GadgetQueen

Not sure which movie you're referencing, but if you have Netflix and search Everest, there are a few movies and documentaries. I've watched all of them and every single one definately gives the Sherpas proper respect. They make it very clear that they couldn't do 1/100th of what they do without them.

Fellow PO here. I had a case that haunts me to this day. He was a 17 year old kid who was a genius. Senior in high school, had a full 4 year scholarship to MIT waiting for him after graduation. The kid was in some advanced physics class and for a homework assignment, he built a working tiny, model size rocket from scratch. For the fuel, he bought a bunch of fireworks, took out the powder, ground it up somehow, mixed it with a few things, and put his concoction into the rocket engine. Clearly, explaining science is not my expertise. In any case, he went out into the middle of a field, nothing for about 30 miles around him but open grassland, turned on a video camera, and tested his rocket for his science homework. It worked and took off all beautifully and stuff.

However, a police officer was patrolling nearby and saw the small explosion caused by the rocket as it took off. He drove over and detained the kid for possession of the "explosives", which is a felony, which is a very big deal for a 17 year old and has the propensity to ruin his life and his future career, ability to work, etc.

Long story short, he had a crap attorney and he was convicted. Thankfully, he did not get locked up, but just received probation among other things. But his mother, father, teachers, school counselors, pastors...basically everyone and their dog that were involved with this kid were absolutely outraged.

And, yes, you guessed it. With the felony conviction, he lost his MIT scholarship.

Stuff like that pisses me off. And it haunts me. This kid was out creating, learning, trying to get himself somewhere in life. And over a stupid rocket he built from scratch, they took it all away from him in a heart beat. Very sad. Still haunts me. And I wasn't even in the courtroom to hear the case...I saw the reaction of the kid and family as they left the court and stopped to try to calm the situation down.

Yep, it was nifty to read your answers as well. Despite the difference in state law and regulations, it sounds like what we do is quite similar. I am also in the south, in a state a bit west of you (as you mentioned you are in the SW of the US). I also would rather stay vague about what state I work in :)

No, I haven't joined /r/LEO. Didn't know about that, but I'll check into it.

No, none of the officers in our county are armed. We are forbidden to use weapons on the job, which really pisses most of us off. They send us into some pretty horrific areas with a dinky little badge and except us to put our life on the line half the time in order to work miracles. I will say that there have been times that I have been sent into some really bad areas AFTER DARK and ALONE. Considering I am a pasty white female, I stick out like a sore thumb and it can be quite frightening. On those occasions, I am not ashamed to admit that I do carry some sort of self defense weapon for my own sanity. I've had a couple of close run ins (i.e. doing a late night curfew check and the family thought I was there to rob them and pulled a gun on me, but once they realized who I was, they put it away and profusely apologized). Let's just say, the solo unarmed field visits have bolstered my cultural sensitivity and verbal skills. We also can call for a police escort, but the powers that be look negatively on that, except in a worst case scenario. If a PO is always calling the police to escort them, they start hearing rumblings about how they're scared to do their job. I can get away with using an escort a lot easier than the guys can, because I'm female, but its usually something I try to avoid unless I feel like it's really necessary. I also have to be really smart about WHEN I go for a visit. I'm not gonna head out there on a Friday night after dark on the day all the SSI checks were received and everyone is partying, drunk, and smoking crack on the street corner.

Yes, I can arrest and transport. But I'd say its pretty narrow. It's rare for me to go out and pound the pavement to find someone, I just don't have the time. I work in a VERY large county. I have WAY too many cases and I could work a 90 hour week and still not have half of my work done. I just don't have time to go pound the pavement. I have, however, learned many tricks (i.e. talking someone who has been AWOL to actually come into the office and slapping cuffs on them there, with a whole office full of people to help.) I also do transport to the jail, but when I do so, I must use my own car and have another officer with me. We aren't allowed to transport alone. As you can imagine, I don't like having some of these people in my personal car, so in those cases, I usually call the police, advise that I need someone transported, and they come do it for me. The police usually do not like to do this, and sometimes I have to "bribe" them by offering to do the book in paperwork for them.

