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And you can't blame the police for enforcing the law. The problem is with a state legislature that allows people to be taken to jail for having a headlight out. I bet most of them don't even know.
That is Tennessee for you, but even that varies widely by county.
With my incident, in most counties I'd have been cited for what was a traffic infraction after the fact at most, not a criminal charge. People are frequently booked for the "lights required on motor vehicles" charge, "driving left of center," "failure to maintain lane," etc.
You're going to have a different attitude among cops say, in a rich suburb of Boston, than in a redneck town in Tennessee. Better people will be applying for the jobs. The pay will be better.
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Originally Posted by TamaraSavannah
Well, these days, practically all police work requires at least some college hours or the equivalent (military or executive experience). Of course, it is not that across the board but nutshell wise, one of the things out of federal review of policing is the very strong recommendation that a rookie has a bachelor's degree.
Now, on the note of college, one should appreciate, IMHO, they are dealing with a generalist and not a specialist environment. Hence, it may sound great (as I have heard some of the general public insist) to have a CJ degree, but that is, again IMHO, really defeatist. What if the member of the public one is dealing with is not a CJ type. Basically, for the environment one is going to be in, one should be enough of a generalist to find a common ground with whoever they are dealing with.....assuming they speak the same language.
As far as DEATH goes, that depends. Personally, I find it quite fascinating but then again, that's my ability to instantly shift my personalty points to one side or another. In the case of the gory, I switch to "Science Officer".....or "Steve Irwin". To be fascinated, not disgusted by what I see and to gather enough information to come back to my superiors to report so they will know as if they had actually been there.
BUT, as I said before, for whatever one does in this line of work, they are subject to others second guessing them and raking them over the coals for it. Worst that with the Net, they can probably "find" others to agree with them. Do a death investigation (have done at least one in my time) and there is probably a good chance that someone will say you defiled the deceased in the process (let's put aside for this discussion preserving the death site for evidence preservation).
Finally, on second guessing, I don't do it. When I put someone in the field, it is their show. That's the way it is (or should be) in a lot of walks of life, that's the way to have good workers......but when it comes to police work, how effective can you be when people are constantly questioning everything you do?
IMO, the military training is not the right training for typical police work. You don't need a jacked up military guy who is used to fire fights and battle to deal with small town drug addicts, drunks, and thieves. A little humanity will go a long way, and that is something these guys don't have.
IMO, the military training is not the right training for typical police work. You don't need a jacked up military guy who is used to fire fights and battle to deal with small town drug addicts, drunks, and thieves. A little humanity will go a long way, and that is something these guys don't have.
I read an article a while back about how police training in the US is like a six week course, and in other countries it's almost like getting a 2-year associates degree. They study psychology and public health and policy in addition to the legal and physical training.
Last edited by fleetiebelle; 08-16-2023 at 09:45 AM..
.......IMO, the military training is not the right training for typical police work. You don't need a jacked up military guy who is used to fire fights and battle to deal with small town drug addicts, drunks, and thieves. A little humanity will go a long way, and that is something these guys don't have.
Points noted....but I will leave it as such.
This is the forum on Work and Employment and I will discuss working as a Police Officer from that aspect, not the political aspect.
Quote:
Originally Posted by fleetiebelle
I read an article a while back about how police training in the US is like a six week course, and in other countries it's almost like getting a 2-year associates degree. They study psychology and public health in addition to the legal and physical training.
Well, once again, that's just it is here and it is there. Why they have different ways of doing things is different political systems....and that's a different forum.
I read an article a while back about how police training in the US is like a six week course, and in other countries it's almost like getting a 2-year associates degree. They study psychology and public health and policy in addition to the legal and physical training.
No one has a six week course. Depending on the state, academies typically run from 12 weeks to 25 weeks. We have 18,000 police agencies that operate under the standards of their respective states. Most countries operate on a national training standard. The US does not have a national training standard for a variety of reasons, and leaves it up to the individual states to develop their own standard.
"IMO, the military training is not the right training for typical police work. You don't need a jacked up military guy who is used to fire fights and battle to deal with small town drug addicts, drunks, and thieves. A little humanity will go a long way, and that is something these guys don't have."
