Hello,
I want to become a police officer. I want to be able to enjoy responding to interesting calls and exciting things like foot pursuits, adrenaline dumps, and become a great street cop, and one city I’m looking at, you’ll definitely get it. However, I know a lot of people in the State Police, and the quality of life is better as you don’t go call to call, you get a take-home cruiser with off duty use and free gas, and more. However, I’m very scared of being bored. The state police agency is full service, and patrols towns as well that don’t have police departments.
It’s a hard choice
Should I go city or state, what would you do
Comments
You should apply to both because neither is guaranteed until you get a job offer in hand and receive an academy spot
All that fun stuff you talk about comes with huge headaches especially in large cities which are typically anti-police.
I would go state. The great thing about policing is if your bored you can go out and do proactive police work. That’s where the majority of the “fun” is you speak of. If you have a large call volume, it’s not fun. Guys want to go out and get drugs, gun, money and for patrol that mostly comes from protective stops
State. You get to do the fun stuff more then big city. Plus state police usually gets paid more
Keep in mind that everything fun means paperwork.
If the state agency is full service, you’ll get your fair share of fun. Additionally, you’ll probably be more proactive, so there’s generally no reason to be bored unless you choose to have a slower night.
I’m 100% biased, but I’d lean toward state.
Did both hire you?
Big hat
200 sworn is the sweet spot imo, big enough for some goon shit, lots of specialities, but not the bullshit of a big department.
why would you want to have an adrenaline dump? lol. In today’s day and age policing is very reactive even so for some of the statey’s. I would worry about just getting on the job and then the experience first and foremost. Then, you can move departments and find what you are looking for. Any fun stuff is going to usually have a ton of paperwork after. A lot of departments are having stricter pursuit policies. I would say start off big department, then get the experience to go into a specialty unit. But the biggest advice i can offer is learn to write very good reports if you want to go anywhere in this field