Pay is the same as you, high 30's. I'd make more, but they take a crap ton out of our checks for retirement. I agreed on a rate of pay and when I got my first check, I was like...wtf is this? A paycheck for ants? Where did all the money go? Low and behold, it went to the retirement program. Unlike you, we do have the official state LEO retirement program and our benefits are excellent. Many times I've thought of looking for another job, but I can't seem to do it because the thought of losing the benefits is awful. Our health insurance benefits are the best I've ever seen. I can go to any doctor, hospital, clinic, urgent care, and behavior health care for pretty much completely free. If I'm in the hospital, I have a small co-payment. As for a pension, we have that too. It so good, that no matter how much money I have socked away when I retire, and even if I use it all up before I die, they will still continue to pay me as if I still had money in there. And I will have full health insurance until the day I die. For free. Yup, our benefits are indescribably awesome, just awesome. They almost make the work bearable :)

Caseload size varies, depending on where you work. I've been doing this about five years and when I first started I was placed into the Intensive Supervision Caseload. This was stupid of them to do to a newbie as I had, really, no idea what I was doing and I was manipulated to high hell by the probationers until I learned the ropes. I have a degree in Social Work and did medical case management before switching over to this, so I was used to sweet, sick people who just needed help surviving health wise. When I started probation, I didn't so much as know how to read a court order. You can imagine the living hell my first year of work was. Hah. In any case, when I was hired on Intensive, which are the most serious offenders out there and generally Intensive is their last stop before being locked up, I was first told I would have a caseload of 10 or less because we had to see them 4-5 times a week to keep them on track. After I finished the Academy and passed the licensing exam, I showed up to work all excited to get my first cases and there were 42 cases on my desk. Forty two people that I had to see 4-5 times a week. Yup, it was nuts. After about 2 years, I was nearing burnout, and asked to be moved. My caseload went down to 6, but I was working more intensively with them in a specialized program. I did very well with that and got upper management's attention because all of my probationers did outstandingly well and they were wondering what the hell I was doing to get such great compliance. After another year, I was advised by a higher up that I did so well with the specialized program, they were moving me to a new office to run a mental health caseload that they had found a need for and created for me. So, now, I have a caseload of 12, but they are ALOT of work as they all have significant mental health issues, some are autistic, PID, and MR. This is my niche, I am quite good at it, and I've been pretty happy here, although I do work long hours, and I am always on call twenty four hours a day (the county gives me a cell phone and access at home to all of my needed computer software). Yesterday, on Saturday, I worked from 1 PM until 3 AM in the morning, if that gives you any indication of the odd, long hours I work. When you have a caseload of mentally ill offenders, you make adjustments. It works for me, though, because I am not a morning person, so setting my own hours with my supervisors approval is a great fit.

Yes, the dogs suck, as do the attorneys and ridiculous court delays. I had a guy sit in jail for like 6 months due to reschedule after reschedule after reschedule. He finally lost his mind and we had to have him hospitalized for mental health concerns. So ridiculous. But now that you mention those things, nods, total agreement. And let me add the lazy POs, the idiotic dysfunctional management that I have no idea how they got promoted, people who screw up and then lie about it, lazy staff who work harder to sabotage things instead of just doing their job, racism, sexism, ageism, political backstabbing...its all here as as a lovely government employee. Sometimes I stop and look around and go, "Is this really happening right now? I feel like I"m working in the 60's."

But overall, there is NO BETTER FEELING than to see someone turn their life around. Out of the thousands that I've supervised, I now run into them in the community and they come up to me, hug me, and thank me for helping them. There is absolutely no better feeling in the world.

Fellow PO here.

In my state, no, you could not become a PO or LEO with the felony. That immediately disqualifies you, unless you get a pardon.

However, I will say that my county has folks with felonies come in and counsel people ALL THE TIME. We pay them to do so. You could quite easily do that.

Indeed, mental health issues are like 50% of the problem right off the bat.

My county hired a foundation to come in a study us, study what works and what doesn't work. Their number one result: lack of mental health care services and assistance.

So we've implemented a whole slew of mental health stuff. I am not sure if I agree with it or not yet, still too early to tell. Yes, they need mental health services, no doubt. But what I am finding is that the folks that are in my program and get the "mentally ill" designation are now getting away with stuff they shouldn't. They're having concessions made for them that shouldn't be made. I'm not sure what's worse - not having the services or giving them an excuse to provide when they mess up (i.e. "Oh, well I'm crazy and I didn't know what I was doing.")? Right now, I'm siding with the we need to give them mental health services because nothing will or can change for them until they get the services, but I have yet to settle on how I really feel.

Our program gives them individual counseling, family counseling, a weekly visit with a psychiatrist, free medication, and I see them 3-5 times a week for individual probation related visits as I don't do the counseling. It works because their therapists, psychiatrist, and I work together as a team. We all are on the same page, meet weekly about each case, and we all know exactly what they are capable of or not. When we decide on an intervention, the probationer hears it from all three of us. It's actually a pretty cool program that was grant funded. I'm not sure how successful it will be yet, but I am in my niche. I am pretty happy and the clients are getting services. You can't beat that, really. Especially from the government.