[Warning: long post with insider perspectives]
Thanks Cal!
I appreciate your kind words. I have been all of the people you mention. Emergency services, law enforcement, and even jobs I cannot talk about. I wasn't going to chime in, but this thread has shown a great amount of thoughtfulness and open-mindedness about the subject.
First. I am not currently in law enforcement. I have worked in law enforcement in the past. I am not currently a firefighter or paramedic, but I worked as such in the past. I am not an emergency services administrator, but I've worked as one in the past. I am a scientist whose lab is less dangerous than a particle accelerator apparently.
When I was younger, I wasn't interested in law enforcement, but did the coursework and training anyway (its a long story). I also wasn't interested in being a firefighter, but... I did want to travel to foreign lands and see the world. I did my POST and fire academy in southern California. My remaining training happened elsewhere. My careers in law enforcement, emergency services, and other service were all "accidental", but I'm glad I did them. I've had an interesting (to say the least) life. My current career is what I most wanted to do in life -- science.
I know about shooting and being shot:
I walk with a painful limp today. I was unarmed and checking up on a situation in a canyon on National Forest lands in southern California. As I wound my way up the canyon, on foot, I approached a bend with a large laurel tree on the side. A heavy set guy stepped from behind the tree. Looked at me. Reached down a pulled a rather long-barreled revolver (funny the details we remember). It was a target revolver with a 10-12 inch barrel and likely in .45 long Colt (in case any of you are interested). I had no time to think. This was the greatest fear I have ever felt in my entire life. I have been in many situations equally dangerous, but there is something about being unable to defend oneself from another human who is intent on ending your life. Obviously, I survived. I ran. Fast. The long barrel didn't help this guy and the only connection was above my left knee. We later found remnants of a methamphetamine "lab" behind the tree. Never found the shooter, but that wasn't my job. Every other time I've been shot at was different somehow. I never had that same fear experience as with the meth lab guy, and I never want to.
Anyway, that's off topic. I've known (and dated) many police officers and other law enforcement folks over the years, at local, state, and federal level. As with any group of people, they vary substantially in personality and "quality". Over the last 30+ years, I hate to say that I have noticed a shift in the number of local-level people that seem disconnected from the concept of law enforcement. Years ago, we built relationships with our community. Why? Because you NEEDED them as partners. Your job would be impossible otherwise. The buzzword for that nowadays is "community policing". I can tell you now that there can be no other kind if you wish to be successful. Someone above mentioned that many recruits are attracted to law enforcement because they crave the power that comes with it. Sadly, that may be a fair assessment of many new youngsters. It bothers me. At state and federal levels, not so much. The professionalism at these levels continues to impress me.
Culture is everything. Its been mentioned in posts above. And it was mentioned that there are "good" officers. Please believe me, there are many, many "good" police officers. But, in line with the trend I noted above, they seem to be the older, more experienced and level-headed guys (and gals), not so much the youngsters. Of course, that could be my perception bias, and I do know of very competent youngsters. Anyway, that culture also varies quite a bit among departments and gov't levels. But I see no pattern. People seem to expect small town departments to be more apt for "corruption" (I use this term very loosely), but not what I've seen. There are some small towns with top-notch professionalism and effective community policing policies that would (and should!) put larger departments to shame. Why? Culture (and luck). I can recall one small town in rural New Mexico with just a few officers. I happened to be speeding through the town one day and "met" one of those guys. Well, despite the deserved ticket, I had an opportunity to take a break with him and was I impressed. Turns out each of the guys (happens to be all guys, but they like gals too) really likes living in this small town. In other words, they want to be where they are, and they are intimate members of their community, and they are happy to be making a decent living that lets them live where they want. Sound familiar? All this fosters a positive environment and you get great police. By the way, plenty of guns in rural New Mexico. Still, I doubt these guys have ever come close to an unintended use of their firearm. I don't know what their training requirements or schedule might be.
Even though I'm trained and "authorized", I don't carry a firearm. After my incident with the meth lab shooter (which was about 27 years ago), I thought I would start, but I quickly began feeling odd about it. My job didn't really require it and I was self conscious. Today, none of my friends and colleagues even think I've held a gun, much less own one or be proficient. I like it that way. Still, I continued with training and certification, but that's about it. I mention the training because it seems to be a point of discussion here. Training does indeed vary a lot among local departments. Some small departments consider a few hours at the range as "training". Others have sophisticated scenario training (which I recommend for the curious). The advanced training is actually quite difficult. I hesitate to put it in writing, but I've made plenty of mistakes, misjudgements, and errors. That's why the training in the first place. I'm confident about my abilities to perform under "emergency" conditions, but I've definitely experienced the "frozen" moments Cal described, and I have been in a lot of "emergency" situations of many different kinds. (Feels odd to think back on it all). One training I don't think I received is how to defuse a situation with a mentally ill person. I did my academies in the late 1980s and it just wasn't a big topic then. Sure, there were plenty of classes on how to deal with the public, and that danced around the specifics of mentally ill, but not quite. I learned how to deal with difficult people on the job as a firefighter/medic. Mostly with people on drugs. Law enforcement is a difficult job, but firefighter/medic seemed harder. I worked in southern California and had the pleasure of seeing it all. I mean, I've seen it all. I also got to deal with nearly every kind of incident you can imagine. Especially once I moved to the mobile command unit for the state. Floods, riots (Rodney King), huge fires, tornados, earthquakes (SF world series quake), etc. Usually I developed and implemented multi-agency communications plans and infrastructure. I mention all this because the thread has touched on the topic of PTSD. I can tell you now that essentially all members of the law enforcement and emergency services community have some level of PTSD. If you know us (friends or family), then you know the rather twisted sense of humor that develops as a coping mechanism. Don't fault them for it. Its a necessary thing. I'm amazed at the resiliency of most members of this community. And it ties back into culture (I'm coming round to it). Like military veterans, cops and firefighters are in a "brotherhood" (we include sisters too). Even today, I continue to feel it. This is both good and bad. Without this strong, safe brotherhood, I think the PTSD and other rigors of the job would crush people. The bad part is the unwritten code of protection. The "Blue Wall" mentioned above is strong. You do not harm your brother (or sister), even when you know they did wrong. Period. For me, during the years I carried a badge, I never received a speeding ticket or anything. The culture we keep coming back to is a complicated thing. In my mind, it seems we should be able to exploit culture for positive change. For example, as mentioned above, if it were possible to recruit and keep quality people, the culture can be a positive force in helping to retain the good people via the effective support it provides. With culture comes a strong sense of pride and duty; if the shapers of this culture demonstrated the kind of behaviour and ethic associated with good law enforcement, the culture would be a great reinforcement. At FBI, despite my core disagreement with some administrators, I see this positive side of culture. The guys and gals I know are highly professional with an appropriate sense of duty and ethic. There's one agent in particular I admire for her ability to balance appropriate and inappropriate. She just has it down.
This post is long enough.. Sorry. Clearly this is something I think about and I'm not in those fields any more. I'm a scientist/statistician. Those careers were just "fun" stuff to do while on the way to becoming a scientist. I also managed to be a photographer and competitive rock climber as well. Sleep? Well yeah, a little.
