Job of a Police Officer

1211 Words3 Pages

Police officers are some of the most important people in a society, and because of that they have a very risky and dangerous job, but also rewarding and exciting. Police officers work to protect public order, prevent crime, and arrest criminals. A police officers job can be very rewarding because helping people can feel really good. A police officers job is also very exciting and random because they never know what they will see when they respond to a call. Police officers are expected to go into dangerous and risky situations and defuse them, not every one likes to do that, some people just want to sit at a desk all day and be at peace. Police officers have a lot of responsibility, because of that they have to go through vigorous training in a police academy and college. The jobs of police officers are very diverse, one minute a police officer might be directing traffic, and than the next minute he may be in the middle of a hostage situation. Police officer jobs aren’t without controversies, there are many stories about police brutality and corruption that keep showing up in the news.
Police officer jobs and requirements are different for every state and police agencies. Because of this it is impossible to to give exact police job requirements and training for all of the US, however there are many requirements that are very common throughout all of the police agencies and states. Some of the most common requirements are that an individual must be a citizen of the US. An individual must have a GED or a high school diploma. An individual must have a drivers license and a firearms license in the state that he or she is applying for. Usually the person must be above 21 years of age, however some departments do have an age requireme...

... middle of paper ...

... example of extreme police brutality would be an unjustified shooting of someone that poses no risk to anyone. One of the biggest cases of police brutality in American history would be the Rodney King beating. Rodney king was an African American man that was beaten by the LAPD, which caused the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The officers that beat Rodney king got a 32 month prison sentence after the incident. This incident and the Riots as the most important incident in the LAPD that lead to a very big reform. According to Andres and Stevens (2012) “King became a symbol for police brutality and the troubled relations between the LAPD and minority residents when he was pulled over for speeding by Los Angeles Police Department officers and beaten more than 20 years ago “. This proves how important it is for police brutality to stop, and how seriously it should be taken.

Open Document