Warning- little off topic police recruitment, love me rant:
......... I havent quit yet. Does that count as an endorsement? I was talking to a year constable and I asked why he joined.
He said "Job security" he was a plumber prior, and he is going back- it isnt "worth it" to him. You cant really tell until you make it to your second year. Once the buzz wears off and the reality sets in. For some people its a calling that if you didnt go to work and eat crap sandwichs day after day (and it really is EVERYDAY) you would lose your mind. Somebody has to do it- the same thing that makes people sleep in a ditch, or run into a burning building.
It cant just be a job. Cause if you have that attitude you'll just wind up part of the problem we're having currently in the police world.
Pluses- Ive seen this country top to bottom, east to west on the Queens dime. You see things no one else sees, you have a chance to try and help people out and you get paid well. And if you carry yourself with respect and treat others well- every once and a while you have a really good conversation with someone who lives such a different life that it REALLY gives you some perspective.
And if your community sucks you know exactly who to blame. We get to do some very cool things too- Im always learning. And then there is the sweet nectar- adrenaline. Oh how I love you. I made some friends in the north as a police officer that I have a closer connection with than anybody on the planet. I buried friends, consoled coworkers after huge losses, drove their wives to the hospital in a blizzard to deliver the first child. Celebrated birthdays, Christmas, and other holidays in uniform....once chased a man for 6 km's in a foot chase across tundra until we got in a huge fight on a pile of caribou bones. When I got on top of him he said "What the hell are you doing here?" to which I replied, "Im a mountie. And youre under arrest". (I was super proud of how clever it sounded- I was like Benton Fraser!) Chased polar bears on a skidoo shooting them with rubber bullets.....
Who gets to do that stuff? Only some of us. But then there are other things- I flew into a town and had a 12 year old hang himself on my house, having the only porch in town with the right requirements, and going outside because something is slamming against my house. Interviewed children with STD's, did chest compressions on a man who was shot in the box of a truck driving to the hospital. Watched a few people stick rifles in their mouthes. You see good people at their worst and no one says thank you- you were never fast enough, or you are stupid, lazy, or corrupt. You go to court and a lawyer calls you a liar until he feels like he has made his point. Thats universal- but there are neat things city or mountie and no two careers are the same.
So yeah....for some its worth it. Not everyone. Just like the CF- if everyone could do it it wouldnt be for me. I've had really good luck meeting only the good ones in my CF days and in my policing career. I know the "others" are out there. But Im fortunate so far- and I promise you that the "bad ones" wont get a pass when I do meet them.