The Decision to Become a Cop

Reason #2 for the Break in Posting

Some weeks ago, I wrote about my new hobby (bodybuilding) as being one of two reasons I haven’t been writing posts for the Project (the hobby’s going well, by the way.) So what’s reason #2?

I decided to become a full-fledged Deputy Sheriff.

In retrospect, the title really took the steam out of that revelation…

Anyway, for the last year, I’ve been working as an Animal Control Deputy for our County’s Sheriff’s Office, which is really just a glorified dog catcher who occasionally gets to wrangle livestock and play with wild animals. It’s a job I absolutely love.

After a few months on the job and analyzing WHY I loved the job so much, I concluded I thoroughly and genuinely enjoyed the law enforcement part of the job. Animal Control for my agency is part of our Patrol Division, so I spend A LOT of time with our Patrol Deputies, Investigators, and all our other specialized units. And man, it looked hella fun!

The problem is Animal Control doesn’t require POST certification, which is the police certification you get after attending a police academy. Every other job at my agency does. If I wanted to explore another job, I needed to go to the academy. I know I could make positive contributions, but my lack of training creates a glass ceiling of sorts.

The other issue was being part of the Patrol Division and being out and about in the community, but not having the training or equipment to really help out if the shit hits the fan. If a community member or one of my colleagues were in trouble, I always have to assess if I’m going to be an asset or a liability in any given situation. It’s pretty maddening because my instinct is to always go to the scene to help. I do not like being relegated to the sidelines, especially in a crisis.

Still, this is a pretty big decision. It’s a major career path change, and the first one I’ve been genuinely excited about since I started teaching a couple decades ago. The pro/con list looks something like this:

The Good

There are quite a few reasons in my “good’ column, most of which came as a total surprise. It wasn’t until I actually got involved in law enforcement that I realized this is a career I need to explore. Here’s the list of the biggies:

The career is exciting, and I kinda thrive on that excitement.

Over the last decade, one of the biggest surprises I discovered about myself is I function pretty well under extremely stressful situations. Without too much training, I can remain really calm under stress. We experienced a few really dangerous situations when we lived in SoCal, and I was able to stay calm and collected. Same deal when I did a pro mma fight. And in my Animal Control capacity, I love dealing with the legitimately vicious dogs, bulls, bears, snakes, etc. In calls I’ve assisted with, I have a solid set of coping mechanisms to compartmentalize and later deal with the emotions of emergencies and tragedy - fires, car accidents, deaths, suicides, and so on.

The career gives me the opportunity to put my education, past experiences, skills, and knowledge to use to solve tricky problems and help my agency and our community.

As a serial hobbyist who has an embarrassing number of college credits, a long history of employment in many different industries, and extensive experience with traveling and interacting with all kinds of different people, I have a deep well of “expertise” I can utilize when interacting with people. My strong background in theoretical and practical psychology also gives me a whole lotta tools to put that “expertise” to use in novel situations that require the “soft” skills of social interaction.

If needed, I’m willing and able to use force.

For over a decade now, I’ve been training mixed martial arts with a heavy emphasis on Brazilian jiu jitsu. I love fighting, whether it be live rolling in jiu jitsu or wrestling or live sparring in boxing, kickboxing, or mma. I’ve spent thousands of hours engaging in recreational, consensual fighting, which has given me the ability to remain calm in physical altercations. That’s important in police work given most of the well-publicized instances of excessive force by police involve cops who have to resort to greater force to control a situation. Or they panic.

I’ve been doing this fighting thing long enough to understand and, importantly, feel the ramifications of the use of force. And I’ve been doing it long enough to know the exact level of force needed to gain control of a situation in a way that prevents injury to myself, the resisting perp, my colleagues, and bystanders.

Being immersed in an environment where honor matters is deeply fulfilling.

This one hits on a lot of the writing I’ve done on the nature of masculinity (the gender, not being biologically and/or gametically male; distinction made because women can and do exhibit masculine traits in this profession.) In short, a major aspect of masculinity is acting in a way and proving yourself to a group of people you respect, which is precisely what happens in law enforcement. This is a necessity because every member of a team HAS to prove they can be trusted to have the other team members’ backs. That’s the nature of honor, and it’s a trait that’s exceptionally hard to find in our modern world.

The profession provides endless opportunities to learn new, interesting stuff.

We all know the police must know Federal, State, and Local laws, the Constitution and Amendments, somewhere in the ballpark of 200 Supreme Court cases and how they affect police procedures, know basic life-saving first aid, know how to physically defend themselves and others (arrest and control), drive safely at extremely high speeds under dangerous conditions, be proficient with a variety of firearms, be proficient at investigating crimes, understand criminal psychology, and know how to discriminate between bad people and good people with very limited information, often in ambiguous, stressful situations. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Few people recognize the sheer scope of knowledge and skills law enforcement requires because the police basically serve as society’s 24/7 concierge service. If a citizen needs something, anything, and want an immediate response, the police are the only option that’s always available. Aside from criminal matters, the police also get calls such as…

• “There’s a car that’s too loud passing by a house.”

