If you have ever thought of becoming a police officer, you are at the right place. Here you will learn what it is like to be one, what they do, where do they work, how to become one, how much they make, what training you need to have to become one, the dangers of being a police officer, will they get replaced by robots and when do they retire. I am really happy to write this article because I always wanted to become a police officer, and now I have the chance to show the career to other people who could be interested in becoming one.
Being a police officer is representing the law. In other words, you need to be a model of what is good or what is wrong for the citizens. A police officer acts with integrity, leadership, and professionalism. Police officers are serving the community, so you need to love to help other people and make a change around you. When you are wearing the uniform, it should not be a symbol of power or terror, it should be to show that you want to help and that you are there when trouble is present.
Police officers maintain the security of a certain area by patrolling to show their presence to prevent crime. They also go to the places where 911 calls were made to solve the problem. Police officers also make sure the law is respected and if it is not, they need to enforce it. They will do it by giving tickets, warning or maybe arresting people. They also engage in the community to create a good relationship with the citizen. Finally, the most boring part is to write reports about everything that you did during the day, which can take a lot of time.
The day usually starts with a "fall in" which is when the sergeant is going to give all the important information of what happened during the last days or the news in the sector. He will also give each team a task to accomplish during the day. The fun aspect of a police officer is that there is no typical day, every day it is different. One day, you will maybe be patrolling the area with no calls and the next day catch 10 criminals and get calls all day long. Each day of the week is different, but some tasks like patrolling, doing radar or writing reports are always things that happen in a day.
Police officers work in a variety of places. In every sector, there are headquarters where the "fall in" happens, police officer eat their lunch, write reports and all sorts of things in the headquarters. On the other side, the real work happens outside the headquarters. All headquarters get assigned a sector of the city in which the police officers patrols and do the task I mentioned before. When the officers are outside, their car become their new mini headquarters because it is safe to do all sorts of things in them.
To become a Police officer in Quebec, you will need to obviously complete your primary and secondary. Next you will need to obtain your diploma in policing technique which will grant you access to the ENPQ which is the school that everyone needs to go to become a police officer. You will study there for 15 weeks and after that, you have everything to become a good police officer but, the last step is to get hired by a police department.
In Quebec, the salary of a police officer differ from department to another and how much time have you been working in their department, but an average can be made. For a starter officer, you can expect around $50 000 per years and for an officer with maximum seniority you can expect around $100 000 per year. Those numbers do not include overtime, bonuses or paid on time and a half. This means that a police officer can make more than $100000 per year.
In Quebec, there are no additional training that you need to have except the ones I mentioned in how to become a police officer. However, any police officer can attend special formations that will teach you additional knowledge that could be useful in your work. There are formations to handle people with autism, how to better understand the first nation and their culture, how to identify that someone has a gun and much more.
Being a police officer is a cool job, but it comes with a lot of dangers. You will have to interact with people who sometime do not like you, aggressive or intoxicated. Therefore, you never know the reaction of the other or, if they want to harm you. You can be bitten, hit by someone or something, get shot at, someone spits on you, shouted, killed and much more. Being a police officer comes with a lot of responsibility, but also a lot of danger.
Really low, police officers need to create a bond with the people in the community, something that a robot cannot do. The other aspect and the most important one is that police officers have something that is called discretionary power. This power is the one that lets officers decide if they want to give you a warning or actually give you a ticket, depending on the situation. Thus, is you replace them by robots, a machine cannot have discretionary power, and you would always get your ticket no questions asked. Additionally, the rules would be stricter because robots will identify crime much more easily and make everything so hard in society.
There is no age at which you need to retire from being a police officer. However, the average age of retirement in Quebec is around 60 years old.
So far, I have been studying Police Technology at Ahuntsic College for the past 2 years now. I have 1 year left and after that, I need to study at the ENPQ for 15 weeks. After my training I would love to get hired by the SPVM to work in Montreal, but if they do not hire me, I would also love to work in Laval or Longueuil. I want to start as a patrolman in the street. When my body gets old, and I will not be able to catch up with the new guys, I want to finish my career as an investigator in major crimes.
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