Gidday all

Hi there. What a great site. I'm a 47 (yes 47) yr old male training to join Police. This is a career choice I've put off for years - mainly put off by negativity of patrols I had ridden with, perception by the public and high attrition rate. You know what - who cares. I know I'd be a great cop. What shocked me was the recruiters suggesting there is a need for a small number of my age group to balance the ranks! Had to have eyes tested as I had laser surgery years ago - sent results to Medical Advisor in Wgtn January 16th - still waiting.......

Welcome Darin! Good on ya for finally chasing your dream!

Get used to the waiting... there's alot of it at the moment...

Thanks KY - I guess "Hurry up & wait" will become a familiar phrase....

What sort of "negativity" did you come across on ride-alongs? Would be interested to hear. I always wonder what scopies etc think about their time out with us!

Hi. I noted silly things really that I would put down to either a bit of immaturity or "testing" me to guage reaction. Probably a bit of both. Mainly related to issues with their sergeant, amount of paperwork, appearing in court on days off etc. All stuff that I personally saw as fairly petty and certainly not enough to put me off the job.

Dunno. There’s a L O T of paperwork, and it can get on top of you if you let it. When I graduated, I had a great sgt. Unfortunately, he took promotion and went back to Auckland. The next one was a mongrel. I don’t know how many times I typed out my resignation due to that bastard, and I even got as far as signing it once or twice.
Another thing that gets you is the 7 and 12 year blues. A lot of cops feel that they have had a gutful at those times after joining - dunno why. I did, and was told there were 3 answers, take promotion, [which I did] leave, or move elsewhere within the dept.
You may have struck some of these.
Oh, and believe me, there is a lot to be negative about, but there’s a lot of positives to to outweigh this.



Edited cause I cant spell!

Great comments. I try to keep a balanced point of view. The times I went on patrol wasn't as a Scopie but as an observer - the rides were arranged by a relative who was at the time a sergeant prosecutor based at Takapuna. Despite the negative comments at times - we did have some great fun too...... I love chasing bad guys. The underlying thing that didn't change was the obvious comradeship.

I think any job has negatives, even if it seems like the best job in the world, and those negatives are not easy to see when you are keen on getting into the job. I doubt they were trying to put you off, but more letting you know not to expect it to be all roses either.

There is a lot to be negative about. And the fact that we voice it is how we deal with it to an extent. Unfortunately in the Police, promotion doesn't seem to be based very much on merit, so in some (many?) cases you get sergeants who can have their quirks at best and are incompetent at worst, and if we don't voice our opinions amongst ourselves, we'd go stir crazy.

There is a shitload (standardised measure) of paperwork. By the end of a busy set of shifts, you want to take the 2-3 day break and chill out with family, friends, hobby, sport or whatever and to find you then need to donate one of these days off to attend court which may or may not go ahead on the day, because, witnesses/offenders may not turn up or the court is just plain too busy, can be frustrating to say the least.

But at the end of the day, all those same cops that moan about it, all keep coming back on Monday, because they enjoy it (or they have child support payments to meet )

Um....yeah. What they all said!!! Haha.
As much as we appear to bitch and moan about stuff it is just the way we cope with it, as there really isn't much we can do but get on with things! Paperwork is annoying, court on days off incredibly frustrating...especially when you've prepared huge file and they go guilty before appearing!!!!
That's life, and like you said the positives outweigh the negatives. It's still a great job