SHould I become a LEO

I've been in emergency services for coming up on 30 years, at first on the ems side and for over 23 on the fire service side. I've come to a conclusion about people in emergency services and it's this, You're either a cop or not. yes you deal with a variety of derelicts and psychos on the ambulance on a daily basis but you deal with them on a different level. cops have a completely different outlook and approach toward people. I've dealt with you on a couple of occasions and you strike me as a heck of a guy and a dedicated worker, i'd even let you babysit my sheep, but as mentioned by a poster above if you ask you already know the answer. cops make lousy firefighters/ems people{as a rule there are exceptions}and conversely firefighters/ems make lousy cops{see above disclaimer}. the real downside is that ems that is not fire based is, at least in a lot of areas from my experience, a terrible career. most medics work at least 2 jobs in order to make a decent living. firefighters and police are much better off due at least in part to the fact that they've been around a lot longer than ems and are better established. In about 25 years ems will be a good field to go into for a lifelong career but right now not so much.
this is just my opinion and i don't mean to insult any field or individual. rescueriley good luck with your decision and let us know what you decide.
btw, if you're a paramedic look into going on the fastrack into R.N. school. great money, a variety of job areas to go into,job security. and don't worry you don't have to wear the skirt, unless you want to.
 
Moving to Community as this has nothing to do with Wilderness & Survival. Please note that we have other forums here for posts such as these.
 
Bopleo said:
shift work, politics, thankless job, mediocre pay, never see your family, spend all your off time in court, 10 hour shift becomes 16 after too often, ass kissers, climbers.

This is what you dont think about when becoming a cop. Its not all glory, not of it ever is.
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:thumbup:...Ditto. Yup...That's about the Truth of it.
 
cmgray said:
the difference is when someone calls you to their house as ems/fd people in the house want your help there. I can't say the same for the police when we get the call. I'm not taking away from ems cause I want you guys around. But consider this you go when they call. In many instance I'm required to forcefully insert myself into their lives (self initiated enforcement, ie traffic stops). I'm not trying to turn this thread into a whose job is better but police and ems is like comparing apples to potatoes.
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Not everyone wants ems around man. Ive been to plenty of calls where I was not welcome. Been hit, kicked, bit, drawn down on, And thats just the patient. I have had several instances of family being angered and things turning bad. I ran one last week where the boyfriend hit girlfriend with pistol, and came after me when we got there and law was outside telling us scene was secure. Drunk drivers who wreck dont call us, and arent usually happy to see us. Attemted suicides dont call us, and dont want us there, people involved in fights dont call us bystanders do. I really dont understand where you are coming from thinking my job is so sifferant. With the exception of traffic stops, we are almost alays at the same calls as you guys. Thats part of what I think is wrong with public service, everyone thinks there job is the hardest, and most important, and we are all on the same team. I on average have to spend 1-2 hrs with each of my patients due to transport times, and alot of the time they arent happy. I have several friends who I work with every day who are deputies, police, tac medics, etc...and none of them have that opinion. I know you probably didnt mean any offence, but I just totally disagree with the apples potatoes comment. Have you ever rode along with us? I have rode along with you guys, and my father is a retired sherriff, so I am not basing my assumptions on nothing.

Sorry for drifting, but its not to far off from rielys question so......

No offence intended either dude, none at all, I just think you are missing some perspective on what we do......j
 
ahgar said:
I've been in emergency services for coming up on 30 years, at first on the ems side and for over 23 on the fire service side. I've come to a conclusion about people in emergency services and it's this, You're either a cop or not. yes you deal with a variety of derelicts and psychos on the ambulance on a daily basis but you deal with them on a different level. cops have a completely different outlook and approach toward people. I've dealt with you on a couple of occasions and you strike me as a heck of a guy and a dedicated worker, i'd even let you babysit my sheep, but as mentioned by a poster above if you ask you already know the answer. cops make lousy firefighters/ems people{as a rule there are exceptions}and conversely firefighters/ems make lousy cops{see above disclaimer}. the real downside is that ems that is not fire based is, at least in a lot of areas from my experience, a terrible career. most medics work at least 2 jobs in order to make a decent living. firefighters and police are much better off due at least in part to the fact that they've been around a lot longer than ems and are better established. In about 25 years ems will be a good field to go into for a lifelong career but right now not so much.
this is just my opinion and i don't mean to insult any field or individual. rescueriley good luck with your decision and let us know what you decide.
btw, if you're a paramedic look into going on the fastrack into R.N. school. great money, a variety of job areas to go into,job security. and don't worry you don't have to wear the skirt, unless you want to.
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I cant disagree more dude. I can think of 20 cops off the top of my head that are EMS also, and vice vesa, and are excellant at both jobs. The ones who arent IMO have no buessness doin either, and are in the minority. People skills are important in both fields, being that arrogant tuff-guy cop just makes everyones job harder, as does the arrogant tuff-guy medic.

There are some prime examples in this thread of all of us needin to realize that we are all on the same team, and deal with the same types of people as well. If medics dont make good cops, then why do so many moonlight on the ambulance? Why do so many medics and ems do part time law work? I just dont get it.
 
