leaving law enforcement

[studentcj]

From your experience when an individual leaves law enforcement, what career field do they tend to enter. Besides injury I can't fathom why someone would voluntarily leave being a police officer

[manahmanah]

The kind of job where you get to ask a bunch of questions and never otherwise contribute to a discussion. Kind of like your job.

[Citicop]

Some people get into Law Enforcement and get burned out or find out that it's not what they thought it was.

I know people who became lawyers, or got out and started their own businesses, and a few who became teachers.

-Citicop.

[tcop733]

I got disillusioned and burned out with the last agency I worked for. Left L.E. and took a few AutoCad classes.
Was able to land a job as a pipe insulator estimator. Got burned out with that rather quick. Just assume never to hold a highlight marker ever again. The numbers 90 and 45 make me queasy, as do the words flange-valve and cap.

[greg72982]

I'm feeling a little burnout but I still think I can enjoy this job, I just need to work somewhere bigger. If I do and I still don't like it who knows what I'll do...

[BP348]

Like Citi I've seen people do just about everything. I haven't seen many who left being a LEO. Before I got with USBP I was driving a cement truck & one of the other guys was with Chicago PD for 12 years. He said for the first 6 years he couldn't wait to goto work everyday & the last 6 he hated going to work. I give him a lot of credit for doing what he did It couldn't have been easy leaving after being there 12 years.

Of course he was one of the senior drivers so he was making pretty good $$ and he had a vacation every winter.

[retdetsgt]

One guy in my academy started taking flying lessons on the weekends while we were there. About 10 years later, he quit and became a pilot for Continental. Two guys in that same academy quit and became firemen after less than 2 years. Another, who had a degree in forestry, quit after less than a year and went to work for the Forest Service. A detective I worked with quit and became a pharmaceutical salesmen (the legitimate kind).

One guy, who was a real misfit and nutcase in general found Jesus and became a preacher in some obscure fundamentalist church. That only lasted a couple of years and then he went completely off the radar screen. I keep expecting to see him on Pawn Stars or something.

[studentcj]

thanks for the input guys, I guess when I really think about it, LE is the sort of job that would easily put a person in the position to get burnout

Its always a good idea to have a back up plan regardless of what one decides they want to do

[retdetsgt]

Its always a good idea to have a back up plan regardless of what one decides they want to do

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't. They have unrealistic expectations of what the job is about and when it doesn't meet them, they feel stuck. I can think of a dozen people like that who stayed on even though they hated the job and made life miserable for everyone around them.

[greg72982]

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't. They have unrealistic expectations of what the job is about and when it doesn't meet them, they feel stuck. I can think of a dozen people like that who stayed on even though they hated the job and made life miserable for everyone around them.

Sounds like about ALL of my coworkers.

[retdetsgt]

Sounds like about ALL of my coworkers.

The difference is, the ones here stay here for the money. A lot of them couldn't make this kind of money somewhere else.

[mcsap]

I am 5 months away from being able to walk with a full pension. I'll stay another 2 years for the DROP pension but would leave at anytime if the right job opportunity came along. I have spent a lot of years in the Comm Veh. inspection side of things and wouldn't mind getting into something in the trucking industry that would pay of rmy knowledge and expertise.

It 's been a fun ride and I wouldn't trade it for anything but the GARBAGE we have to put up with day in and day out...

[retdetsgt]

It 's been a fun ride and I wouldn't trade it for anything but the GARBAGE we have to put up with day in and day out...

I put in 28 years and I can honestly say I loved the job until the day I left. I liked working with the public, loved interviewing suspects (I could do that all day), had a good relationship with the DA and even the court system. It was my dysfunctional command system I couldn't handle anymore.

One quick example, our fiscal year starts July 1st. If you want to attend conferences or training, it has to be approved by May 1 or the money will all be allocated and gone. I was invited to attend and make a presentation at a human rights conference in Spokane at the end of May. I put in for it before Feb. 1st. Around the 15th of May, I hadn't heard back so I went into my Lt.'s office to see what the Captain had said. I got this deer in the headlights look and he scrambled through his in basket and found my request still there. It was obviously too late to be approved, he'd forgotten to walk it 30 feet and give it to the Captain. I looked at him and said, "Your job ain't that hard and you still can't do it".

I'd been putting up with that kind of incompetence for 28 years and was getting my bellyful of it. I ended up telling off the chief and walking out the 26th of that month. I would have stayed longer if I hadn't had to put up with the fools above me and could have just done my job.

[tcop733]

I've found most of my stress stems from the dysfunctional command system.
I feared getting stabbed in the back more at the station Vs. the streets.
Sure I'm not alone in that fear.
Micromanagement can deflate any one's balloon.

[retdetsgt]

Micromanagement can deflate any one's balloon.

I really only worked for one that wanted to micromanage. And we did have some good command personnel, but it was permeated with far too many that were too caught up in being a lieutenant, captain or whatever. They were simply incompetent no matter how you looked at it.

I never was one of those people that needed much. I didn't require prodding to do my job, I knew how to do it. Some people seemed to think quite well. But now and then I needed something relatively simple for them to do.

Another example with that same Lt., I came to work one morning and was informed of a hate crime that occurred regarding a lesbian running for city council. I ran with it starting at 7 a.m., (when I got to work) and done all that could be humanly done by 9:30 a.m. I went into that Lt's office and briefed him and told him (I shouldn't have had to) to give the captain the details as soon as he came in. I knew he would be getting phone calls about it.

At about 1 pm, the captain came into my office and starting yelling at me that he hadn't been told of this case, etc., etc. etc. I friggin' lost it again and told him to go talk to his dumbass lieutenant and afterwards I'll be available for his apology. I also reminded him that the chain of command works both ways and if he'd used it, he wouldn't be looking so stupid.

What saved my butt in both encounters was that I was one of the old dogs around, having more time on than either of them, but most importantly I was right and they were wrong. The PTSD was really starting to rage about then (I didn't know that's what it was) and I had lost all patience with stupidity, arrogance, laziness and the sheer incompetence of people I depended on now and then for the simplest things.

At the same time though, I had no problem dealing with the public or other aspects of the job. I could find satisfaction and humor everywhere but above me.