If becoming a police officer has always been your dream, then, read this article because you are about to learn everything about this awesome job. I am excited to show people how my dream job is so important in our society and a truly beautiful career. I will explain the details of the job, like the training, the salary, and the multiple careers advancements that police work offers.
Being a police officer is a job where your number one priority is the security of the public. Police officers work with a lot of different people and different types of criminality. It's important to gain the trust of the people we interact with like young kids, vulnerable people, and even criminals. It's a rewarding job because at the end of the day, if you did your job right, you feel good about you work and feel like you really did help people. Police officers are the first people to arrive at a crime scene. When citizens call the police, it's rarely for good reasons, and they have to be on the top of their game to be prepared to solve any problems they might run into. One bad intervention could have a negative impact on the population's trust towards the police. It is difficult to ignore the bad stereotype about the police job, but they need to if they want to do their job like they're taught. It is a hard job, but a necessary one for society.
They have to protect the lives and property of citizens, maintain peace and public safety, prevent and combat crime and enforce the laws and regulations in effect. Police officers have to be everything like a social worker or even a psychiatrist even thought they did not have all the training for those tasks. They have to be in good physical health to be able to step in when their service is needed. Police officers do crime scene, arrests and reports about events, but also protests and activities when they need to talk with the people or blocking a street. They often need to go to court about an event that happened to give their facts.
A typical day for a police officer is coming into their workplace, which is at a police station, most of the time, and changing into their clothes and putting on all the equipment needed for the day. They need a bullet proof vest, their belt with their guns charged and secured. They also need to do a test with the weapon to see if everything is in order. When they are ready and prepared to start the day, the have a meeting with all the police officers, sergeant and lieutenant on their team, called a fall in. They talk about what happen during the past shift and what they have to look out for in the day. When that is over, most of the police officers in the vehicle, bike or motorcycle to start patrolling. Police officers have a radio when they hear calls receive by the emergency center (911). When they go on a call, they need to be mentally prepared that anything could go wrong or in their favor. Police officers or most of the time, always two when they go on an import call, so they have back up if anything happens. Better safe then sorry. After a call, they write an event report about what happen, who was included and what was their process. However, it could happen, in a very slow neighborhood that there are no calls to go to so they most likely finish up a report and patrol around the most criminalized areas. When they finish their day, they leave all their equipment at the station and fill up their hours for the day. Some of them will stay longer to finish reports but after they all go home.
Police officers have the choice to work where they want. There is a process to get excepted in those place. They do an interview, a test psychometric and much more to get a chance to work at a specific place. Usually students at my school want to work for either Laval (SPAL), Montreal (SPVM), La sureté du Québec (SQ). Those are the 3 most wanted places to work as a police officer studying in Montreal. Montreal in divided in PDQ which are “poste de quartier”. They each have a number, so for example Ahuntsic is PDQ 27. They all have their different statistics for criminality. In Montreal there is a lot a different dynamics which makes future police officer want to work there. For Laval, it's divided in 2 sectors, east and west, so it's much more territory to cover for a team in Laval east then in Montreal in a smaller area. The SQ in all around Quebec and especially on the high ways. All sectors are much more isolated and different from Montreal. It's also different types of crimes and social issues which attracts a lot of future cops.
When you finish high school, you have to go to a CEGEP that offers the Police Technology program. Its 3 years of studying classes related to the police. To get accepted in the program, you have to send your application with your grades, but you have to have an average of 85%. After they call you for physical tests and, if you pass that you go do your medical tests. If you pass those preliminary tests, you will most likely get accepted in the program. When those 3 years of CEGEP are done, you submit your application to ENPQ (école nationale de police du Québec). It's another series of tests but to be able to work as a police officer, everyone has to go to that school. It's about 3 months of training, and then you can start to work for a police department.
I am going to take the example of Montreal. When you get hired as a police officer your salary will be $58 336/year. Only after a year it will be at $66 563/year. The maximum a police officer can do, working for Montreal, is $112 082/year after 6 years. That salary is only for a simple police officer but as soon as you change to be a sergeant or a detective, the salary will be higher and every year there are promotions.
Every year, anyone who caries a gun with them while working, have to do an exam to be sure that they are still able to carry a gun and use it properly. There is also the training for a deescalation to be able to act during crisis and training to be able to have a taser. This training is really important because not everyone can qualify to have a taser and use one, even regular police officers. There is the radar training that almost every police officer has. It's very common for them to do an operation about speed on the road. Also, in every other position than a police officer, it's required to have more training about the new position and for the instructors to be able to see who are the right people for that job.
Being a police officer is risking their lives every day. They are first responders, so they intervene in difficult and dangerous situations. A lot of people do not like the police, and they fear them, so it can be hard to have them collaborate. There are small crimes happening where police officers are in no danger, but they still have to be prepared for everything because it can turn in a second. When there is an active shooter, the police has to know what to do to stop the situation that makes everyone in danger. They have to be able to manage their emotions and stay focus on the job and the working methods.
A police officer cannot be replaced by robots. It's a lot of emotions and judgment to do that job and robots cannot reproduce those. They judge if someone going to have a ticket or not and empathize with citizens. Robots are not able to really be there for someone that needs another human's presence. I do not think having robots do that job would be smart. What if someone starts being aggressive? None of the robots will correctly intervene with that person or will know what to do about an unpredictable situation. Personally if I was a victim of domestic abuse, I would not want to have a robot telling me they understand my situation, I would be pretty enrage.
A police officer could retire after 20 years of working in the law enforcement. A lot of them stay till 25 years even 30 because they still want to explore more job opportunities directly in the police. So, if I start being a police officer at 21, at 45 I could stop working. It's an early retirement compared to other jobs that people retire at 60. Only in Montreal, you can about 150 different positions in the police so, if you don't like one you can change really easily. I know I would like to try many positions before I stop working. It could take me a couple of years before I find the right job position for me. I know that if I leave the police too early, I could miss out a really interesting position that I could fall in love with. I want to get the more experience out of the career so, I can really feel accomplish.
Right now, I am in my second year in my program, Police Technology. I have 3 semesters left before I go at ENPQ. Next year, I will start to submit my application in every police department I know so, I can get accepted for sure. I will have to do my interview, my physical, psychometric and medical exams before getting accepted. If I can get a job promise, I will have more change to get at ENPQ fast. I know people could wait 1 year to do those 3 months so my plan is to get in the fastest and start working as a police officer sooner.
Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: personal testimony
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
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Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: government
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
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Rationale: to inform or educate
Authority: government
Date: still relevant
Accuracy: probably true
Relevance: relevant for this document
Sources: cites sources