Awards

[0311Marine]

What kind of awards does your department have? Im used to the military system of Medals and ribbons, and really have no idea how LEO's awards are displayed or there even that common.

[codered]

Depends on the agency, most agencies in the Southeast merely attempt to fire your *** as soon as you have a few years on ....so they don't have to pay for a retirement. But, this is not a political thread.

Otherwise, some departments that actually have an awards system generally have a Medal of Honor, Medal of Valor, commendable valor, exceptional merit, lifesaving, and merritorious unit citations....just my .02, anyone else feel free to give additional information.

[fetom]

We have very few here. Valour and Bravery, but the rest are service medals for Ethical Service {Awarded after 10 years and lasp added every 5 there after} and a national service medal for time in govt service {awarded at 15 years and clasps there after} iternational Deployment medals are alos awarded, but that is all I can think of.

[Wombat311]

We have very few here. Valour and Bravery, but the rest are service medals for Ethical Service {Awarded after 10 years and lasp added every 5 there after} and a national service medal for time in govt service {awarded at 15 years and clasps there after} iternational Deployment medals are alos awarded, but that is all I can think of.

You can also wear any military service medals you earn/ed.

Commendations can also be received, but you can't wear them. :D They just go in your personnel file.

[MOCOP]

Nada. Zip. Zilch. Commendations are paper and go in your file.

[retdetsgt]

Yeah, we have them, but most are awarded to drones that are spectators rather than the people who actually do the work. The exceptions are the Purple Star, given to people who are seriously injured while making or attempting to make an arrest and the Medal of Valor for bravery. So far the Valor hasn't been prostituted, but it's only a matter of time.

The rest are various levels of commendation, but as I said, few are awarded to the working class. Most are given to the brown nosers. It's reached the point that now on the rare occasions a real cop is offered one, he turns it down so he won't be associated with the drones.

[Valor55]

You'll never get a medal in LE for catching a bad guy. You could catch Zarqawi and bin Laden in a car full of chem/bio weapons and child pornography and nobody will blink. You run into a burning house and rescue a hamster and you will get plenty of tin for your chest.

[Valor55]

Oh and firefighters can charge into a burning convent and rescue 15 nuns and a 135 oprhans and they will never never get a medal. But if a bad guy you are chasing trips over a fire hose and you get him in custody the entire firestation will get awards for catching a criminal. :rolleyes:

[JR_23]

You run into a burning house and rescue a hamster and you will get plenty of tin for your chest.

Or written up :D . The Hosepullers get upset when we do that, so it's policy now...thou shalt never run into burning house.

We have the basic medals...valor, lifesaving etc... and it's optional whether or not you wear them.

[retdetsgt]

True story. I worked a homicide for two years, finally got convictions of a husband, his brother and two others for aggravated murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

My supervisor came to the orginial crime scene, was nervous as hell and trampling through everything. I made up a reason for him to go back to the office to get him out of my way. I NEVER had a conversation with him during the next two years regarding the case. I did wire taps, body wires, etc and never once consulted with him about any of it. Frankly, I didn't need to, I had the authority to do all that w/o his approval.

After the convictions, he was awarded a medal of commendation for supervising that homicide, I **** you not! He was even a little embarrassed about it, but he took the award anyway. :rolleyes:

[chewy]

We only have paper letters that go in your file, and we used to have "cash awards" given by each port but we quit doing that a while ago because the Fed. government is apparently out of money. We do have the "Blue Eagle" award which is awarded to the Officer in Wash. DC by the Commissioner and can be given out for any number of reasons. I work with three guys that got that, one got if for shooting and killing a guy that got out of his car and started shooting other people in line, one got if for intercepting terrorist funds (this was before 9-11) getting shipped out of the US to Saudi Arabia (yes, our friendly neighbors that everyone seems to know is behind all the terror crap, except our own president) in the amount of $1mil, and another got it for intercepting a semi with 200,000,000 tablets of Pseudo in it (meth precourser). Other than that we don't really have any awards or ribbons.

[retdetsgt]

As an addendum, the supervisor's wife happened to be the chief's secretary. I wonder if that had something to do with it?????

Naw, any awards we've have ever come up with during my career always ended up prostituted to nonparticipants with connections. Within a few years they're reviled by the working stiffs.

[retdetsgt]

All in all, it wasn't much different in the army. I was both an enlisted man and an officer. In Vietnam, an enlisted man had to do something fairly spectacular to get a Bronze Star with a V. They gave me one as an officer for doing much less than I would have had to as an enlisted man. And I saw field grade officers routinely getting hero medals for ridiculous stuff. Watching a drone major trying to qualify for a Combat Infantry Badge without really getting in danger was downright comical sometimes! I wonder how much money was spent on chopper rides for this idiots way high over combat zones?

[JR_23]

intercepting a semi with 200,000,000 tablets of Pseudo in it (meth precourser).

Damn, that's a worthy stop :eek:

[0311Marine]

You can also wear any military service medals you earn/ed.

Commendations can also be received, but you can't wear them. :D They just go in your personnel file.

Is this common? I know you dont do it for the awards just like the military dosnt, BUt id feel kind of odd walking around with my CAR or a NAM while a police officer.

And as for your post retdetsgt, I saw this happen several times in Iraq, its all politics for being an officer, the enlisted guy who got shot twice in the chest (flack jacket and plates saved him), while running to grab his friend who was down, got up grabbed him got shot two more times in the back (again flack and plates) and once in the leg, but finally got his buddy to safety, got a bronze star with a V, but an officer who didnt do to much got a Silver Star. Go figure.