Why Being a Cop Means Never Ending Silly Questions

May 13, 2009

While being a cop is certainly a feather in your cap, and you worked hard to get where you are, you cannot believe some of the dumb questions you get asked. However, remember this, most average Joe and Josephine Citizens have no clue what your life is like, or what kinds of situations you face on a daily basis.

To the general public, deadly force is something they see on TV, and the good guys mostly always win and the case gets solved in an hour. Nothing terribly bad ever happens to the cops and they are always in the right place at the right time. Sorry folks, life just doesn’t happen like that in the real world. Being on patrol and tracking down criminals carrying guns, knives and other weapons is the stuff nightmares are made of for those wearing the uniform.

Isn’t it easy to just take a knife away from an armed criminal they ask? Well no, it isn’t simply because the person with the knife can move like greased lightening and be on a cop in mere seconds before s/he has time to draw their weapon. What goes on in the real world of crime fighting these days is that the bad guys generally have more sophisticated firepower and weapons than the police do. Go figure how that works. This isn’t what you would call a level playing field.

Sure many police departments now issue their members with a semi-automatic high capacity pistol with 15 to 17 rounds of ammo. It evens the war out a bit, but use that weapon in a scenario where you had to use deadly force, and you have the whole department and most of the public breathing down your neck, second guessing your decision.

So, while civilians may ask silly questions, it’s part of your job to educate them when you are able to share about what you honestly face each and every day you are out there on the streets. It’s the only way people will ever truly understand that wearing the uniform isn’t just because you want to play Mr. Dressup, and are obsessed with the power of the badge, it’s because you can and will use deadly force if you are in a situation where there is no other choice to protect others (and yourself).