Have You Or Would You Ever Work For Another Law Enforcment Agency?

I think it will be interesting to hear from people about this. Are you working for your dream agency right now and when you can retire you are done with this "Cop Stuff"? Of are you a younger guy or gal dying to get to you dream agency right now? Or, are you going to ride out where you are now, retire when you can, and go work part time for a small county sheriff's office doing court security or prisoner transports? Let's here it. (It would be kind of interesting to know if most coppers work one agency and one agency only, or if most move around just a little bit.)

I got started when I was 26. I was in a large metropolitan region with a department of about 1500 sworn cops with a county of a million residents and a huge commuter population. The agency paid me salary and benefits and sent me to a 23 week academy and a 3 month FTO.

I moved 3 hours away, within the same state to a small urban department. We had 260 cops for a population of about 100K residents. That was an easy lateral transfer with about 3 weeks or riding with other cops to get acclimated to department policy and procedure.

Hard economic times there got me looking to move again. I used the opportunity to move to a state I never previously dreamed of being able to live in. I work for a state agency and will have the opportunity here to live in different climates, and regions. I had to attend a 2 month "lateral" academy here to learn new legal and procedural issues. I completed a full 5 month long FTO process.

At nearly 40 I just rebooted my retirement clock. I honestly can't imagine doing anything else. If patrol gets too rough for my rickety bones I'll have other opportunities with this agency.

I started at my original agency in 1998. Last year with the way CA was looking I jumped ship and lateraled out of state. It's been great. Wish I would have done it sooner.

I think I'll be happy where I am for a long time yet, as I work for a full-service Sheriff's Office. There are a lot of different divisions I could work in.

I couldn't bring myself to work for the local PD.

About the only place I could ever see myself moving is to the Marshals Service, but I really don't wanna do another academy right now...

Worked for a sheriffs office for 6 years. Liked it but wanted to move to another state to be closer to
family. Now work for a small agency in my state of choice. Much different then my last agency but I must say I like it. Not planning on leaving but most likely retiring here. The question is when lol.

Be glad you left. This place is even worse now than before....

I'm on my 4th agency, and my story is kinda strange. Started out as a reserve (county), found I liked LE and went full-time (municipal), then got a job as a federal agent (my "dream job" for a long time), and after 4 years, getting married and having my first kid found that my opportunities to get my family back home with the feds was next to nil and returned to local LE (another municipal PD) in my home state. I now work in the city next to my home town and live another town over, and so far life is good. :biggrin1:

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Originally Posted by Kimble

I'm on my 4th agency, and my story is kinda strange. Started out as a reserve (county), found I liked LE and went full-time (municipal), then got a job as a federal agent (my "dream job" for a long time), and after 4 years, getting married and having my first kid found that my opportunities to get my family back home with the feds was next to nil and returned to local LE (another municipal PD) in my home state. I now work in the city next to my home town and live another town over, and so far life is good. :biggrin1:

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When I started I thought the destination would be a fed agency. Now I find myself living in a conservative state, not to mention probably the most conservative area of AL, where the cost of living is low. I've got good equipment, good pay, and the ability to do different things within my agency. My kids and wife don't have to worry about relocating on my behalf. If we get an air unit I might just work for free after I retire. I even tried to talk someone around here to applying here, but he couldn't hack it.:D

I started off in LE as a bit of a "what should I do now" moment when I was 19.
I came from a military family but didn't want to join the military at the time. LE seemed like an exciting possibllity.
I spent 8 yrs working in the South West of Egland and then, although very happy where I was working, transferred north to a more rural county. I transfered for family reasons and in the hope of making some money on the price difference between housing in the two different areas.
Probably a bad idea in hindsight but I got on OK up here and eventualy through a bit of a fluke made it onto a specialist depatment that actually turned out to be my best move.
You should never just sit back and take the pay day as a police officer.You do yourself nor the area you work any favours.
If you're not happy for family or work reasons, move on if you can.

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Originally Posted by Motorwaycop

You should never just sit back and take the pay day as a police officer.You do yourself nor the area you work any favours.

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More people need to read and heed this. Perfectly said.

Started in 03 in Virginia. Moved there from Pennsylvania solely for the job. After a short while, it became clear that I wouldn't retire there.

Lateraled to Colorado. Love living here. Like working here enough, but there is a Fed agency that I've always wanted to work for, that there is a small chance that I may apply to.

