Rural or Urban environment?

[BaseballFan]

1st off, thank you for creating this website.

I'm in the process of completing some Summer classes and will be applying for Police Office positions at the beg. of August (once I finish those classes). Right now, I'm deciding on which geographical areas I would prefer as well as whether or not to prefer an urban setting or a rural one. I believe the opportunity for advancement and excitement is greater in a larger city, but like most cities the cost of living is higher. I also believe in COPPS and that difference can be greater in a depressed area, which is why I'm leaning towards a city at this stage.

Am I correct/incorrect in my assumptions as well as are they any other significant factors I am overlooking?

[Aussie George]

Not sure the same applies where you are, but I spent my first 6 years in country areas and the last 2 in another dept in the city.

In the country I found that I had more opportuniy to follow through with things from start to finish.

I found that I was left to my own resources and got to do more than I do in the City.

Now that I am in the City, I find that if the job turns into something "Big" then there is always some sort of other area of the dept that will take over the job. If it is a serious assault, Detectives will take the job from you. If it is a high rick job, the specialist guys (SWAT equivalent) will take over and you will end up getting the pleasure of standing on a cordon point.

I much preferred country, but it is a matter of choice I guess.

[mcsap]

I am not as convinced that you will have such a choice. Your desire to work at one of these will be limited by where the openings are, passing all of the required tests , general timing , your NEED for a job etc.

Sure, you can apply to work in the city if you want to but don't turn down a country job. You need to get your foot in the door somewhere.

[retdetsgt]

As a rule, the bigger the dept., the more specialty units, supervisors, etc. they're going to have. The drawback is more competition for the same jobs.

Some Sheriff's offices require people to work in jail at some point, a job I would want no part of. Too small a dept., you could spend your whole career on the street or road ( a choice some like). Too big a dept., and you can be faceless to a lot of command people, everything has advantages and drawbacks.

I liked my dept because it was just under 1K sworn personnel. It had quite a bit of opportunity to move around, but I also knew just about everyone working there. In uniform, I started working in our ghetto, moved to a poor white trash neighborhood and my last couple of years I worked a pretty nice little area of town. As a detective, I transfered around and got to work several interesting details and only had to work ones I didn't like for a few months. In a smaller dept., I'd have had less choice. But as a uniform officer, I'd have had more opportunity to follow up cases and so forth. Where I worked, you could follow up misdemeanors, but felony cases are all handled by detectives.

We have an excellent state police, but wouldn't want to have to pick up and move across the state. In a municipal dept., I could live where I wanted and stay as long as I wanted to.

Just on a personal level, I think I'd have difficulty with the politics of a small dept. There were a number of people on mine that I flat didn't like, but I never had to work around them nor them have to work around me. I've had great supervisors and horrible ones, but they all move around, I never worked for anyone more than a few years. My dept was perfect for me, but probably would have been miserable for others.;)

But then again, I never wanted to be a cop so bad that I'd work for anybody that offered me a job either.

[deputywave]

I work in a smaller, rural county. I have the run of the county. I like being able to start and finish things. Each day is always different. In between taking calls, I can find things to keep myself busy. Don't discount the county agencies. As quiet and rural as my county is, I have seen and done a lot of interesting things.

Try riding with some departments you are interested in. You will see some of what they do and it's a good opportunity to talk to those who work there.

Good Luck!

[phantasm]

NYPD vs SCPD, urban vs suburban.

NYPD has more units, higher turnover, more room for advancement and more units.

SCPD has less people retiring at the minimum eligibility, and less units.

You want ESU in NYPD, it'll be hard, but you can get it, you want it in SCPD, you better be #1, AND know someone.

[BaseballFan]

I am not as convinced that you will have such a choice. Your desire to work at one of these will be limited by where the openings are, passing all of the required tests , general timing , your NEED for a job etc.

Sure, you can apply to work in the city if you want to but don't turn down a country job. You need to get your foot in the door somewhere.

Agreed, that it would be a 1st offer/1st acceptance regardless of geographics/demographics, but I was curious to the advantages/disadvantages of each.

[steelcityk9cop]

My opinion here is going to be biased…. But don’t forget about suburban departments, those part of large metropolitan areas. Same types of crimes as their neighboring cities.. similar call volume per officer… and generally higher pay!

[SnapShawt]

I work for a county agency and wouldn't go anywhere else, and there are plenty of places with much better pay. As others have said, working on things from start to finish for the most part is really great. I'm trained (and certified, big woop) in a lot of things that I wouldn't otherwise be in a larger city department where they have specialty units and what not. Our investigators obviously take over the larger investigations, but we are still very involved even in those. When things are slow we're pretty much left to do my own thing whether that's running traffic or or getting together to run-n-gun on our various thughoods in the county. We also help the largest city department in our county a lot and even a couple of the smaller ones. Just a great all-around job.

I guess I just feel like I'm doing more actual police work where I am. That's not to minimize others at all, just a choice that works well for me. As far as the jail goes, I did initially have to start there just as pretty much all new-hires have to do. Wouldn't trade that experience for the world. I actually think city departments should include one-month jail stints as part of their FTO programs.