Mods, feel free to edit this, delete it, ban me, sticky it, send me flowers, buy me dinner, whatever.
Everyone coming on this forum to ask about how to be a cop, read this.
Today we buried an officer, Robbie Green, Powhatan County Sheriff's office. Needless to say, I'm taking it pretty hard. I've been to a few funerals in my 3 and a half years, but this is the first that I've KNOWN the officer involved. One of our officers was killed this year, but I never really knew him. He had only been with us for a few months, a lateral transfer from NYPD. I wasn't drinking buddies with Robbie or anything, but I've met him a number of times on prisoner transports and traffic stops on the border between our two counties. I remember the first time I ever met him. I was fresh out of FTO and taking one of our wanted subjects from him. He had just become a father and HAD to show me his baby pictures. He was the proudest father I've ever seen. He didn't know me from Adam, but he proudly displayed the fact he was a father to a brother officer. Today his three year old son is without a father, and his wife is without her husband. Robbie was killed in the line of duty in a crash a couple days ago while en route to assist on a pursuit.
I want to make this perfectly clear to anyone wanting to be a cop. This isn't something you can just casually do. If you want to be a cop, you need to do a serious gut check about whether or not this is what you want to do. It is the best job in the world, but it also makes far too many widows and parentless children. I was lucky in a sense. My wife has known since the day we met that I was going to be a cop. There were no surprises. My father is a cop, and I decided from a very early age that it was what I wanted to be as well. Just before I moved down here to start my academy, my agency lost an officer. My in-laws were very disturbed about this fact. More disturbed I think that their daughter was marrying someone who was going to that same place. A couple of guys in my academy class had wanted other careers, getting
degrees that could make them lots of money, but decided to become cops. Both of them were married BEFORE they became cops. And both almost caused a divorce because their wives weren't "entusiastic" about them becoming cops. You have to remember, it's not just you that you put on the line when you put on that
uniform. At any moment it could be your time to give the ultimate sacrifice, and you will be making a widow out of your spouse, and denying your child a future with you. That is not an easy burden, and should be given much thought. Although ours is a job where we risk all for other people, in this regard, it is also very selfish. You have to be willing to put your family at risk of this fate. Not everyone can do that. And I don't blame for one second those that can't.
Some call us stupid for doing what we do. I don't know, perhaps we are. What kind of rational, sane person runs TOWARD the gunshots while everyone else runs away from them? What kind of sane person drives 100mph towards that brother officer involved in a fight. I can't answer that. Perhaps the answer is none. That we really ARE all stupid for doing it. I don't know. What I do know is that it takes a rare breed to risk their lives every day, to devote themselves to those that would spit on us, for a life of near poverty and scorn. We constantly have to worry about our children or spouses because after all: What better way to get to a cop than through his family? Why do this? Why do this job when getting an office job that pays $100,000 a year and poses no risk to anyone would be so much easier. You could live with more luxuries. You wouldn't have to worry about that criminal that you locked up coming after your family for no other reason than the fact you did your job. You wouldn't have to worry that doing nothing more than going to work would be the last time you ever see your family.
Every single department that I've ever known asks you a question when you are interviewed: Why do you want to become a police officer? Those who really don't know usually come up with some answer like "To protect the community" or "to serve the citizens" or some other BS. All that is garbage. You can serve people better as a garbageman than you ever will as a cop. You want to protect people? Join the fire department. Everyone loves them. You get to be heroes and protect people and rescue them and you won't have to worry about being shot at or stabbed or beaten. Some do it because they are adrenaline junkies. Nothing wrong with admitting that. But unless you are single with no family you need to find another way to get your fix. The real reason we do this job nobody knows. It is fixed into our DNA.
I can't tell you why I chose to become a police officer. I really can't. I grew up waiting each day for my dad to come home from midnight shift so we could have breakfast before I went to school and he to bed to get precious few hours of sleep until he had to go to court. I listened intently to his stories of the night before. My brother, 2 years younger, never really shared in this "ritual" of sorts. It was always my dad and I at the breakfast table while my brother ate his breakfast while playing video games. This is not a dig at my brother in any way, just going to prove my point. We both grew up in a cop family. Why did I follow in my father's footsteps and him not? I could have done anything I wanted to. I could have been a doctor and made boatloads of money while helping more people in a week than a cop might in a career. I could have become a research scientist and found the cure for cancer, all the while not making my wife wonder in the back of her mind if tonight was the night I wasn't coming home. The truth is, I can't NOT do this job. I am happy that I do what I do. I am more happy with the worst moments of this job, and there will be the darkest moments man should ever have to see and some they should never have to see, than the best moments of another life.
If you truly want to be a police officer, than by all means please do. Just remember: This job offers some of the gaudiest funerals, and some of the worst deaths. You need to put serious thought into whether or not you are willing to put your family in that situation. This is only a job. If your spouse doesn't want you to do this because he/she can't stand the thought of waiting each night to see if you come home in one piece, for God's sake don't do it. Your family is much more important than a job will ever be.
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