Gordon Graham
Category: Law Enforcement

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Today’s Tip is for law enforcement.

As true professionals, we must be willing to do whatever is necessary.

Today’s Tip deals with “real” police work.  

While there can be many similarities, law enforcement work varies from state to state, county to county and city to city. Of course it also varies widely depending on the mission and goals of the agency. Suffice it to say that we perform a wide variety of duties. So what is “real” police work, anyway?   

Think back to the day you graduated from the academy. You probably thought you had a good idea of what you would be doing out there on patrol. You probably thought you would be investigating crimes and maybe taking a report here and there. But many of us thought we would be catching bad guys most of the time.   

I bet you never imagined that you would be babysitting a little boy while his aunt made the hour-long drive to the station. Did you think you would find yourself standing in the scorching hot sun for three hours watching a parade pass by? What about reading a book to a kindergartner? Giving a talk about crime prevention? Helping a stranded motorist? Attending a neighborhood BBQ? These things might not be exactly what you pictured the job to be, but they all serve a legitimate purpose.  

You probably know someone who goes out of his or her way to avoid certain tasks or assignments. Maybe because the assignments are boring, unpleasant or too difficult; or maybe because they are not seen as “real” police work.  

As true professionals, we must be willing to do whatever is necessary, and not just those things that we really like doing.  

Next time you are asked to do something that seems a far cry from what you originally though was “real” police work, please remember that, first and foremost, we are public servants. I’m guessing that, whatever it is you are being asked to do, actually is “real” police work. Odds are it probably falls within the job description of a public servant too. 

That’s Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.