Potential cop post
Apr. 5th, 2006 03:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
zdashamberI'm back hale and well from ACUS. To address the immediate wonderings I fancy ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kittentikka and a2macgeek may hold: I made my flight fine. Even though I got to the ticket counter after the 45-minute cutoff, the Frontier lady was on my side, "Here are the directions to the gate, go! Move as quickly as you can!" This is why Frontier is a good airline, unlike United, may its name moulder in infamy.
ACUS was great fun. Slowly I will work on getting the quotes and report out. In the meantime, there are a couple questions I've been meaning to put to you all.
For today, I'll start with the most dramatic: I'm considering becoming a cop. What are your thoughts on the job, and my potential relation to it?
I'm bored with my current job, having conquered all its challenges a year and a half ago. (Currently, I'm a tech at a research institute, tracking mice for alcoholism studies. This came about because I got a degree in biology with the intention of being a genetic engineer, and then found this job, listed as genetic engineering on mice. And having tried it, it's not really what I want to do.)
The vague plan was to keep the current job, build up money, and use the free off-hours to start a business. No movement has been occurring on that so far, however. Then I came across an article in the paper about how Oakland is frantically scrambling to find and train police officers. Pay while in the academy is listed at $62,245, and then $69,162, rising to $87,172 after three years (or possibly one if they really scramble).
Currently I make about $38,500 (I still need to do taxes, ai!). I have enough to live on and put stuff aside and buy pretty much anything I want. In part this is because I don't want much. I thank all my cheap ancestors. ;) Still, another (guessing) $15,000 a year after taxes could put me on the path to having a down payment for a house in a few years, which would be nice... Then I could pour all my money into things like insulation and roof repairs and shed building. Yeehaw! (Yeah, all of you who don't live in the Bay Area where the median house costs $637,000, laugh it up, furballs...)
As to the job itself, I looked into the details as far as I could find on the web. Looks like the work week is generally 4 consecutive days of 10 hours each. Shifts and patrol areas are chosen in a yearly drawing based on seniority. The FAQ says "days off" are drawn, too... I suppose that means Christmas and Thanksgiving are for the less senior people to work. Hopefully it doesn't mean that I'd have to know all the vacation I was taking a year or more in advance. Mom points out that since the department is understaffed I'd probably be in for mandatory overtime; I wonder if I'd have control over when that was scheduled.
Reasons I'd want to do it: I imagine it'd be different things every day. I'd get to help people and be decent in times of stress. I like driving around. I could nail people for the things I personally find reprehensibly dangerous, like tailgating. I like Oakland, and it'd be nice to give back. If the work environment was welcoming, the congeniality of it sounds appealing. It'd be good fodder for stories, or if I ever wanted to go into politics. I'm already planning to be a rock of prepared stability during a major earthquake or disaster, so the job is sort of a natural for me when it comes to that. Three-day weekends would let me get a ton more done.
Reasons I'd perhaps not want to do it: Largest on the list is the potential for a work environment dominated by macho pinheads. Hopefully in a big diverse liberal-ish city like Oakland that wouldn't be so much a problem. Mary points out that I'd run into crap from the people I'd be arresting regardless of whether the other cops were cool or not. I'd have to get in shape, though that would be good for me anyway. People would always drive slow around my car. My job might alarm people I'd randomly converse with.
I surely have not thought of all the aspects, and you folks are clever and varied. What do you think?
kittentikka and a2macgeek may hold: I made my flight fine. Even though I got to the ticket counter after the 45-minute cutoff, the Frontier lady was on my side, "Here are the directions to the gate, go! Move as quickly as you can!" This is why Frontier is a good airline, unlike United, may its name moulder in infamy.ACUS was great fun. Slowly I will work on getting the quotes and report out. In the meantime, there are a couple questions I've been meaning to put to you all.
For today, I'll start with the most dramatic: I'm considering becoming a cop. What are your thoughts on the job, and my potential relation to it?
I'm bored with my current job, having conquered all its challenges a year and a half ago. (Currently, I'm a tech at a research institute, tracking mice for alcoholism studies. This came about because I got a degree in biology with the intention of being a genetic engineer, and then found this job, listed as genetic engineering on mice. And having tried it, it's not really what I want to do.)
