OVER THE YEARS

I doubt I'm alone here. What is it that happens to us over the years? Straight out of the academy most of us thoroughly enjoy coming to work and arresting as many people and writing as many tickets as possible. It's so much fun at first that you can't believe you are getting paid to do the job. Then, you get offered overtime which is even sweeter because you are getting time and a half to do something that's a blast.

Then one day, it all changes. It could be two, three years after doing the job that your feelings aren't the same. After seeing criminal after criminal let off with a slap on the wrist or not charged at all by the SAO that leads us to feel this way. I can't help but feel, " what difference are we really making?" Maybe after seeing people such as the elderly female judge at the Pine Island court house let every dirt bag off with a warning has something to do with it.

Maybe it's the lack of " cops cops " that are leading us. Some are good, most are not. Having a supervisor that was a do nothing cop in his day tell you to bring your stats up might have something to do with it. Maybe seeing people get positions within the department that don't deserve it has something to do with it.

I don't know what it is but the feeling doesn't seem to go away. Why isn't this job fun anymore? Can anyone add anything productive to this?

i think most of what you wrote says it all. there are many good cops here and yes some are supervisors, but we get beat down enough by liability and the justice system that when it continues within our own rank and file, it just makes you mad. the job is the job and good or bad its still a great job. now under a new chief, i hope it will get better but something teklls me his hands might be tied by the town adm. and we will get things forced on us that will cause what good morale we still have left to be gone

Or how about not having anything to work for. The only place to go is into the DB. If you dont want to go there then there is nothing else. No crime supression team or special ops. Certain people get picked to work overtime for special patrol but does it get pass around. We have nothing to work for, nothing to help keep the job different, we fall into a routine, we watch people who pad stats with in custody misdemeanor traffic arrest get treated like they are out saving the word. Working for a good arrest is gone, now it's lets see how fast i can take someone into custody for DWLS. Lets just hope one of us dont need helpl when your slapping the cuffs on a guy who is driving with a suspended lisc.

Also, we see a certain officer always getting into physical altercations with people on the street sometimes by themselves and sometimes yelling the wrong location on the radio. People joke with this officer about this, including some of the supervisors, so this person thinks it is ok to do this. What they forget is that we are entering into a time when people dont respect officers anymore, that just does not include the bad guy, normal people dont respect us anymore. They watch tv shows and get the wrong idea about what we do. I dont know how many times i've been to calls where i've had people say "well on COPS they do it this way" or "On CSI they did this". The people that used to support us now think we dont do our jobs becuse of this and now they are against us. Bad guys wont give a second thought to killing us, if you have a hard time seeing what I am saying just look at our county this year, but this officer keeps getting "praised" for that stuff. Now dont get me wrong, I've been a part of some well deserved thumpings and I fully believe that when a skell does something stupid they should be thumped, but come on a pattern is starting to develop here.

I also think that with all the newer people that have come on with in the past year alot of respect has gone out the window. They no longer address uppers with Sgt or Lt. It's hey (insert first name) i need this. That starts with the police academy. I remember going when running and PT was mandatory, now you dont have to if you dont want to. They bring that attitude here when they come out. They feel they are entitled to everything. I had a guy with less then one year on tell me the other day that he was pissed that he has to drive a Intrepid and he should get a B&W when the new batch come in. You should be grateful you have a car to bring home, a lot of depts make you wait a certain amount of time off of FTO before you can bring your car home, and you're complaining because you (a person who has been here less then a year) doesn't have a new car, puh lease.

Im sure I got off topic somewhere but things that bothered me just kept coming. I think it all boils down to supervisors who are trying harder to be your friend then your boss. We see the same thing with parents who try to be there kids friend rather then their parent. There is a time and a place to take off the stripes and just chill with your guys, some people are forgeting that and are bring chill time to work.

Like I said, I'm sure I got off topic, just a person who has been here a few years and have seen the changes.

Well said.