normal to apply and test for PDs who were only hiring 1-2 people but had a few hundred prospects show up. Nowadays we're lucky to have a dozen show up to the written/physical test. The job has been fun and offered lots of great experiences and moments along with an equal amount of terrible ones. It's very easy to become disgruntled and jaded so being mentally tough and knowing how to deal with the nonsense both in the public and the departmental politics is important. The world clearly needs cops and if its the way he's leaning, he should consider calling the local PD or Sheriffs Office and see if he can do some ride a longs. No reason to get a college degree in Criminal Justice, if he plans on going to university, major in absolutely anything else as it will make him more well rounded and not pigeon-holed to only law enforcement/security gigs if he decides its not for after a few years.

 

During the 2020 protests, a deputy in Genesee County (Flint, MI) was captured on video speaking to a group of protesters. Keep in mind, at this point, they had already gained the respect of the protesters by putting down their riot gear and marching peacefully with the protesters after the sheriff made a statement to them about no one disliking bad cops more than good cops. So the crowd was more than willing to listen at this point. That deputy pointed out that the solution to the issues wasn't defunding the police but rather encouraging and uplifting young men and women to do the job and to do it and basically to not be a part of the problems they perceived and help change the culture they perceived as an issue and try to build up their communities.

Unfortunately, I don't think many across the nation heard those words. I don't blame people for leaving as communities had turned their backs on them. But what I don't like is that no one has made a big effort to try and find ways to recruit through embodying what that deputy has said. In my opinion, it doesn't have to mean you are admitting you have issues in your department. But rather, encourage them to be different than what they've seen and see for themselves what the realities of the job are. I bet most places would be very confident that they have nothing to be ashamed of.

I guess my point is I certainly understand your concern, but maybe he has a purpose or reason even if he doesn't necessarily know how to explain it at his age.

 

^^^ Thank you. You make some good points and I don't disagree with the thought. However, having lived in L.A. / area my entire life, seeing what's going on in society, and seeing how big city politicians are handling things, civilization in crumbling, the mass of sheeple have little if any desire to listen to reason, and I feel for the LEO's still at work in this big city insanity. I think my son kind of knows that. He just finished high school last month, so lots of time to work on all this.He is signed up for some kind of deal with our local PD, "community academy".

Responding to AJ9864, good point about not majoring in criminal justice, and yes he does want to pursue college and is not in any hurry to move right into law enforcement.

 

Thank him for wanting to do his part.

 

The issue with recruiting those individuals is that most of them aren't protesting to bring meaningful change;, nor do they know what change they'd even like to see, nor do they understand the tents of sacrifice and dedication and teamwork for purpose. All they know is they have shit lives (based on chance, poor decisions, poverty, lack of work ethic, whatever) and shit lives must mean RACISM because if it wasn't for the man's boot on their necks they could be Elon Musk. I don't think there's any amount of convincing that would make those individuals want to be cops, nor would the community want the kind of copping they would bring to it.

 

And MeefZah, you probably know more detail on this than I do, but here in Columbus, due to the anti-cop mayor, police ranks have thinned enough that they tried to lower the minimum age to 18 to widen the pool. Maybe they succeeded, but the police website doesn't say 18 - yet. I personally don't think 18-year-olds should be shouldering the responsibility and decision-making required of a cop. My two cents.

 

Well there was legislation being presented at the state level to allow 18 year olds to be cops in municipalities. I'm not sure if that passed or where the bill is in the legislature.

Ohio law actually currently allows 18 year olds to be employed by sheriff's offices or townships; just not municipalities over a certain population.

I'm somewhat torn on it. I actually started when I was 19 at a sheriff's office; my dad had to buy my gun for me because I couldn't. It worked out okay for me in the end but I did fuck up a lot early on - mostly in how I read people and how I interacted with them. Life experience is probably the best foundation for being a cop and no matter how "mature" an 18 year old is they just don't have the time on earth to have generated enough life experience to be an efficient cop. But having said that, you gotta start somewhere and I don't know that there is a ton of difference in an 18 year old and a 21 year old when it comes to life experience anyway.

The legislation I would like to see actually would allow older people to be cops. Not like 90 year old decrepit crypt keeper looking sons of bitches, but a 40 year old, 45 year old, 50 year old. Most Ohio municipalities have a ban on hiring anyone over 34 +/-, which I assume is related to the pension fund somehow. They are handicapping themselves because those guys make the best cops. They have the life experience to make good judgements. Yeah they may not be able to run 14 miles in pursuit of a shoplifter but they probably have the ability to talk the guy into the back of their car before he runs in the first place.

 

^ also despite the 18 years old thing being law for some agencies, I know of very few that hire them. Most administrators don't want that liability and most insurance companies won't shoulder that responsibility either. I kind of got lucky, and I also worked in the jail at first, so even though I was certified I wasn't making critical decisions on the street for a few years yet.

 

My daughter was contemplating going into law enforcement after high school. I told her she could do whatever she wanted AFTER her college education. (She actually minored in criminal justice because of her years of exposure to it). As has been said, encourage him to major in something useful like finance or management. In the real world of high level crime, finance is a great field to have expertise in anyway should he insist on the law enforcement path. As they say, follow the money. My daughter wound up getting her degree in another field entirely and has a very successful career. I really believe that the majority of youngsters that think law enforcement would be a great career, once they are exposed to the "real world" in college and can make a killing doing something else, decide to pursue a better path. If, for instance, he majors in finance he will find that there is a lot more money in that field (and many others) than law enforcement, especially if he continues and gets an MBA in finance.

 

I wasn't necessarily talking about them specifically. But the messages are supposed to go beyond those who go out and make demonstrations.