interruptions in your law enforcement career

[studentcj]

This may not pertain to you but maybe it pertains to a fellow officer that you know, but I'm wondering have you ever heard of a police officer interrupting his career to go try something else only to return to law enforcement. For example joining the military, going back to school full time, trying some other career. How long was the interruption what was the reason and is it common

[Cat_Doc]

Yep. I know one idiot that pulled his retirement contributions to open a friggen balloon store. It folded in short order and he had to start his entire career over again. Idiot.

[retdetsgt]

I know several. One went to law school, passed the bar and got a job as a DDA. Apparently he wasn't a very good one because he came back a couple of years later. Another guy, a damn good cop, quit at about 35 years old and went into real estate. He did that for fifteen years and came back at 50. He's about my age and as far as I know, still on the job.

[Nole795]

Oh man I have a list. One quit to open a small cafe, and came back. I know of 2 cops that went to law school, entered the private sector, hated it, and came back. I know of one that left for real estate, the bubble burst, and he came back. One left to open a tile business but came back.

[tcop733]

Yup, I'm one of those idiots. Got burned out after sixteen years and decided to get into drafting. Took a few college courses and soon landed a job connected to that field. Was out of the game over two years, and by the time I realized I missed law enforcement, my peace officer license had been placed on inactive status. This meant I had to challenge the peace officer exam again. After studying hard I challenged and passed the exam this past February. This June I finally landed a job with an agency.
Regret the move, yup.
Appreciate law enforcement even more now, sure do.
Best advice I can give is to not let your license expire. Do the mandatory training online and keep your license up to date.
What seems like a sure bet today may become anything but that in a year or two.

[Cat_Doc]

I didn't think he was an idiot for trying to run a small business, I thought he was an idiot for quiting and pulling his retirement to open it.

Did you lose your retirement and have to start over?

[tcop733]

I didn't think he was an idiot for trying to run a small business, I thought he was an idiot for quiting and pulling his retirement to open it.

Did you lose your retirement and have to start over?

Yes, but all is not lost. I'm in my early 40's and the agency I work for has one of the best retirements in Texas.
Rule of 75 (age plus years of service equal 75) and what I'd pay into social security goes towards a tax deferred 457 plan.
In the long run this stunt I pulled will cost me 9 years in retirement years.
Heck, I didn't want to retire at 49 anyways.

[Cat_Doc]

Yes, but all is not lost.

Much better than starting over. Good luck.

[retdetsgt]

Best advice I can give is to not let your license expire. Do the mandatory training online and keep your license up to date.

We don't have the option. Once you're not working for two years, you have go through the basic academy again. I suppose if someone wasn't sure, they could work as a reserve somewhere and keep it active, but there are no on line courses to keep up your certification. Everyone I know that came back though did it within that two year period. I think after a year, you have to take a short refresher course, but it's not bad.

We can take up to one year's unpaid leave of absence though. I think the lawyer did that so he could just come back and continue on. An academy mate of mine started flying lessons just after we graduated and really got into it. After we had about 8 or 9 years on, he had his commercial and got a job with Continental as a pilot. The training was 18 months long and I remember he asked for a 6 month extension of the leave. They wouldn't give it to him so he bit the bullet and quit. I haven't talked to him in several years, but he should be retired from the airlines by about now.

[tcop733]

Wow, guess Texas is lenient in that regard.

(a) The commission will place all licenses in an inactive status when the licensee has not been reported to the commission as appointed for more than two years unless the licensee has met and continues to meet the continuing education required by §217.11 of this chapter.

The continuing education requirement is 40 hours of training every two years. They've changed it up for people with an intermediate or advanced certificate. We are not required to take the legislative mandated classes such as cultural diversity, family violence. Now we are just required to take the state and federal law update and have at least 40 hours of training every two years.

(e) In order to reactivate a license, an individual must:

(1) meet the current licensing standards;

(2) successfully complete the legislatively required continuing education for the current training unit;

(3) make application and submit any required fee(s) for an endorsement in the format currently prescribed by the commission;

(4) obtain an endorsement, issued by the commission, giving the individual eligibility to take the required licensing examination; and

(5) pass the licensing examination for the license to be reactivated. After three failures the individual must re-qualify by repeating the entire training course for the license sought.

(f) The effective date of this section is April 15, 2010.

[retdetsgt]

I'm not sure what our continuing training requirements in Oregon are, but we had 40 hours a year when I was working. And as I said, there is nothing you can do on your own. But my department always surpassed what the state said we had to do. For instance, the state says you have to qualify at the range once every 13 months, but we qualified twice a year.

Before the Board of Police Standards and Training (now Dept. of Public Safety Standards and Training) was set up, Oregon police departments were nightmares. I think BPST was set up about 1972 and it took it a while to develop real standards for hiring, training and retaining police officers. I came on in 1970 and worked for 6 months before I ever attended an academy. BPST put a stop to that which was a great idea, I think.

There was a lot of resistance from some small departments, but I think they had to crack the whip pretty good to get peoples' attention. They changed it to public safety when they incorporated fire, corrections and now armed security guard training and responsibility.

[greg72982]

No online option here either, plus they made it harder this year due to the fact the state no longer pays for the training, each department has to. Because of that you have to be employed to do the in-service. There may be away you can personally pay though???

I had a break from 10/2007 until 1/2009. I moved to NC and my cert didn't transfer. I was able to get a job with the county sheriff's office there but had to work in the jail. I would have had to go through the entire academy there and actually was close to getting a paid spot to attend when I moved back to PA.

[tcop733]

Very surprising to hear this. We have a site called POSEIT where we can take online training. Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education gives all licensed personnel a PID number, which you use to setup your account. It doesn't matter if you're retired, quit, just as long as your license wasn't suspended or revoked due to bad behavior.
All the training the state required of me to challenge the peace officer exam again was done online and totally free.
Of course I had to fork over $250.00 to get that letter of endorsement from TCLEOSE to challenge the test again.

[retdetsgt]

No online option here either, plus they made it harder this year due to the fact the state no longer pays for the training, each department has to. Because of that you have to be employed to do the in-service. There may be away you can personally pay though???

Same in Oregon, the state has never paid squat. You have to be hired and the department pays them to train you at the state academy. Which is probably why we pay so little for the first six months and then you get a decent raise. It's a live in academy so they pay your room and board too.

Again, back in my time each department put on its own academy, there was no state one. Mine was 16 weeks, but I suspect some departments' academies consisted of a couple of days orientation and that was it. Another reason for the state to step in.

The state also requires each department to show proof that each officer (Sgt and below) has received the required amount of in-service every year. But there is no way to do it on your own.

I never had any desire to leave. I didn't know if I'd like being a cop until I was hired, but then I found I liked it. And my department paid the most and had the best benefits of any in the state until I had about 20 years in. Then the state police caught up to us and I think we're about the same now. Of course now, all state employees, including police have to take an unpaid furlough day a month and the city doesn't.

[falcon four]

like Greg said in PA you have to physically attend updates training. If you don't attend for a couple of years you lose your cert. In a state like this you would be way better off getting a part time job and working one day a month. Let your department send you to updates so you can keep your certification active until you decide. A guy I work with now left after 20+ years to pursue something else and came back after about a year. Lost all of his seniority and all.