Oh, and I have 20 and out retirement, paid health insurance, and life insurance, and I am a public ambulance service not affiliated with fire. Salaries are awesome too.
 
j williams said:
Oh, and I have 20 and out retirement, paid health insurance, and life insurance, and I am a public ambulance service not affiliated with fire. Salaries are awesome too.
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man that is great and i'm very happy for you. as i mentioned in my thread this has been my experience. I've never met an emt that did security or a cop that rode and ambulance unless it was an emergency. And i don't mean to imply that one profession can't do the others job my point of view is that deep down you're one or the other and you need to stay true to that. just my .02.
 
I understood, and I wasnt meaning to come off like I took offense or was angry, that wasnt the case at all. I understand what you mean, bout being one or the other, I guess what I mean is we all awnser the call to serve the public, and in public sevice I think were all on the same totem pole, with very similar stresses.

That being said, I think anyone who awnsers the call, either military or public servants, are very commedable people, and I think we all get a little burned out at times, but we all keep doin it for the most part, cause its part of who we are.

Im also glad that we can all come together to discuss these things in an open arena, and we all know we have each others backs, so there is no ill will.
 
What have we here ? medics who are wanabe cops. I am not refering to the man who wants a career change but someone here is delusional and somehow has the impression that the medical profession is almost the same as the enforcement profession (in this case law enforcement)
As far as a the EMS profession being a good carreer move maybe for a few in a few (very few) locations. The EMS I know does not pay very good salaries if you have kids or other sort of family financial obligations you better get a second job because this won't cut it.
What do you get ? you get lots of stress especially if you work late hours and screw up your bio timeclock. You get to constantly witness other people's pain, grief, suffering, and panic while you have to make life and death decisions that not even much more educated ME residents are not allowed to do in a fully equiped and staffed hospital. Nothing like mandated overtime to screw up your family plans and time with your kids but hey if you don't have that second job you may need it to feed them and pay rent.
Do we get attacked sometimes yes we do. We have to go into hot miserable apartments and carry heavy people down stairs risking spinal cord injury (back problems can be horrible to live with) the element of suprise is almost always against us in all aspects of our work.
Why are a lot of EMTS/Paramedics overweight and in poor health I can take a good guess stress I have seen healthy young people come in and get obese within two years time stress hormones and odd work hours will do funny things to your body. A lot of EMS workers also walk around with a stick up their a## despite that it is not hard to figure out why.
To top things off there is the lack of respect by everone around us including parts of our own administration you can get into trouble at anytime for anything whether reasonable or not you will never get called to be told what a wonderful job you have been doing.
Dangers include violence by agitated people, violence by mentally ill people, contagiouse diseases, body fluids and blood, contaminated needles and sharps, lifting injuries, motor vehicle accidents (such as getting struck by drivers who don't care), dogs, the use of weapons such as guns or knives, threats of physical violence and verbal abuse (we may have to carry these people downstairs cops will just throw them downstairs [a figure of speech only].)
You see EMS workers have too many on the job dangers already, some that cops face and others that they generally don't, I don't need to add any more dangers by trying be super cop EMT.
That being said being an EMT/Paramedic is a truly honerable profession and something to be proud of whoever does this job needs your support and respect.
In addition EMTs need a better salary and better working conditions. It is often that I sigh a sigh of relief when hear that someone has transfered out to more physically and psychologically freindly job it also saddens that I do. I want my job to be physical and psych freindly enough for me to conscientiously try to encourage them to stay.
 
j williams said:
I understood, and I wasnt meaning to come off like I took offense or was angry, that wasnt the case at all. I understand what you mean, bout being one or the other, I guess what I mean is we all awnser the call to serve the public, and in public sevice I think were all on the same totem pole, with very similar stresses.

That being said, I think anyone who awnsers the call, either military or public servants, are very commedable people, and I think we all get a little burned out at times, but we all keep doin it for the most part, cause its part of who we are.

Im also glad that we can all come together to discuss these things in an open arena, and we all know we have each others backs, so there is no ill will.
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roger that, and i agree.
 
EMTs/Paramedics deal with only sick or injured people for the most part that alone makes the job dangerous and unique
 
I dont think im delusional, nor am I a wannabe cop. I am making my observations on public service as a whole. I dont know if your aiming that at me, but I for one am not attacking anyone.
 
Delusional was just the wrong word as read down the list of things that I wrote myself I saw three of my own fingers pointing back at me because everything that I listed with the exception of using a stairchair and dealing with primarily sick and injured people are dangers that cops face themselves. My past experiences have caused me to stereotype both sides of the fence.
I am sorry
 
I think if you are asking the question of OTHER people, then I would say the answer is NO. I believe that it is a calling to be an LEO. I don't think you have the calling.
 
I have been involved in a deputy sheriff job on a part time basis for 27 years and Bwilson pretty much said it like it is. I retired from a welding profession 71/2 years ago and my part time has been pretty much full time LEO since I retired from cutting torches and burning welding rods. You have to enjoy the work (LEO) or you will not be happy with the job. If I was going to do it over again on a full time basis, I would go for state or federal, not city. Since retiring from welding, about 6 years ago I started making knives as a hobby. Give LEO a try, you can always go back to EMS.
 
I will just say again. With out getting into a who's job is better and more important, or more dangerous, but if the LEO calling doesnt come from with in, its probably not for you. I dont care what career your in now, cops come from all walks of life, but they all have an internal drive, and a survival instinct that cant be put there through training, it is already there.

I will mention the names of thousands of officers whose names are on the memorial wall in Washington DC. That's how were different, NOT BETTER.
 
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