Behind the Badge – Police Life
Most people don’t know what it is like to be behind the badge. Or have someone tell over a radio that you’re going to a place where shots are being fired and there are already numerous people down. As you read this, you are probably already saying to yourself “I couldn’t even imagine that.” For police officers, this is unfortunately a regular occurrence.
What goes through your mind while you are driving there?
My family. What do I need to do when I get there? What is my best route to get there? I hope no one is dead. Most importantly, am I ready to give my life if necessary to protect someone else? This list goes on and on.
This is one version of living a life behind the badge but with our badge comes so much more responsibility than just responding call to call.
Being on Your A-Game
Police officers need to be on their A-game every second of every day. It doesn’t matter if they are at home with their families or working their beat.
Not knowing what call you may go to next is what keeps police officers at such a high alert at all times. An example of this would be dealing with a minor dispute over neighbors having their music to loud and then going to a shots fired call as I mentioned above.
This is an exhausting feeling to live with day in and day out. From the youngest police officer to the oldest, we have discovered ways to deal with these highs and lows. Unfortunately, a lot of officers deal with this by turning to alcohol or medication to help with “calming the nerves.”
Helping Everyone Except Themselves
I have been a police officer for nearly eleven years and I have absolutely seen the worst of the worst in humanity. I decided that I was no longer going to succumb to the fact that everyone in this world is bad and everyone is out to get me.
Seeing so much negativity really shifts your train of thought about life and people in general. We cannot have this as police officers or anyone who lives behind the badge. When I decided I wanted to see the world through the “not everybody is bad” glasses, it opened my world up to whole new opportunities.
On a daily basis, officers are called to fix everyone’s life problems. As time goes on, it truly becomes redundant and we begin to not want to make even the simplest decisions off duty. My gorgeous wife Ashlie wrote a blog about “I Don’t Care What we have for Dinner,” and I couldn’t agree more.
When I’m at work, I always joke with my partners and ask them first thing in the morning, where are we going for lunch? After a short pause and a lot of I don’t knows, we continue to our day.
If we get lunch that day, I will ask my partners again what they want to eat for lunch. At this point nobody can decide at all what we are going to eat. It takes 30-40 minutes sometimes to even figure out what we want to eat! If there is not a problem in decision making there, I don’t know what it is.
A typical line from an officer to his spouse is “whatever you want, I’m fine with.” As officers, we often leave all of the decision making to our spouse. This is not only unfair to your spouse but to yourself as well.
In taking care of other people all day, most officers neglect their own well being. Whether that be emotional, physical or psychological. We at LEO Warriors want to completely change the mindset of officers by guiding them through healthy alternatives to these lifestyles and showing them the way to get out of that funk.
Customer Service
Something that I have truly become passionate about by living a life behind the badge is customer service. No one has ever taught us how to be great sales people. A lot of police agencies lack the knowledge, know-how or experience in customer service and don’t teach it to their officers.
We are in control of how we handle each situation. I know that there are policies set into place to guide you along your decision making. As officers, we are the face of our department while responding to each call. It is our responsibility to change the perception of law enforcement by the way that we handle ourselves during calls.
This is not something that will magically happen. There needs to be a lot of hard work and overcoming adversity with this. It all starts with you. Stop your unit every once in a while to get out say hi to people. Play sports with kids. Try to save that dog from being hit by a car. Most of us do these things already but we need to market this through social media and the media in general.
Dark Secrets of Living behind the Badge
OK so there not really dark secrets here. These are issues that we all need to seek out help with or help one another with every once in a while.
Divorce: Police officers and their spouses are assumed to have a high divorce rate. Many studies are proving that the profession is far from the top of the list of ‘likely professions to cause a divorce.’ It is important to point out that a unique set of stressors exist in the dynamics of a police marriage. Failure to work through these could result in divorce.
Infidelity: When we began to work on a platform involving police officers, I had some very close friends ask if I was sure I wanted to do this. Cops are often untruthfully stereotyped as being unfaithful to their spouses and breaking that stigma is going to be hard.
There are normally underlying reasons as to why this occurs such as not receiving the attention they desire at home, trying to fit within the stigma or that is all they know. Addressing these issues is something that we want to tackle.
Suicide:This plagues the life behind the badge in so many agencies. It absolutely kills me to see that officers commit suicide 3 times more than being gunned down by criminals. Men’s Health has a great article about Police Mental Health. If you or you know someone who may be considering this, here is an absolute great resource. National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI
Living a Life Behind the Badge Conclusion
We are in an ever changing world. Hell, in my 11 years in law enforcement I have seen significant changes. This will continue to happen throughout all of our careers. All we can do is adapt and change our methodologies. One thing that will never change though is your desire to help the community in which you work for. Let’s start a movement. Tomorrow when you’re at work, take 5-10 minutes providing an extraordinary service that you normally wouldn’t do.
Show the world that police officers are people too. Most of all, hug your spouse, children or loved ones and show them gratitude for everything that they are to you in their life.
If anything that I have said throughout this post hits home to you and you are ready to make a change in your life, no matter how big or small. Schedule your free coaching screening appointment HERE. You are an amazing person and I thank you for your service to our great Nation. Always remember LEO Warriors… Love, Light and Blessings to you all.
