Maintaining your Police Job-A Simple Guide to staying out of trouble and making it to retirement.
Last week into this week, it seems like I have been bombarded with one law enforcement officer gone bad after another. They are either stealing, providing the bad guys with operational information (see US Marshal trials) or tragically striking a vehicle when drunk and running away while the other vehicle's occupants were burning alive. While I have only been at this slightly over a decade I have seen my share of Officers loose their jobs and in rare instants a few commit actions that result in criminal charges (this always catches me by surprise, it is not usually the person you think it is and only after they leave do you discover what actually happened, I thank the Lord that I have never had the criminal act happen in my presence).
This has spurred me to create a simple list that if followed will eliminate over 95% of the reasons officers find themselves either unemployed or jailed.
1. Don't drink and drive...others get arrested, pay a fine and go about their lives, we get fired.
2. Places to not get drunk. A) local bar filled with yahoos, B) neighbor's backyard, C) weddings, D)funerals and E) well...every place outside the home...how about...do not get drunk.
3. Do not cheat on your wife/husband...especially with a coworker or someone to whom you have just provided a service (see domestic violence pickup).
4. Do not Lie. If you are on the stand and everything is going badly resist the temptation to lie. Believe it or not you will score points with, "I do not know" or admitting your mistake. You will destroy your career if the lie is discovered (once a liar always a liar, in the court's eyes)
5. Do not steal, while it may be the bad guy's money/jewelry/cellular telephone/clothing and in one case underwear and there is no chance of being caught...just don't do it.
6. Treat your co-workers, bosses and the public the same way you would want to be treated. I can think of a number of instances, in which the incident was used to get rid of a real cock@#$%^& that had it been anyone else they would have suffered a mild reprimand.
7. Do not beat your wife/husband...enough said.
8. Anything over a cup of coffee should never be taken for free...let me say again nothing over a cup of coffee should never be taken for free.
9. Do not accept cash/services for your performance or lack of performance...your pension is worth 1,000,000 over your retirement lifetime...is it really worth risking over 300?
10. If you are depressed/sad/consistently angry, seek help, quickly.
11. Your family is priority one and the job is priority two...the second that switches you have already slipped halfway down the slope without realizing it.
12. Revenge is not your job, justice is not your job, your job is protecting the weak, gathering evidence for the court and arresting the bad guys AND NOTHING ELSE. Payback only pays you back.
13. Finally, insurance fraud is well...a crime!
14. Well I thought finally, but there is one more. Ok for some I will have to speak slowly...do...not...have...sex...with...anyone...under...18! (Thanks Eric, not the sex part but sending me the story about this twisted officer).
Basically follow the ten commandments. My list of 13 is for situations that I have known about in some form or another. It really is pretty simple, be smart and learn to delay gratification.
Exodus 20
The Ten Commandments
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me.
4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand {generations} of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 "You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 "You shall not murder.
14 "You shall not commit adultery.
15 "You shall not steal.
16 "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."
