What are the pros and cons of being a cop?

Question

Accepted Answer

The pros are being able to help others, experience community pride, build fraternal relationships, job satisfaction, and good benefits like early retirement, while the cons are the cost of emotional and physical stress, dangerous work environments, and long hours at low pay.

Working as a police officer is a great role for someone who wants to serve and protect and who has the mental fortitude to do the job day in and day out.

Working as a cop gives you a chance to help shape your community. People put their trust in cops when they need help and their ability to provide this help to others gives cops a deep sense of worth that is not found in other professions.

Joining the police force has been described as joining a fraternal family of approximately 800,000 in the US and millions more worldwide.

As a cop, there is rarely ever a shortage of work. Not to mention that the diversity of work that police officers do is very dynamic. Each day comes with new problems and challenges. As a police officer, you can never tell what to expect from the dispatch or what is on the scene. Regardless of what problems you encounter, helping people gives you satisfaction.

Most police departments offer their cops a good benefits package that includes tuition assistance, shift differentials, scholarship programs, and more. You also have the option to retire after 20 years of service.

If you started your law enforcement career at 21 years old, you can retire when you are in your 40s and choose to pursue something else without having to worry about the paycheck.

With all of these benefits you would think more people would be eager to become cops, but the truth is that it is not a glamorous job. Cops face the worst of human misery and divisive tendencies in communities every day at a personal level.

Officers respond to situations where people are going through their worst moments. This can take a mental toll on a cop, especially when they first start.

Cops also work long shifts and in many cases hardly get time to rest before duty calls. The work often leads to social isolation as the community sees them as cops even when they are not on duty. The threat of danger is constant, whether handling paperwork at the office or on patrol.

Cops risk their lives daily. Losing lives while protecting the community from crime and violence is regrettable, is a real danger. There is always the threat of injury regardless of which state you work in, and you have to deal with it every day. In fact, it is not uncommon for a cop to develop PTSD during his or her career.