• “My 12 year old refuses to go to school.”

• “There’s a stray cat that keeps pooping in my flower garden.”

• “I’m visiting from another state, and I want to complain about this state’s driving habits.”

• “The grass in the local parks is too brown.”

• “My sister is bipolar and keeps ordering too many clothes online.”

• “The leaves from my neighbor’s tree are falling in my yard.”

• “I had a handyman install a skylight and it’s leaking.”

• “The waitress at a local restaurant was really rude to me.”

All of those are real calls, by the way. And the police respond to all of them… and are expected to solve the problem. This is where my vast repository of goofy hobbies and experiences pays off in spades… I know a little bit about a lot, but there’s also a TON of stuff I know nothing about. And this profession gives me a reason to learn new stuff. I find that immensely intrinsically motivating and deeply fulfilling.

The Bad

Of course, there are also some negatives that come with the field. These aren’t deal-breakers, but they are aspects to consider.

It’s dangerous.

There’s no getting around the fact that law enforcement regularly deals with violent people who do not want to be held responsible for their exploitation of the innocent. But a good deal of the risk can be mitigated with sound officer safety practices. This isn’t entirely foreign though, I’ve spent a year regularly dealing with shady people in remote rural areas. The big difference? As the Animal Control Deputy, I’m not taking people into custody or responding to domestic violence, assault, armed burglary, hostage situations, etc.

Public perception versus reality.

Thankfully, I spent over wo decades in a public service profession where a good percentage of the population blamed us for society’s ills and didn’t hesitate to hate us (teaching, of course.) That’s par for the course in any public service job. Except firemen, of course. Everybody loves firemen.

Anyway, I’ve long ago learned the secret to disarming any and all criticism. When I was a teacher, I’d just ask “How many hours have you volunteered in the classroom?” Shuts people up immediately. With law enforcement, I ask “How many ride-alongs or citizen’s academies have you done?” The answer is always “none”, and it’s effective for the same reason it’s effective in education. Those who criticize have never made an honest attempt to actually empathize. If they had, the wouldn’t criticize.

On a bigger scale, I don’t have an emotional response to the anti-cop sentiment (such as the “defund the police” nonsense) because the people who buy into ideas like that always have an extremely limited, naïve world view. It’s probably because I’ve been a teacher for my entire adult life, but people like that just need to be educated, not scorned.

The trickiness of maintaining social circles.

Cops tend to hang out with cops. It’s one of the most universal social behaviors I’ve observed in our society. And I didn’t fully understand it until I started in my present job. Cops routinely see people at their absolute worst. And they see unspeakable tragedy on a regular basis. The worst day of most people’s lives are regular occurrences for cops. It’s the same for anyone who saw combat in the military, work as first responders, nurses, or other professions that are exposed to really horrific shit regularly.

That causes a few effects. Cops get really good at compartmentalizing, and they develop a really dark sense of humor. Both are critically-important coping mechanisms to psychologically and emotionally deal with that which they see daily. Over time, that makes “normal” social relationships difficult to maintain because that darkness seeps out.

Luckily for me, my social circle already contains a lot of these kinds of people, mostly because of jiu jitsu and mma. Turns out people who love recreational violence kinda fit this mold.

Shift work.

My Agency’s Patrol Division consists of four crews who work seven 12-hour shifts every two weeks, and alternate between days and nights every two months. They work five shifts one week, then two the next. Needless to say, it’s a challenge.

Shelly and I have talked about the challenges this will present regularly. Luckily, she works in the industry, is the boss (so she can make her own schedule), and our children are teens who can take care of themselves when needed. The shift work shouldn’t have a huge impact on my relationships.

Sleep, though, might be a different matter. Psychologically, it’s a challenge to vacillate between nights and days every eight weeks. However, I’ve taught the psychology of sleep for two decades, and have personally experimented endlessly with tweaking sleep patterns in all kinds of goofy ways. Sleep will be a challenge, but it’s a challenge I’m excitedly welcoming.

Conclusion

So that’s my new career path. In about five or six weeks, I’ll start the police academy. After about sixteen weeks, I’ll be reunited with my Agency and hit the road for a few months of field training. I haven’t been this excited about a career in decades.

Ultimately, the decision to become a cop was pretty simple. At some point, I will be too old and too crippled to do this. When that day comes, I knew I would seriously regret it if I didn’t give this a legitimate shot. While it’s scary and exhilarating, I’ve done enough crazy shit in my life to be able to relax and truly enjoy the experience.

At some point I’d like to write a lot more about the experience, but we’ll see. I might not have that much time and I’m not convinced people really want to know the behind-the-scenes experiences of law enforcement. Time will tell. Regardless, at some point I’ll get back to the main purpose of the Curvy Road Project. But for now, I’m gonna have some fun!

~Jason

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