Police Officer Job Description

Police officers are responsible for ensuring public safety. They work around the clock to provide protection, assistance, and general aid to their communities. Becoming a cop does not take long at all, and it could lead you to a rewarding and ever-changing career field. The police officer job description below should give you an idea of what your responsibilities may be as a police officer so you can determine if this is the right career for you.

Words from a Real Police Officer

The video below is an interview with Sergeant Carl Nielson of the Pleasant Grove Police Department, courtesy of eHow. This provides you with a job description from an actual police officer, and it may help you understand your future career a little better.

The topics mentioned in this video are elaborated on a little more below, but at least now you know what police officers go through on a daily basis.

Police Officer Job Duties

A police officer’s job duties will vary from day to day. Police men and women do not have traditional 9-5 jobs where they know exactly what to expect when they walk into the office. Every day is a new challenge for these individuals, which is part of the excitement of the career. Some typical police duties include:

• Driving in a city to monitor traffic violations.
• Radaring vehicles on a road to catch speeders.
• Responding to distress calls from 911.
• Escorting funeral services through town.
• Patrolling cities by foot, on motorcycles, and in cars.
• Providing expert witnesses to criminal cases.
• Guarding public buildings and buildings with large crowds.
• Helping individuals get into their vehicles if they have locked their keys inside.
• Catching criminals on the run.
• Writing police reports after car accidents, distress responses, domestic violence visits, and other situations.
• Escorting individuals that are court ordered to pick up their property from a home.

Every day is a new task to take care of, and police officers never know what they are going to do until they get through with the day. Officers write a lot of reports to record what they see and hear while in the field, and they must be constantly available to respond to dispatch requests. Many police officers work long hours, especially if they are on call. What you end up doing as a cop will be entirely dependent on the day and the community.

Police Officer Pay Rates

Police officer salary levels vary from place to place, so there is no real way to determine what you may make as a police officer. On average, a cop will earn between $28,570 a year and $75,695, according to PayScale.com. Police sergeants typically earn between $37,768 and $101,939 annually, which is significantly higher than entry level officers. Men make up 91% of the employees in this job sector, but there is no enough evidence to suggest they get paid more than their female counterparts.

Cops in Los Angeles, California earn between $57,710 a year and $77,092, but they experience higher living expenses than police officers in the Midwest. Thus you should be taking home the same amount of money no matter where you decide to work. Expect your starting pay to be around $17 an hour.

Becoming a Police Officer

If the information above has convinced you that law enforcement is a fitting career for you, you need to research how to become a police officer. You will need to have a high school diploma or equivalent to be admitted into a training program, and you will need to pass a pre-entrance exam to assess your overall abilities. Then you will attend a police academy to be trained in the specific duties you will perform as a cop. Once you have completed your training, you can begin looking for work in a police department.

Not everyone is cut out to be a police officer. This can be a very dangerous career, and it may require long hours of work away from your family. The training program does not take long to complete, but you ill continuously undergo new forms of training while working in the field. This job is relatively unpredictable, so you have to be able to think fast in every situation you get yourself into. If you can successfully handle the stress of all that, you should make a good police officer.

With the police officer job description above in mind, you can now determine if this is the right career for you.