I want to move to a bigger city/agency, but the economy is such crap right now, and I keep seeing all of these agencies laying off. Right now, I have enough seniority that I should be safe. If I go elsewhere, that's not a guarantee.

I want to go to a larger agency with better pay/benefits and job opportunities. I would really love to do K-9 or interdiction (which for some strange reason Mobile PD doesn't have). I went to Seattle last year and loved it, but I'm not seeing that as a possibility. Wouldnt mind Houston or Dallas.

Started as a reserve for my home town, then went to work as a reserve officer in the town I now work in full time. Did hospital security for a few years to pay the bills and to start paying into state retirement while volunteering as a cop, then got hired full-time in 2005 with my agency. Received a promotion last year to Sergeant, so now I'm earning too much to go anywhere else. I'll retire out of my agency in October 2029 with 31 years of paying into the state's retirement plan, and I'm currently in school to get an business-accounting degree so I won't get bored when I retire.

Covman

A little under 10 years with the one and only dept I've worked for. My guard unit had several troopers who encouraged me to test, and I was a one-shot, one-kill and here I am. Over 20,000 hopefuls took the exam, and each time the SP or the civil service exam comes out there are literally tens of thousands of applicants.

If not for the job I was ready to pull up stakes and sell my snow blower for a warmer climate. Well, of course God totally goofed on me and my plans to move were squandered for other reasons and I stayed. I don't know too many jobs like this in New England so I guess I've got it pretty good. Even feds have stated to me they secretly wished they'd got on my department.

We are full service and have all of the toys and units. Many prior-service officers come here because of the ability to do different things and better pay/bennies. After the years of commuting to some far away station that you never heard of, things get waaaaaaay better. Close to home, shift I want, time off is easy, and opportunities to move around are all here.

I'm on my second agency. Started out after I ETSed out of the military in 1998. Got on with a municipality and stayed with them a little under 5 years. Got tired of the micro-management and constant supervision. Applied to the State and was lucky enough to get on the first time through, have been with them going on 7 years now and I absolutely love it!

I did the task force thing with the Feds over at the municipality I was with and recently with the State. While it had its moments, I would never want to go Fed. After working with those guys (the first task-force was strictly DEA, the second was a mixture of ATF, FBI, USSS, Marshals, USPSI and some other agencies), I can't say I was all that impressed. Most of them, told me that if it wasn't for the money, they wished they had gone or stayed local. A lot of these kids coming out of college these days grow up seeing the Feds glamorized on TV shows and think they are going to be running and gunning like on TV and sadly it just ain't so.

My agency is full-service and if and when I decide to stop chasing tail-lights and working calls, I can transfer to a criminal or narcotics investigator slot, or the various other assignments within the agency, so in my opinion I have the best of both worlds, plan to retire here and wouldn't give up my gig for all the tea in China....

I plan on at least one transfer before retirement. Preferably sooner then later.

I've been with the same agency since 1985. I was a volunteer fireman with this City for 4 years prior to that. I hope to retire around May of '12 and I am trying to get away from LE but it seems that LE is all I know. Most everything I am finding is LE or security related.

My dream job would have been with Game and Fish here but it used to be very political to get hired with them and by the time I had the chance, I could not take the pay cut.

This City has been very good to me and I don't regret a minute of it, I'm just ready to move on.

I started working for a sheriff dept where i used to live in 2004 i was working in a jail but i thought got to put my time in to go to the road. Two years later still in jail so i got out of law enforcement.

In 2007 wanted to get back into law enforcemnt joined the sheriff dept where i was living at the time working in the jail. Exactly a year later put in application to the sheriff dept i am currently working for. Three years later still with the same dept and on the road for that matter. I plan on staying at this agency i work with a lot of great people and work on a shift with a bunch of good guys that would do anything for you.

This is my third agency. I plan on staying here for another 15 or 20 years. Whenever I retire, I'll be done with anything that even vaguely resembles law enforcement.

I started at a large agency fresh out of the academy at 21. I was in K9 before my 23rd birthday and when my dog retired, I had already found another love - flying. I'm now a full time pilot and a P/T officer.

I've worked for a total of 4 agencies over the past 14 years. I just left my last agency after 4 years to go to a smaller agency where I can be of the most benefit to those I serve. I've kicked in doors, chased bad guys, done the SRT thing and had a heck of a time over the years so it's time for me to slow down just a bit.

At my new agency, I actually get to stop and talk to people. I eat lunch with the chief (as can any other officer) and the residents actually enjoy seeing us. Another plus is that it pays into my state retirement fund from my first LEO job.