Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

Hi!

Why would you choose to work as a sheriff's deputy or for the sheriff's department doing patrol over the local police?

Also, why would someone choose to work for a smaller county than a larger one? Is it as simple as job openings, or have people found in their experience there's another motive (prefer smaller towns, etc.)

Thank you!

The answer to this will vary from place to place. In my case, I switched from a PD to an SO because of the wider variety of tasks that sheriff's offices do in Minnesota. For example, at the PD I worked at, it was pretty much patrol or investigation. There really wasn't anything else. The SO I went to had patrol and investigations, PLUS court security, prisoner transport, water patrol, civil process, school resource, drug task force, warrants, etc.

There also are other things that might be worthy of consideration. For example, the SO I worked at had take home cars for many assignments IF you live in the county. I loved that, but to some people they could care less.

As far as size guys. Both small and large have pluses and minuses. It just depends on what you like. In some very small counties, you will see the sheriff a lot and he knows you. He will get feedback on how you do your job. He might even know the names of your wife and children. In very large counties, the sheriff might not even recognize you.

While I realize that your post refers to patrol, trust me, there is MUCH more to police work at either a PD or SO than patrol. Think long term when you do career planning. I am not saying that nobody wants to retire from patrol, because some people do. On the other hand, you might just get interested in a specialty.

It's opposite here. The PD is the big dog, the S.O. does mostly jail, court security and patrolling a very rural area. We have about 1K sworn, they have less than 50 not counting the corrections deputies who are not actually LE. We have M/C, horse patrol, bikes, K-9, plus a lot more opportunities to work other areas such as intelligence, planning and research, drugs, vice, on and on. The S.O. here has a drug unit, but not much else.

It depends strictly on personal preferences. My city was just right for me, big enough that I'm insulated from any politics outside the department, but not so big that I get lost in the sea of personnel.

Thanks Jim and RetDetSgt.

So it seems like it's a highly personal choice and depends on the department. Seems like different PDs and SOs have different units.

Also, it seems like a lot of LEOs switch between departments until they find the right fit.

Also, it seems like a lot of LEOs switch between departments until they find the right fit.

A lot of guys on this board have, but a pretty small percentage of cops on my old department worked somewhere else before and the vast majority that get hired there, retire from there.

Also, it seems like a lot of LEOs switch between departments until they find the right fit.

I'm currently on my 4th agency (and hopefully my last), if that gives you any further perspective. :)

A lot depends on where you live. Where I grew up, there was one decent sized city and one moderate sized suburb. The city had 200 some officers, the suburb almost 100. Other than those two agencies, everyone else was very small. I think the next largest had 15-20.

My dad didn't get hired by one of the big 2, so he settled with one of the smaller ones. The reason he did that was because both his and my mom's family all lived in the area, and with two small kids, they didn't want to leave the area to pursue a larger agency but leave family behind.

I chose the opposite, and left home for my first department of 350. Now I work for a department of over 600.

Just to give you a perspective.......
The eight city officers in my county patrol towns ONE MILE SQUARE (12 block by 12 blocks)
You have no idea how BORING that gets.
I on the other hand have 30 miles by 30 miles to get lost in and have fun.

Just to give you a perspective.......
The eight city officers in my county patrol towns ONE MILE SQUARE (12 block by 12 blocks)
You have no idea how BORING that gets.
I on the other hand have 30 miles by 30 miles to get lost in and have fun.

Depends on the city. I've worked patrol areas half that size in my city and barely had time to get in a lunch break some nights. Boring was never a word that came to mind.

Kels --

Thanks for the perspective. That helps a lot.

Are you a sheriff's deputy?

Basically, I'm trying to get into the psychology of a character who would choose to be a deputy out in the middle of nowhere.

Also, keep in mind that it is possible that the coppers on this forum are not necessarily representative of all coppers. For example, it is possible that officers here are more "in to" their career and are members here as a result. Now while I have no solid evidence to support that, from purely an anecdotal perspective, I would say that if you are in this work just for the paycheck, then you might be less likely to even bother with participating in forums such as this.

Depends on the city. I've worked patrol areas half that size in my city and barely had time to get in a lunch break some nights. Boring was never a word that came to mind.

True, but one of your little cities probably has more population than the WHOLE 4500 in my county LOL

Kels --

Thanks for the perspective. That helps a lot.

Are you a sheriff's deputy?

