Posted: 10/12/2007 11:08:56 PM EDT
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At the begining of the year, after 18 months working, I was terminated from my job at the local SO for neglect of duty. I won't say I was doing my job to the best of my ability so I can't say it was right or wrong. It did take me by enough suprise that I didn't even try to find out what I had actually done to be terminated. I worked in the jail for the entire 18 months and really enjoyed it. I wasn't mandated just jail school certified. My questions is should I even try to find another LE job. I was told that it would be very hard to get hired with this on my record. I've seen deputies fired for much worse that had a new job in less than a week but they were mandated. Sorry for the long post I just miss the work. It is a great feeling when you see someone on the street that thanks you for something you said that helped get them straight. TIA k_g_b |
You got terminated and have no idea why?? |
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I did get into trouble before and I know what it was about, but I don't know what I actually did to get terminated. Things were looking better and then I was terminated. They were after my sargent as well and I found out he was demoted to deputy about 2 weeks later. Made me feel like crap even though I don't know if it had anything to do with me. I'm 24 and this was my first shot at a career and not just a job. None of my family really liked the idea of me going into LE so I'm definatly not getting support trying to get back into it. Thanks |
What exactly was going on there? I realize there may be some things that you don't want to talk about here, but let's have some more details on the entire situation pease. |
| Were you not counseled by your superiors as to why you were terminated? You mentioned neglect of duty in your first post & then go on to say you got in trouble, presumably for something else, but aren't sure if that had anything to do with the action? Maybe a combination of the two? There must be more to the stroy that's not being advised. At least for a bunch of guys reading this on a monitor, we might need a little more intel to be of any potential help. However, not being with your agency or having first hand knowledge of you, it's hard to say. At least around my AO & I can assume it's similar across the land, you're pretty much screwed if you get fired from an active, sworn LE position. But terminations from any job will follow you & potentially hinder future employment elsewhere. |
Seriously thinking about it. My fiancee supports the idea but in truth doesn't want me to do it. I had gotten into trouble for being late several times. 30 minute trip sometimes took over an hour and I was taking the quickest route. My fault though. This was part of the reason I was fired but I don't know what compounded it. My Sgt got onto the wrong side of his new LT and she told him she would have his job. He was transfered to the jail and was doing a good job in my opinion. I even came up for Officer in Charge right after he came to the jail, but didn't get it due to previously getting in trouble. My Sgt had vacations cancelled, was made to work several 18 - 20 hr shifts to cover the day shift Sgt, and things of this type. He would also get into trouble for things the day shift Sgt did daily. Nothing really just stupid little stuff. Rules changed daily for our night shift. I was councled for being late and for a problem with the other night shift Sgt, she had a problem allowing us to do our jobs when I worked for her. However when I was fired I was just told " Sorry it came to this." and was handed a stack of papers about four inches thick to sign. |
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I don't know how it is where you work, but you really, really, really have to screw up to actually get fired from the various places I have been exposed to. Sounds to me like you just were not ready for the job. Most, if not all, corrections facilities are soo short handed that they will put up with quite a bit of crap from employees before giving them the boot. Sorry, but to me it sounds like more than "I was late a few times and had a run in with the other shift Sgt."...  . If not, then you got screwed.Forget the military, I served 20 years AD with the US Army, and if you could not cut it in corrections, the military will be much harder on you. |
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Getting involved and chosing sides on the Sgt v. Lt fight was a bad move for a new guy. Never get into a command pissing match unless your also part of the command. Now you know why the most common advice here to new guys is to shout up, open their ears, and learn the job. Each supervisor runs the show different. Learn what each wants to make them happy. This is not changing the rules it's just their show. Maybe being fired is a blessing if the agency was making guys work 20 hour days and cancelling vacations. Go apply and tell the new agency how much you learned from being fired. If your not hired in a year of trying, I would say your done. The military is looking for guys, but being late there and screwing up will be painful and not involve getting fired.  Bucky145 |
1st: I hope you did not sign them. 2nd WTF did you do? |
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Everything you've said so far smells really funny. Why don't you call this former Sgt and ask why you were canned? Or is it because you already know why? This really does sound like you are trying to solicit sympathy for being a shitbag. P.S. If you do join the military, stay the hell out of the MP's. They really hate people with integrity issues and do their damndest to run them out of the military. 
