I just dont understand the rationale of starting new guys out at slower stations.

Or a newbie to LE applying with a slow department.

When I started it wasn't uncommon to get a DV arrest just about every night.

Drunks that wanted to fight left and right, big crime scenes, foot chases, felony narc arrests etc.

get the experience when your new that way you can handle big situations with ease.

While I agree with your statement, In the current climate, you gotta start somewhere. Its not always possible to start in a larger agency.

I agree 100%

And after 12+ years with the same agency, I still deal with the same thing all the time

Not to mention with some areas it may not be feasable to work in a busy dept.  If someone lives too far away to commute, you kinda gotta work somewhere close to home or that will hire you....afterall in this current economic climate, beggers can't be choosers.

So people trying to get into LE should turn down jobs that are in 'slower' areas and hold out for 'faster paced' depts?

I'm not sure what it's like getting into LE where you are but around here getting hired is extremely competitive and getting your foot in the door is huge. Not to mention 'faster paced' depts usually don't pay anywhere on par with the 'slower paced' municipal depts.

While I understand what you are trying to say, I wouldn't ever put someone down for applying for a job anywhere simply because it's not 'fast paced' enough.

There are different types of police officers. You have your go getters and you have your community policing types. Policing in Mayberry is definitely different from the concrete jungle. With that said, at this point, I'd gladly trade all of the BS of the concrete jungle and return to Mayberry in a heartbeat.

Again, like someone already said, it's not feasible to start out with busy departments due to the job market.

All of the departments I've applied to would be considered 'slow' departments, except for the Constable's Office. The Constable's gig would be serving Class B and Class A warrants, with a little civil process on the side.

Did all that today!  Well almost.  Took a harassing phone call report....which seems double sided.....And towed a car for No Insurance.

i had the priviledge of serving in a "busy dept" and now serve in a "slower" department. however the same stuff happens where i am now as when i was in the the busier dept just with less frequency...im sure its the same for everywhere else...all based on population density and what not

I can testify that being tossed into the deep end will teach you how to swim real fast.

Agreed. Started off walking a solo footpost in Bedford-Stuyvesant at 20 years old back in '93 when our 1 square mile precinct was clocking over 70 homicides a year.

I don't know. I did my first two years at a place that was insanely busy. As a result, my only skills are in nvestigation of all manners of assault. I got to a slow place and I was a total flop at traffic enfocement, fraud investigations, dealing with Mr. & Mrs Average townsfolk because I was too busy to learn the whole job. As with most elements in this profession, you need a little from column A and a little from column B.

I signed up to be a police. Not a crossing guard...


**still in the academy**

I agree with OP.

I do believe that recruits need to take what they can get in this economic climate though.

I am always concerned when I hear potential future officers say they don't want to work at xxxx agency because it's too busy or crime is too high there.

If you don't want to be knee deep in the thick of all the trouble then maybe this career is not for you.

Just my two cents.

My buddy is trying to entice me to patch over to his force by bragging that his city is second highest in the nation in violent crime; as well as the number of SWAT callouts they do

I might like your buddy.

Though I do agree, the bigger is that if a rookie comes fresh out of the academy and goes to a VERY slow area - they will develop "slow habits" as an old sgt told us.

you have to get your feet wet very quickly on this job.

I work for a medium size Sheriff's Office and I agree with the idea of starting with a larger department having some benefits as far as experience, but experience with smaller agencies may yield some advantages too.

I've FTO'd dozens of officers and some from smaller agencies were used to working in a Mayberry like environment.  But some guys from smaller departments were very good and very skilled officers.  Some of these folks were used to working alot of advanced investigations due to the limited number of detectives/investigators at their prior department.  Some also had very good officer safety and interaction/contact skills, which are a result of not having alot of back-up available or close by (especially smaller sheriff's office folks).

The only thing I noticed was when they were put in a busy zone humping calls, they were sometimes overwhelmed with the amount of activity and the number of reports that are generated.  This usually corrected itself after they stayed over to complete reports, and realized that you had to use whatever time you had to stay on top of the paperwork during high volume call periods.

This is very true when you go from busy to slow you really never experienced dealing with the day to day stuff.

When I first started... my first FTO was day shift in the slowest possible beat we have.  As you can imagine, I didn't learn much.  My FTO wasn't very motivated to show me anything that might prove useful later such as paperwork or police work.  I did however get to be on a first name basis with every firefighter in the area.... we had the safest firehouses in the state, almost 24hr police protection of the day room couch.

My second FTO worked 2nds in a much busier area.  My first shift... DV run with blood/teeth on floor.  Arrest made.  I thought "Wow, this S#$T is just like on COPS".... then my FTO said, "Go grab a NIBRS and the DV packet".  I said, "What?"

Needless to say, my 2nd FTO and I played a lot of catch-up.

I think OP is onto something... starting in a busy area is a great way to learn.  I learned very little beyond the ingredients for a perfect sandwich from my time with my first FTO.  Being in a busy car for the remainder of my training was invaluable.

Guys just starting out in my area often get sponsored by and  hired first by very small agencies as a part timer. Those lower-paying agencies usually have high personnel  turn over rates and overall lower volumes of calls.