Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Does Police Work Involve Special Bravery, Courage, or Risk as Obama Claims?

LOL, I'm in the same boat, having patience for stupid people is not my strong suit.

As a 23 year veteran of LE I can honestly say there was only a handful of times when I questioned my decision to be a LEO.
The majority of those were due to the politics of the job.
Any young man with a pair bigger than marbles and an above average amount of common sense can have a very rewarding career in LE and remain safe if he/she follows their training guidelines.

The difference between LE and the other higher risk jobs boils down to a few factors.
LEO's are trained to deal with the possibilities, and face them on a daily basis.

The civilian positions mentioned aren't trained to deal with most confrontational situations but don't usually have to deal with them daily.

LEO's maintain a vigilance that is not common in civilian positions that allows them to be caught off guard more frequently.

I take my hat off to Firemen, their job requires a pair much larger than mine.

Your have a better chance of not coming home and dying today when you get in your auto to go to your regular job or Walmart than being a cop today.

what of the cop in an auto? Possibly going to walmart?

that is what make them have a high risk job, more than dying from a firearm . They have a higher risk of dying from a Heart Attack sitting in a car all day eating junk food than anything else.

Lol....his post backs up the one above. Some jobs employ more people that are inclined to be careless, stupid or ignorant.

You're right about that. Eating adrenaline for twenty years, then crap for another twenty, is the reason life expectancy is so short for cops.

Trade you Glock in for a Treadmill and you will live longer on the job.

can you say, CARDIOMEGALY?

I've heard it a few times, myself...

No doubt. Real policing is a young man's job, and when you outgrow it, you're stuck in a sedentary position 'til you die or retire.

Yeah...most people never know adrenaline poisoning.

surveying.

Good exercise.

Only have to deal with ticks, snakes, and poison ivy.

The only excitement is dealing with cops when you get reported as a prowler, but I seem to be able to diffuse those situations without getting shot...

Where you work can make a big difference in how dangerous the work is. I spent 32 years, in uniform, on the street, in a de-industrialized, rust belt urban [bleep] hole. Now I work in a "Mayberry" style micro department. There is simply no comparison between the two jobs, in terms of the real danger.

The long term danger is the stress, the average retired officer lasts 5 years on the pension. Most of my friends from the old days are dead now. I was talking to an old friend just last night, about the night when she was gunned down in an ambush. She survived, I've been to a couple of funerals for friends who didn't.

Besides working in the inner city, the rural deputies also have special risks, because they are always alone, and with help far away.

There are more dangerous jobs for sure, I have family in farming, and that is dangerous for sure. I have a cousin who lost a leg in a grain bin.

Can police work be dangerous? Absolutely, and I have had plenty of close calls, and I have been scared too. I used to tell the new recruits that any one who is never scared is too stupid to be a police officer.

I know that lots of jobs are dangerous, I have investigated some of the deaths, a welder blew himself up. An electrician fried himself. A truck driver had bad air brakes and ran himself over. They all had families too.

Is some one trying to kill you on purpose more frightening than being killed by accident? I guess that depends on what scares you. Your mileage may vary.

Two points about why the job is more dangerous that stats portray and why it's as safe as it is.

1. It's not just dying. Ever had a guy with Hep C AND HIV bite your arm and break skin? I have. That's not seconds or minutes of being scared. That's months of terror. I got lucky. That was 10 years ago. My old partner in the jails got TB from working there. Seen more than a handful get weird diseases. Very many get career ending injuries. And way too many becomes alcoholics after their wives lwft them because they were never home. No clue on the numbers, but suicide by late career and retired cops is fairly high.

Can this happen In other jobs? Of course, but it's fairly high in LE and ads to the overall picture. It's not just being ahot at or killed.

2. As for why it's actually safer than you'd expect compared to a cabbie or logger, (you won't like this answer) we're better trained and expecting to deal with bad people or violent situations. We have tools to react with. We have equipment that helps us stay safe. Cabbies don't. Loggers kinda do, but stuff happens. A bullet hits a vest and there's a decent chance we just get hurt, but live. Bullet hits a cabbie, he's got a better chance of dieing. Tree falls the wrong way or cable snaps, logger is lucky if he's wearing more than a shirt.


This is how I see it. And I see it everyday

http://newsfeed.time.com/2014/01/15/these-are-the-top-10-most-dangerous-jobs-in-the-u-s/

I believe roughly 5000 Americans are killed at work each year.

Yes, the fact is clear, established, and well documented that law enforcement is not an especially dangerous career.

We can allow LEOs their blustering, deflecting, and excuses making as needed balms to the bruising caused by this fact to their large and fragile egos.

What we can no longer allow is for them to continue to hype and heavily trade upon a false narrative of the extreme dangers that they face.

LEOs hyped false narrative costs we citizens in needless and extravagant law enforcement equipment.

LEOs hyped false narrative costs we citizens in inflated pay and benefits, especially retirements, to LEOs.

LEOs hyped false narrative costs we citizens in sovereignty and liberty lost to the natural and empowered allegiances among LEOs and big government politicians.

LEOs hyped false narrative costs we citizens in the lives of our dogs, grandparents, and teen girls.

One of the weird things here that I've never understood is some folks outright hatred of anything government or any symbol of authority-

While I'm no fan of the goobermint either, I don't comprehend the downright hatred expressed towards law enforcement by some on this board.

Why would a straight forward reporting of facts be interpreted as "hatred"?

Projection - You are projecting your own emotion onto others reason.

If you'd like to hear various people in various professions speak to the dangers of their respective professions, just start watching reality TV.


Travis