Basically, I'm trying to get into the psychology of a character who would choose to be a deputy out in the middle of nowhere.

Evening road deputy in a 4 man Sheriff's Office.

Dont try to hard, you might scare yourself LOL

You have to remember that at least 1/2 of the LEOs in Kansas work for a
five man agency or LESS.
The pay isnt the best, but I have a lot of freedom you dont have working
for a larger agency.
Having worked for a 30 officer University Police Dept, I got to tell you the
BS is way worse there.
Besides I have a take home 4x4 and I choose my duty weapon.
Of course, we do chase a lot of cows, a few llamas and work a ton of car vs deer accidents.
This is the next best thing to working rural interstate.
Been there, done that also.

True, but one of your little cities probably has more population than the WHOLE 4500 in my county LOL

Wow lol. Job 1 is 1.5 square miles and 5K people and job 2 is 7 square miles and about 9K people...

I'm familiar with one county in Oregon that's 1715 sq. miles with a population of about 1400. One of our guys quit here and became sheriff there. He had one deputy to cover the entire county.

No thanks, but he really liked it. He was a good guy, but he was always out of his element in the city and got into some dumb trouble now and then although he was basically a pretty good cop.

The town I live in now is about 20K and has around a 30 man department. The paper publishes all the crime reports taken and I love the fact that I used to take more reports and make more arrests (other than warrants) in one shift than they make in 4 or 5 days. They don't have much to do so they work a lot of traffic and pick up warrants from people coming through town since we're on a major route to the coast.

I've always thought it was cool that people gravitate to areas of LE they like. My old department was perfect for me. It was big enough that you could maintain a certain amount of anonymity if you cared to, but small enough that after a few years you knew 80-90% of the other cops by name. Although the demographics have changed a lot since I left uniform because of gentrification (long story), when I was a grunt there were areas of the city where you have constant (and often full-bodied) contact with the public and others where you could go weeks without making an arrest.

Although I didn't care to work a lot of them, we have a number of specialized units people can go it if they wish and qualify, of course. Some guys love SWAT type stuff, I'd go nuts sitting looking at a window for an hour with a high power rifle though. (One of the qualifying tests, btw) I found my niche in investigation and learned I had some innate skills in interviewing bad guys. Some people loved writing traffic tickets, but couldn't get a confession or even admission from someone caught standing over a body with a bloody knife. I hated working traffic and was so glad we had people that liked it. It took the heat off me of having to write tickets.

And thinking about it, I don't miss the job per se, but I miss the culture. We had such a diverse group of characters when I worked that even the locker room and roll call banter was fun.

I must be the odd ball. I like working small towns, reasons why- public relations, in my area small towns seem to have a lot of drugs. PR and working dope go hand in hand here. People doing and selling drugs move to this small town that has one copper on at a time thinking, one cop less chance of getting caught, the rent is cheaper, and some landlords do not care who they rent to. Little do they know or understand with it being such a small place we have nothing to do but look for drugs (and write tickets ).

I must be the odd ball. I like working small towns, reasons why- public relations, in my area small towns seem to have a lot of drugs. PR and working dope go hand in hand here. People doing and selling drugs move to this small town that has one copper on at a time thinking, one cop less chance of getting caught, the rent is cheaper, and some landlords do not care who they rent to. Little do they know or understand with it being such a small place we have nothing to do but look for drugs (and write tickets ).

You're not an oddball at all. Different people like different aspects of police work. And PR and working dope go hand in hand everywhere. I worked a district geographically smaller than the areas most small town police work and I was there 5 days a week. I knew the bad guys, the victims and the people just trying to get by, just like you.

The guys where I live work a lot of traffic and I think that's what keeps things quiet. They have the time to focus on things like that. I spent a lot of my nights running from call to call or looking for situations on the street that needed to be dealt with. But by working traffic, they make it uncomfortable for the bad guys coming here.

You rarely see graffiti in the small towns around here because the police do have the time and people living there are a lot less tolerate of crap like that. I worked in a large city, but I grew up in small ones and much prefer to live in them. People in the cities have a lot less voice in city government and have to tolerate a lot more. What I see out here, at least is that dopers know the small town cops can give them more attention. People call in complaining about someone dealing drugs here and the police are right on it. Where I worked, an info sheet was filled out and it was put in a file with a few hundred others. Of course, I can't speak for where you work, it sounds like a different ball game there.