Originally Posted by BBLUM

This is funny that I found this thread. I have been a police officer for 8 years, and have been seriously contemplating changing my career to a pilot. I started my law enforcement career at 21 when I got out of college. From High School I always knew I wanted to do two things.... Be a cop and protect people, or fly. I took the ladder after college and went to the police academy. After 8 months I graduated and was hired as a sheriff's deputy. I was barely 21 and so excited. After 8 years in this line of work, I can tell you one thing. Stress is a joke. I have spent my time getting guns pulled on me, having split second decisions of shoot or don't shoot. I have worked fatal vehicle accidents of people ranging from every age, and guess who is the person who tells the next of kin??? That's you Mr. Cop... If you've never driven to someone's house and woken them up in the middle of the night to tell them you just worked their family members crash, shooting, any other kind of death, and to see the expression on their face.... That's horrible. Don't get me wrong, I love every minute of my job, but this job does take a toll that no one can understand until they have done it. That's why anyone that has been in this line of work considers each other brothers. All I'm saying is law enforcement may seem like a great job because they get paid ok, but I can tell you right now, it does not pay the amount it should for what you have to do, and I barely touched the tip of the iceberg. So make sure you are getting into law enforcement for the right reasons, and not just because the pay looks good, because as I've said, you will earn that pay, and learn to realize you deserve so much more...