What it's like being a cop
Civilians often have little contact with law enforcement and when they do it is often at times of crisis. Therefore, the perception, image, beliefs and general understanding of law enforcement is shaped by other sources.
Sources such as movies, TV, YouTube videos, anecdotal stories from relatives or news articles shape the way the public views cops.
But what about the cops views on things? What would they say, if they had a forum to express thier views of the job.
This section will be direct quotes or comments from officers.
They'll tell you what it's like being a cop.
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An unsolicited follow up on a public forum to the left.
From 400 Things Cops Know :
The job will change you. It changes everyone, for better and worse. You will become far more alert to your surrounds. You will keep your gunhand free even when off duty. You will become hyperaware when taking money out of Ats’, day or night. You’ll look inside conveniences tors and banks before you enter to make sure you aren’t walking in on a holdup in progress.
If you didn’t curse before you became a cop, you probably will once you have six months in on this campaign. You will curse like a dockworker. You will also become angrier. More disillusioned. Far more skeptical about the inherent goodness of humankind. The constate exposure to toxic social conditionings and dealing with people at their hopeless worst solders an extra layer onto your skin. You see too much darkness, and it becomes part of you in ways you may not fully understand. Some describe this condition as compassion fatigue, the main symptoms being a vague sense of loathing for human frailty and for one’s self. Maybe this extra layer is good. It keeps you from being emotionally invested and affords you the detachment you need to be an objective investigator. It acts like a suit of armor against the elements. But part of you may want to be, well, illusioned again. Part of you wishes that guy you used to be, the one in the police academy with the fresh haircut and the extra shiny shoes, wasn’t such a stranger to you now. You know that for the most part it’s good that guy is gone. He meant well, but but he wasn’t an effective street cop. He was too hesitant, too trusting. He’s been replaced, and you don’t expect him back.
But once in a while, you sort of miss him.
The book Walk The Blue Line by James Patterson is a great 1st hand account of LE life.
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