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+1 Most cops have the best bullshit detectors in the world and ours are going off at the moment. If you screwed up, man up and tell the entire story. It's human nature to leave out the parts that show you in a bad light and everyone does it.....however, giving part of the story and then expecting sympathy reeks of turd. You've partially admitted that you have made mistakes. Good for you. Either tell the ENTIRE story or don't post about it in here if you don't want it to be analized. We're cops. That's what we do!!  |
| This is the first time that I have posted this. I was simply asking for a "Yea go for it, your chances don't look good, but you should try." My problem is my family and friends don't support the idea of me being LE. If you all still want the whole story I'll try to post it tonight if I have time. Honestly I'm sorry to have asked. |
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Tough one, low post count, insufficient info, I could see how many would see it as a put on. As for me I was up for termination 3 times, did a lot of suspension...only when I took them to Federal court for harassing me as It was tied to me being the Union President. They got a 20 minutte guilty and wrote me a check. My Boss and his boss sudeenly retired. IT would take me pages to cover the details. Youhave to wait for the book. |
Here's my advice: When you go for another LE job, you're going to sign waivers that will allow the new agency full access to the materail they based your discharge on. Do I need to say more? |
| Sheriff's dept. are political appointments, you can be fired for no cause other then your tie was crooked at line up. small local cop shops might hire IF you have completed BLET start the app for the feds (can take 2 -3 years for call back) Border patrol is looking for bodies and once you get in the door you can move around. |
Friends don't like cops and family is afraid I'll get hurt. Friends don't matter but I care what my family thinks even if I don't agree with it. Well for the first 9 months or so it was pretty much straightforword. I had a good Sgt that helped me learn some of the ins and outs of LE. After Katrina I worked both night shifts for a month or so. The other shift was shorthanded, we had a guy on suspension, and another guy in the NG that was sent to NO. With only 2 people still working and the other person had another job so that left me to work the other shift. No problem. They hired a few more guys and everything went back to normal.Then we got a new Sgt that didn't care what happened as long as it didn't make him look bad. After 2 months one of the new guys and myself were moved to the other night shift, with a Sgt I hadn't worked for before. We were moved because the other night shift needed help and had no one with experience. The Sgt put the people that new what they were doing in the back of the jail and put the new people up front. The problem was they didn't know what they were doing and we were not accomplishing anything. Who's fault is it? The guys with experience in the back. We could not get up front to get the files that we needed or the inmates out of the holding cell so we could process them. I found out later that the Sgt had told the deputies up front not to open the gate for 2 other deputies and myself.Since my Sgt didn't want to talk to me I went and talked with my Lt. She didn't know most of what was happening on our night shift as she left 2 hours after we came in for the night. The first thing that happened everynight was they sent someone for food. It didn't matter if that meant sending someone to a restraunt 45 minutes away in another county. This was against SOP by the way. She also allowed another deputy to sit in her office and watch movies for 12 hours regularly. I did't have to tell the Lt all this as she found this out herself, I just asked her why we were not allowed to the front and how we were supposed to work without files and inmates. I had been asked to let her know how to make the shift work better and it seemed to me that if we could get up front we could do our jobs better. Well a couple of days later I went to ask the Lt about a couple of days I had asked off. I had to go out a back door that is supposed to remain locked at all times just to get up front to her office. When I asked if the Lt had already left the Sgt told me that she was out of town for training all week. At this time she told me " Remember your one year evaluation is coming up and I'm the one that is going to do it." She said this with a sneer on her face and in a threating way. I just shrugged it off since I had had good evaluations up to this point. My mistake. This evaluation was bad enough to get me on an extended probationary period. We also had another problem. You remember I mentioned the deputy that set in the office and watched movies? Well he did, on occasion come out of the office to work. The problem was he had a knife with a 4 inch blade clipped to his pocket where everyone could see it. This was also against SOP. He wanted to spray someone with oc so bad it wasn't funny. He would go back to the cells and try to start something, putting the rest of the deputies at risk. First we tried talking to him, then we tried talking to the Sgt. Then we took it to the Lt. He got wrote up but that was it. A couple of days later it was back in his pocket and he was trying to start crap with one of the methheads in the back. He choose this inmate because he knew that if he kept pushing him, he would take a swing. The inmate was finally taken to the holding cell. I noticed on the camera that he was doing something with his back turned to the camera. After I saw him set a cup down I knew what he was doing. I slowly opened the door of the holding cell and told him who I was and that I was coming in. I got along well with this inmate but I still didn't trust him so I had another deputy follow me. I asked what was in the cup and he told me piss and that he was going to throw it in the other deputies face when he came into the cell. I told him to go pour it in the toilet and he did. I then told him to sit down for a few minutes and I would get him back to his cell. Now I'm not going to let an inmate hurt another deputy but the deputy was the one that started the arguement. I went and let the Sgt know what was going on and informed her that the deputy still was carring the knife. She told him to unclip it and stick it in his pocket.  