RE: Police Recruit What Does it Mean to be a Police Officer?

This is the question where new recruits like me get to show our ignorance. : )

This forum and on-line magazine has been very encouraging. But, I get enough snickers and taunting at the department.

Keep up the good work Police Magazine!

RE: Police Recruit What Does it Mean to be a Police Officer?

It's also the place where you new recruits get to show jaded, bitter and cynical old hairshirts the reason why they became cops in the first place! Go on, tell us your answer.

Being there

I've heard several times now, "You won't really be making much of a difference." or, "You can't save the world."  As far as I know, there is only one person who can save the world, and I ain't Him.  But, I do think a single police officer makes a big difference, if for no other reason, for showing up.

Becoming a cop is a career change for me.  Before these last several years of searching for a job I felt was a good fit, I was a counselor with an MA in counseling psychology.  I got to talk with the people who experienced the kinds of violence that law enforcement works to stop.  

One young woman was a client who had a huge impact on my life.  From her earliest memories (2 years old), she was sold to different men for sexual favors.  Satanic would be the only way to describe what happened to this child for 9 years, until she became a ward of the court.  

Because her parents were so violently tempered, the police were called to her house a lot for domestic disturbances.  And, for sometimes an hour or two, there would be a sense of order in her life.  She said that having an officer in the house was the only time she felt safe.  Having the contrast between her parents and a cop standing in her living room, she realized that there was something very wrong with her parents (and not her).  She said, "Even when I was crying 'don't take my daddy!', I was silently inhaling a breath of relief because they were taking him."  It was one of the only memories from her past that gave her hope, because some cops did their job.

My recruit training doesn't start for another two months, so I'm still not sure what it means to BE a cop, much less be a good cop.  But, I know that being present, showing up because you want to assist someone, means the world to many people. 

Last edited @ 7/28/2008 9:45 PM

RE: Police Recruit What Does it Mean to be a Police Officer?

One of the differences between social workers and cops is who and when they want to help people. Both are primarily motivated by compassion, but cops seem (in my opinion) to temper it with a hard dose of reality. Social workers want to help anyone who needs help anytime they can.

Cops, on the other hand want to help people in an emergency, or help those that are truly innocent and deserving of help. They tend to become (or start out) much with much harder feelings for those who need help through their own stupidity.

As for saving the world, no one really expects to do that. Most of us just want to make a difference in the world. After a few years on the job, you will realize that you might not make a difference in the whole world overall, but if you make a difference in one life, you did make a difference in the world. That belief is what keeps us all going when it seems hopeless.

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