started a job

Hope you're feeling better Rampy and that your surgeries went well.

Started a new gig myself this last week. I've been doing wholesale auto parts sales for NAPA, and wanted something more challenging. Almost on a whim I applied for a job that sounded fun, never thinking I stood a chance of getting it. Careful what you ask for, you just might get it. Turns out they're almost doubling my salary, essentially to travel around the country and help fix broken NAPA stores. I'm going to be gone from home a bunch, but with the youngest graduating high school in a few weeks, it won't be so bad. In my prior life, the wife and I only saw each other 1-1.5 days a week if we were lucky, or 10-15 minutes a day and we were able to make everything work, so this should be much of the same.

What DC are you working out of or with Pepper? I've been working at an independent NAPA in rural Montana for over 15 years now.

Dang.

I started a new career last month myself. I'm in my fifth week of field training as a newly minted LEO. Small town, small department. Department already going through some big changes - hopefully all shakes out well on the other side. I've got about 7 or 8 weeks left riding with my TO before ghosting - the way they do it is having a TO shadow you in another vehicle while you're riding solo. That'll be interesting. Was already warned that if another call drops while I'm handling a call, he'll have to split out and go handle it while I figure it out on my own.

So far its been a kick in the pants.

Congrats! ... or condolences, whichever you deem to be appropriate. After 30 years in law enforcement, I'm glad to be retired. I wish you a long and unexciting career. Beware the small town politics.

Congrats on the new LEO gig. I wish you a long and uneventful career. While not sworn I worked 24 years in law enforcement and my best day was my last one. That career opened many doors for me that I would never have been able to do on my own. My teaching for the department landed me a job teaching at a college, and doing both of those has now got me started booking my own safety meetings at companies. I also put some of it to work in my part time driving jobs teaching as part of my job duties. Gather all the knowledge you can, do as many varied things as you can, and you will always be able to use it later in life.

Congrats! ... or condolences, whichever you deem to be appropriate. After 30 years in law enforcement, I'm glad to be retired. I wish you a long and unexciting career. Beware the small town politics.

Thanks. And I 1000% get the small town politics thing. Its already shown up from jump. I got sworn in by a mayor who served over 4 decades in the role and he just retired. New mayor means possible new changes for us and all the other city agencies. Hopefully for the better. 

Definitely got introduced to some of the who is who and how things worked out the gate. 

Not sure if this agency will be my forever home as a tin toting government functionary or if I'll wind up moving on. I can see benefits to staying, but I can see other benefits (higher pay, more specialized divisions, take home cars, closer commute) if I landed a job with a bigger agency. 

Politics is an unfortunate part of life everywhere. If you can navigate the BS you can be ok. If it turns out that the politics get too much... I can always fall back on other skills or go off in a new direction. We're not promised tomorrow, or even an hour from now so I'm forcing myself not to make plans that I have no ability to keep. I'm enjoying the ride while it lasts for sure.

There are advantages to starting with a small agency that you wouldn't get in a large city. Small agencies need the officers to do a little bit (or a lot) of everything, so you'll learn patrol, criminal investigation, crime scene evidence collection, arrest procedures and case preparation for trial. You'll likely learn to do your own probable cause affidavits for warrants, and you may have a few kicked back by a magistrate because you left out a key word here or there. In big agencies, there are office dweebs who handle the paperwork while patrol acts as a taxi service to bring folks into the jail and dump them. On the down side, you may be the only officer on the street at times with the nearest backup 15 - 20 minutes away. You'll learn some creative techniques to keep your hide intact while awaiting help.

My last position was with a small sheriff's office. We had 8 deputies when I started here, not enough for 24 hour coverage. That meant whoever lived close to the call got called out in the middle of the night. One riot, one ranger. Twenty minutes minimum for backup to arrive. On the rare occasion when someone was drunk enough to want to fight, I pointed to my handheld radio with a little red button on top. I told the guy "If I have to push that little red button, it will rain police for an hour, and they won't be happy getting dragged out of bed." He decided to go peacefully. Good thing, because that little red button didn't do anything, and the handheld radio was worthless that far from the repeater.