After this I asked to be moved back to the other night shift. The Lt moved the deputy and me both back to the other shift. The new Sgt was old and almost ready to retire but he was a good guy. He had worked for court security had planned to stay there. His new Lt wanted to change something and he messed up and corrected her in front of the other deputies. She got mad and told him that she would have his job. My Lt asked to have him transfered to the jail and he was. He even tried to learn how to do everything in the jail. Well by now I had been written up for being late to work by 5 minutes on a couple of nights I had headcount. It still got done in time but that didn't matter. I was late again and was suspended for 3 days. This stopped me from coming to work late. However by now the jail Major was changing the rules in the jail and it seemed to only affect our night shift. The rules changed at least once a week. The deputy with the knife was transfered to our shift. My Sgt went on vacation the he had been approved for over 6 monthes earlier. After two days he was called and told to report to the jail, the day shift Sgt called in and asked for the day off and a Sgt had to be on duty at all time. The deputy with the knife was caught looking at porn at work one night that the Sgt was off and just got talked to. If you can't tell I didn't really like him by now. The day Sgt took another day off and my Sgt had to work most of his shift as well as ours. A few days later my Sgt and Lt pulled me aside and told me they wanted me to me officer in charge. I said I would do it even though I didn't really want to, I thought this was a good thing tough. The following week I was late again because I didn't know I was headcount, I wasn't told that it had been changed. This caused me to lose officer in charge before I even started. As I said before the rules were changing almost everyday. My Sgt and myself seemed to always be on the wrong side although I wasn't getting written up or anything. We did find out why the deputy could sit in the office and watch movies all night finally. He was sleeping with the Sgt. We didn't find out untill she turned up pregnant. This is also why he was not getting into trouble for everything he was doing. A couple of weeks later my Sgt was talking to me about becoming OIC again. At 7 am I went home, a little after 9 I was called and asked to report to the Majors office at the jail. When I got there my Lt and the Major informed me that I was being terminated. It was the first time that I've ever been fired and took me by surprise. The Major sat a stack of papers in front of me about 4 inches thick and asked me to sign them. I was still on my probationsry period so I didn't have a leg to stand on. I signed them, turned in my badge and ID and left. The only thing that I was told was sorry it came to this. I was terminated in January and have not tried to get a LE job since. I miss it and was thinking about trying. I have found other sections of AR15 supportive and was hoping to get the samething here. I'm definitely am not looking for pity and I really don't appreciate being called a shitbag. To me it feels like some of you have forgot that not everyone out there is a criminal. To the ones that have something even halfway positive to say, thanks. |
| Better details, now when you left late did they pay you for every minute? If not they were in error with the 5 minute late. It would violate the FLSA, that is Federal. Sherifs are great for hiding the worst in the Jail. THey think they know it and mess up. You have two choices, shut up and move on , forgetting about LE. Or fight to keep your record clean, but also that makes you look like a trouble maker. |
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Well kid, it seems you got a lot of "negative" responses from the crew here because you posted a vague story to start. You have to have thick skin in this line of work so maybe reading those type of replies will benefit you. Sounds like you're better off being out of that jail. However, it's your life & career & it's concerning that you did not inquire more about your termination & exhaust all means to determine if they adminsitered your firing correctly. Now, I understand that you can be canned for spitting on the sidewalk while you're a probie, but it's your responsibility to make sure that you did, or if you're a liberal, didn't do anything to that can be reasonably justifiable to get the ax. So, unless you've done something else you haven't advised, it sounds like you could be asking more questions about your situation if it's how you're portraying it in your posts. I'm not saying you weren't canned for a good reason, no one here was there with you, but it's your employment record at stake & it wouldn't hurt to do so. Some commanders will let a few tardies show up before they start to document, counsel or write you up, depending on the subordinates past performance or potential. Best rule of thumb is to insure you're not late by your own doing. Yes, it can be done during an entire career if you plan your strategy correctly. Remember...lack of prior planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. I would decide now if you are well with this termination on your background or if you want to chance it while going through the process with a LE agency. This is something the investigator doing your background will call & talk to folks about & it will be exhaustive. Another thing to remember is that in LE you will have commanders that are as bad, if not worse, than the commanders you worked for. Potentially the same in any job from any career path so you need to learn to take things with a grain of salt when working for these nasty types. Until you get into a supervisory or leadership position you need to learn the ins & outs of following...expecially in a military or quasi-military agency, i.e. LE work. Better yet, be a leader while you're a subordinate. To do neither is to fall out of the hump & you'll just be a malingerer all of your career. Good luck. |
One thing that concerns me is that you say that none of your friends like cops. What kind of friends are you hanging out with? PROBABLY DEFENSE ATTORNEYS!!! 
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Defense attorneys love cops. Without us, they wouldn't have jobs!! |