By Chief David Oliver
I have been a police officer for over 20 years. I tell everyone the same thing about the job and that is that there has never been one day I did not want to come to work. Now,there have been some things I did not look forward to facing on a particular day. Howeve, the profession, in totality, has been the most rewarding thing I could have ever dreamed of doing for a living.
I chose this profession when I was about eight years old. It is probably more accurate to say the profession chose me. I had interaction with police and thought being an officer would be the most honorable job in the world. I also spent a lot of time watching Starsky and Hutch, S.W.A.T. and other police shows. Because of some detours on the road of life, I arrived here later than I would have liked.
Unfortunately, there are those among us who are here because they saw a notice and showed up to take a test. They never dreamed of being a police officer. I am not demeaning their intelligence, ability to learn or their personality. The bad thing about showing up to take a test and getting hired is often these officers are missing the last and most important part of the equation that makes a police officer excel at his or her profession. You must have the desire to protect and serve others. Those who are only here for the direct deposit into their checking account every two weeks often do the profession a disservice.
Givers versus takers
I have a direct ethical and character issue with takers. We all know these officers. They are often more worried about what they gain than what they give. They often look for the places to eat based on police discounts. If the local golf course wants to give them a few rounds of golf on the house, they will surely take them. Frankly, they believe they earned whatever comes their way because of the profession they chose. After all, police work is dangerous and we put our lives on the line for people who just do not understand.
Givers are exactly what police officers are supposed to be. We get paid a fair, market based wage for a pretty tough job. We all know roughly what that wage will be the day we start the academy. We know we will work weekends, holidays and often be at work when our family is sleeping. We direct traffic in the snow, handle crashes in the rain and solve a neighbor dispute in the blistering sun. We get off work at 7am and have three court appearances, starting at 9am, and we hope we can get five hours of sleep before we have to be back to work. After all of this, we are owed nothing from business owners and citizens. We do not take things for free, take discounts not given to everyone else and do not turn a blind eye when a friend needs to be wearing handcuffs. We have honor, integrity and character, because this profession chose us.
We are in the noblest profession in the world. It is time to display that belief.
