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DUTIES |
Everyday, lives are in danger, and the people that serve and protect are always on their toes. They must know their boundaries of safety (know how to react in certain situations) and how to calm others. They need to know what kind of weapons to use and how to use them. They must make habit of execising the training in weapons and equipment that they receive.
Once you've become an officer of the law, you will instantly realize that the work environment is far from any type of environment that you've ever experienced in any other form of job you've ever had or ever will have. You will deal with many different types of criminals (all the way from jaywalkers up to murderers). One minute you may be helping someone across the street and then another minute you may be assisting someone with some form of life threatening situation. There are drastic environment changes within a matter of minutes.
Working as an officer in a small town and working as an officer in a big town are two huge differences. Being a small town cop tends to be harder than being a big town cop just solely for the fact that you have to do everything. Whereas, a big town cop, they are all compartmentalized, and are only stuck in one position. For instance, if a small town cop comes up to a wreck and is the first one there, they have to take care of it. They are the investigator, they are the crime solver, they are everything. Whereas a big town cop, all he'd have to do is report it in, and different people from different departments would show up and do their single task.
This job, unlike many other jobs, is a 24 hours a day - 365 days a year type of job. You are always on the clock beit you're out at the post office taking mail down, or even sleeping. Let's say there is a fight going on down by the post office. Well, if a police officer that was "off duty" happened to witness this fight while he was taking his mail to the post office, he would be able to arrest the offender. There is always the potential of being called up from your dispatcher and being told that you need to go assist someone with their situation and help them out to the best of your ability. Although this may be a 24 hour a day job, you are NOT paid for every hour. You are only paid for the amount of time you are doing your "active duty". Be prepared, however, to be summoned at any time of the day, and any day of the week.
Being an officer also puts you in very stressful and dangerous situations. Being in this job, you put your life on the line of death. You could potentially be in the line of gunfire in some sort of shoot out or perhaps maybe even a stand off. Also, being in this job and working with hard-core drug users (such as IV users) or people that have risky exercises may put you at risk of infection. Officers are required, though, to wear rubber gloves when handling a body, be it blood covered or not.