I don't disagree with you on a number of points. I always look at combat vets with a critical eye because we do get a lot of "hut, hut, hut" guys, and that is not what we want on our department, and it is not who the community wants to be policed by. Some vets can turn things off and on as needed, but some cannot get out of the military mindset, which is not conducive to civilian policing. I graduated the US Army Military Police School when I was 18 years old, and I was rightfully proud of myself for having done so. Years of being on the job taught me how little I actually knew at the time. New officers need mentors who understand that we are not an army of occupation, but that we exist to serve the community.
On the note of.....what makes a good detective? This question can be answered a few ways but two items are someone with a mind that questions everything and a mind that likes to read everything.
To the former, an example of what kind of mind that has to be. In the Navy when I was an intelligence officer, we were doing a table top exercise of surface battle group missile engagements and I asked the question that in being silent from radar, "Do we put our missile decoy electronics on automatic?" To others, that answer might be, "Hell, yes! If we have a missile coming in, we want to decoy it ....... (and he knows where we are.)."
But consider this. What if he has 2, maybe 3 locations figured out of where we can be and he can waste a missile. Will he fire a missile up an axis on a whim with the hope that if we are out there, we will start making so much noise in our defence that then he will know where we are?
.......and from there, I was directed to research our defence electronics to see if they could give us away like that....and the rest of it is classified. Further, that tactic, of shaking the bush like that, I read in the Dr. Who novel, "Warriors Gate".
As things go, I did use that account, maybe without the book reference, in an interview for a workforce investigator position, as an example of my analytical ability......and they did offer me a job. Now to note on that event in my life, I did come to them with a few years, to include "boots on the ground", experience.
So to be a good detective, in one approach, one must have the mind to question "it" down to the smallest little detail. A mind that is meticulous. It is best to have a mind that hates to hear "Well, it's obvious!" or "That's just common sense!". And it helps to read a lot. Ie, speaking crime wise and not missile wise, one might learn in their reading various telltales to indicate that a criminal operation is going on somewhere, learn of conditions that make crime easier. For example, say there have been numerous grass fires at one's Civil War battle park......well, it could be someone burning off the grass to make stealing relics easier. Or if the talk of the johns comes back with "the girl didn't even speak English!".......look for a trafficking operation.
I'm just curious who has aspirations to still be a police officer these days out there in the vicious, brutal streets? I heard on the news that the second, largest city in the US only has X amount of cops, which isn't suprising to me. I sure wouldn't want to be one...I NEVER wanted to be one.
Whoever still does, I say God be with you to keep you safe everyday.
I was married to a cop, he always wanted to be one since he was a teenager. He was an MP in the army. My cousin who is in her 50's has always wanted to be a cop. She has worked as a cop in several communities in the state and even worked for the state poolice. She got fired from that job and was able to find a job as a town cop in a small town but she drove 60 miles one way to work, and they did not give her a car. She liked that job and they liked her. About 10 years ago she got a good job as a cop on a pueblo reservation. She loved that job but they were "cleaning house" and would have kept her but she went crazy for a while and got herself fired. Until then they liked her, but when she goes crazy no one can be around her and she has been fired for the same thing 3 other times. Now because of her age and her record she can only work as a school cop for the city, which is actually just a glorified security guard that is allowed to arrest people for vandalism. I hope she can stay sane enough to retire at this job because I don't think anyone else will hire her if she gets fired from this job. But to answer your question, yes, I have a relative that only wants to be a cop. My ex husband was a cop until he retired, then he worked as an investigator for the DA in the county he lived in. He would still be a cop if he were young.
I don't think things have changed as much as people are told except in some of the north west coast cities.
On the note of.....what makes a good detective? This question can be answered a few ways but two items are someone with a mind that questions everything and a mind that likes to read everything.
I know DNA and true crime is all the rage now, but even before all of the Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilyTreeDNA, etc., I always thought those that were really into family trees and looking up paper trails (before the advent of the internet), would make great detectives, they just have that mindset!
I've been considering going into law enforcement for a while now. I will graduate this fall with a degree in Criminal Justice and social sciences. Although, I want to start out in the probation/parole field and work towards a degree in psychology next. I've always had a passion for the law and my favorite classes were the ones that were cj focused. My goal is to work with children in the family court system. it may seem cliche, but I really do want to help people.
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