NationStates Jolt Archive

I work in security and have been frustrated at the difficulty to find security jobs that pay well. When I was laid off from a rare place that paid pretty well, it became apparent that the only way I was going to earn what I was used to would be with a government badge. Around here, most private security jobs pay $8-11/hour, but police officers make $16+. On top of that they get amazing benefits and take home bags of money from overtime/off-duty gigs. Once you've got police experience, you can earn higher wages as a private guard.

With all this going for it, I decided to apply to a local police department, but as time went on I became more and more uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a cop. After getting thru the initial written and physical exams I waited months for my polygraph and phsych eval, while remaining under-employed. Eventually, I was financially forced to give it up and become a truck driver. Really, I was a bit relieved. Sure, it's more than possible I never would've made it, but I might've. I'm glad I'm not a cop.
Here's why. (http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-14-Sun-2004/opinion/25230212.html)

That link doesn't exactly explain all my thoughts on the subject, but it's a start.

What do you guys think?

It's bewildering that even though polygraph tests are unscientific and are not admissible in court, these law enforcement agencies continue to use them.

... but don't mind my derailment.

I know a job even better than being a cop! Go here for more info:
http://www.foreignlegionlife.com/

"Read Stephen Davies' excellent research on "The Private Provision of Police During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," in the 2002 book "The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society." What professor Davies reveals is that modern government police forces were set up -- largely in a delayed response to the French Revolution -- to do "social policing" of the urban working class, wading into the slums on behalf of the ruling elite, inventing new "crimes" for which they could threaten the residents with arrest, thus breaking up any incipient movement toward social revolution before it could bloom"

you could also read foucault's 1975 book, discipline and punish, but i suspect the above is less obscure about it.

Different specifics but very much the same sort of reasons why I would never go back to a Federal Civil Service job in spite of the fact that it would be relatively easy (displaced employee status with 10 yrs experience and whatnot) and that in the area where I live finding a job with anywhere near the same pay/benefit potential is nearly impossible.

Still there comes a time when to do the job one either has to be blind to what is going on in the world or lack a conscience.

Serving, protecting, all those honorable words and concepts linked to the ideas of such jobs have become less substantial than the air it takes to pronounce them.