Like you, I was wondering a lot about the job of a police officer. Later, I would like to become one, and I did a lot of research to learn about this profession. I had a lot of questions about how to become a police officer, the salary, the conditions, etc. If you have lots of questions, you've come to the right place. Indeed, in this blog, I will answer the main questions related to this profession. Take out a notepad and pencil to write down, and let yourself be immersed in the police world!
Being a police officer is quite special. Indeed, it is not like other jobs. You have to be alert all the time because anything can happen. Indeed, at school, we are taught to be in the "orange" zone to be safe. This zone is used to indicate our level of vigilance in the face of dangers. In other words, you should never believe that you are safe from harm when you work as a police officer. However, it's fun being a police officer when you know you are really helping people. Indeed, when you are useful and when people need your help, being a police officer becomes very interesting and fun.
Police officers have a lot of different tasks to do. The main one would be to ensure the safety of people. Most of the time, police officers patrol the city to monitor and keep people safe. Then, they can respond to emergency calls by going to crime scenes. Obviously, it is not the citizen who communicates directly with the police officers. When the citizen calls 911, the central receives the call and transfers the information to the police. Also, they may be called to go to court to give evidence at a trial.
A policeman's day begins with a meeting with all the others (police officers) who will work with him during his shift. This meeting is called "fall-in". During this meeting, we tell them what happened in the previous days, the criminals wanted and several other relevant information. Following this, they will each go in their vehicles (alone or in teams of two most of the time) and begin their patrol. I can't say more about their patrol because you never know what can happen in a police shift, anything can happen. They may find themselves confronted with a gunman and ten minutes later give motorists speed tickets. At the end of their shift, they return to the police station to put away their equipment and complete their incident reports.
Everywhere! Seriously, they can be in a car, in a boat, in an office, even in your home. I think you get it, they work everywhere in their city (or the territory they cover). They have no fixed place. The only place that doesn't move is their police station, but they spend the vast majority of their shift outside. It's as simple as that.
In Quebec, to become a police officer, you must have completed high school. Afterward, you have to go to CEGEP to perform a Police Technology. After three years at CEGEP, you must go to the ENPQ (Quebec National Police School) for 15 weeks. Once it's all done, you can apply to whatever police force you want and just wait! However, it can take a long time to get hired due to the selection process. Also, you have to be in great shape. The best habit is to work out often. You must also have perfect health (no glasses, no serious heart problems, etc.)
It depends. For example, if we look on the website of the SQ (Quebec government police), the police officer's initial salary is $48,386 (as of April 1, 2021) and $84,366 after 60 months. On the other side, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) offers an initial salary of $70,154 and a salary of $90,198 after 3 years of service.
To become a police officer, you must have great general knowledge. Indeed, police officers are confronted with various situations which require a lot of knowledge. We train them in combat, deepen their knowledge of the laws, they learn how to interact with people in crisis, how to make a legal arrest, understand why we find crime in our society, etc. In fact, we want to give them as many tools as possible so that they can fend for themselves while the other emergency services arrive (firefighters, ambulances, youth workers, anti-suicide squad, etc.) We want them to be able to prevent any type of situation.
Being a police officer brings you face to face with multiple dangers. The main danger would be the fact of never knowing what will happen. The main danger would be the fact of never knowing what is going to happen. Indeed, anything can happen. You might find yourself facing the biggest serial killer in town, or you might find yourself facing an innocent gentleman who doesn't mean harm to you. That's why, as I said earlier, you always have to be in the "orange" zone in order to prevent these types of situations.
Not at all, the job of a police officer is above all a job that is human. What I mean is that to create a bond of trust between a citizen and the police, you have to show humanism. It is important to bond between people and the police because the citizens will be more tempted to call the police when they need help. If we only put in robots, people will associate the police with emotionless robots that just give tickets. We do not want to create a feeling of fear among citizens.
The maximum age in Quebec to work as a police officer is 65 years old. On the other hand, it is very rare to see a patrolling police officer exceed the age of 55. Indeed, after this age, they either retire or they work in offices at the police station.
To conclude, we can affirm that the profession of police officer is a very varied field with a rather interesting salary. It's also a profession that, most of the time, is learned while working (OJT). Indeed, you can never learn too much about this profession. I hope that these answers were useful to you and allowed you to know if the profession of police officer still interests you.
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