The vague plan was to keep the current job, build up money, and use the free off-hours to start a business. No movement has been occurring on that so far, however. Then I came across an article in the paper about how Oakland is frantically scrambling to find and train police officers. Pay while in the academy is listed at $62,245, and then $69,162, rising to $87,172 after three years (or possibly one if they really scramble).
Currently I make about $38,500 (I still need to do taxes, ai!). I have enough to live on and put stuff aside and buy pretty much anything I want. In part this is because I don't want much. I thank all my cheap ancestors. ;) Still, another (guessing) $15,000 a year after taxes could put me on the path to having a down payment for a house in a few years, which would be nice... Then I could pour all my money into things like insulation and roof repairs and shed building. Yeehaw! (Yeah, all of you who don't live in the Bay Area where the median house costs $637,000, laugh it up, furballs...)
As to the job itself, I looked into the details as far as I could find on the web. Looks like the work week is generally 4 consecutive days of 10 hours each. Shifts and patrol areas are chosen in a yearly drawing based on seniority. The FAQ says "days off" are drawn, too... I suppose that means Christmas and Thanksgiving are for the less senior people to work. Hopefully it doesn't mean that I'd have to know all the vacation I was taking a year or more in advance. Mom points out that since the department is understaffed I'd probably be in for mandatory overtime; I wonder if I'd have control over when that was scheduled.
Reasons I'd want to do it: I imagine it'd be different things every day. I'd get to help people and be decent in times of stress. I like driving around. I could nail people for the things I personally find reprehensibly dangerous, like tailgating. I like Oakland, and it'd be nice to give back. If the work environment was welcoming, the congeniality of it sounds appealing. It'd be good fodder for stories, or if I ever wanted to go into politics. I'm already planning to be a rock of prepared stability during a major earthquake or disaster, so the job is sort of a natural for me when it comes to that. Three-day weekends would let me get a ton more done.
Reasons I'd perhaps not want to do it: Largest on the list is the potential for a work environment dominated by macho pinheads. Hopefully in a big diverse liberal-ish city like Oakland that wouldn't be so much a problem. Mary points out that I'd run into crap from the people I'd be arresting regardless of whether the other cops were cool or not. I'd have to get in shape, though that would be good for me anyway. People would always drive slow around my car. My job might alarm people I'd randomly converse with.
I surely have not thought of all the aspects, and you folks are clever and varied. What do you think?
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 04:27 am (UTC)The way you describe baking makes it sound like a job of glory, too.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 02:01 pm (UTC)As to physical safety, being a cop isn't that dangerous. At least, it's not in the top ten most dangerous jobs in America, and at least two of the ones that are (trucker and pizza delivery driver) wouldn't give most people much pause if you announced you wanted to become one. I believe most cops go through their entire careers without ever firing their weapons in earnest. Motleypolitico is right that, at least in theory, you have to be willing to take someone's life in defense of your own or another's, but in practice...not so much. Or at least, when gunfighting comes up police effectiveness has been rated at about 17% (one hit for every 6 shots); fortunately crooks are even worse (estimated about 10%). It's kind of like that scene in the "War Stories" episode of Firefly:
Mal: I hear y'all took up arms in that little piece o' action back there. How're you faring with that, Doctor?
Simon: I don't know. I, uh… eh, I never… never shot anyone before.
Book: I was there, son. I'm fair sure you haven't shot anyone yet.
On the other hand, being a cop is definitely a high-stress occupation: divorce, alcoholism, and suicide are all high among police (that last is in dispute--and at any rate is lower than the rate among dentists and doctors, make of that what you will).
Philosophically, though, you do have to be prepared to enforce laws you don't agree with. In Oakland that might not be busting people for smoking weed, but it might be arresting protesters who are breaking the law (obstructing public access or whatever) even if you agree with them, etc. You have to believe that fundamentally the system works, and that every part of it is worth doing faithfully--or at least that it would be a whole lot worse if everyone with power just decided to do what they personally thought was right instead of following the laws.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-06 08:16 pm (UTC)Yeah, as a more neutral good sort, I am considering whether I'd be able to get along in a job billed as lawful, likely surrounded by a bunch of lawful-aligned folks. To continue the geekiness trend. ;)