If you are a woman considering a career change, or you are looking for a career to dedicate yourself to after leaving school or college, then law enforcement could be a great choice. While being a police officer naturally isn’t for everyone, owing to the fact that it can sometimes involve stressful or dangerous situations, there are all different forms of law enforcement work for different agencies and departments, and not all of them are equivalent to the work of the cops on the streets. There are also great law enforcement careers that can be an option for people who normal police work doesn’t appeal to.
Policing is also a field where there is a high demand for more female workers. Nationally, the average percentage of women working in law enforcement roles is about 12%, with this being lower in smaller or more rural departments, and higher in big cities. However, because many victims of crime and witnesses are women, they are often more comfortable when there is a female law enforcement officer involved in their investigation. This isn’t the only reason why police departments value having female officers, and there is a drive towards having more female representation in all sectors of public service work.
Here we look at some of the reasons why a career in law enforcement could be right for you, and some of the advantages to choosing policing as a career and study path:
Job Security
A lot of people these days are worried about the future of the industry they work in. There are a lot of reasons for this, including the advancements in technology that mean fewer people are needed to do certain types of work, and some roles have disappeared almost entirely (since booking flights and hotels yourself on the internet became easy, you see a lot less travel agents, for instance). Additionally, a lot of industries and businesses took a hit during the pandemic, with businesses focused around events or tourism, for example, being hit hard, and some not able to recover.
Police work, however, will always be needed, and will always need humans to be doing it, rather than machines. Even though technology is being adopted more and more in law enforcement, the human element, at least for our lifetimes, will always need to be there. This makes law enforcement, like many other public service careers such as nursing, essentially a ‘futureproof’ job. Even in unusual situations like the COVID lockdowns, police were required to check the mandates around the lockdowns were being upheld, even though there was naturally less other crime.
Law Enforcement is Needed Everywhere
If you want a career where you can work wherever you want in the US and can have the knowledge that you can relocate if you want to later in your life, then law enforcement is a good choice again. There is a need for people in this field everywhere, from rural areas through to major cities. While the requirements to become a police officer vary from state to state, the educational requirements are generally similar, as are other things like having a good character record and being in good physical and mental condition, so applying to work in a different state once you have already started your police career in your original chosen location should never be too much of a problem.
You can also boost your employability by doing online degree programs that will not only give you degree or masters level qualifications, helping you progress further in your policing career and making you a great employment prospect if you want to apply to a different department, but will also give you a lot of knowledge and information that will help you excel in your work. You can check out online programs such as the Laurier policing degree from WLU if you want to do this. This can also be a good option if you have just left school and want to pursue law enforcement, as while most states only require a high school diploma to apply, you do usually need to be over 21. This means a policing degree could be great preparation you can do as a school leaver, ready to apply when you are older.
Great Career Prospects
Law enforcement can offer you a wide range of different specialisms you can work in, with different fields of policing and the choice between police departments, Sheriff’s departments and federal agencies. It can also offer a route to senior, lucrative positions where all of these organizations have a chain of command. Whether you want to move through the hierarchy as you advance your career or you are passionate about a certain type of police work, you will have options throughout your lifetime as a law enforcement professional.
Making a Difference
While some types of law enforcement officers have a negative reputation, it is down to you what kind of police officer you will be. Good police workers make a huge difference to communities, support victims, and even save lives. If you like the idea of helping people and making your community or even your country safer for everyone, then you should find police work very satisfying and personally rewarding.
Good Benefits
As with most public service roles, law enforcement comes with good benefits like a pension, opportunities to get financial support for things like higher education, and also things like paid overtime. These can make a big difference, allowing you to concentrate on being the best you can be in your career. You should also find that things like maternity leave are generous compared with a lot of private companies, should you be interested in starting a family.
As you can see, there are lots of things that make working in law enforcement an interesting prospect. It is a type of work where no two days are the same, and one that you can take pride in as you progress through your career.
