When I was young I assumed all cops would be veterans, and was surprised to find out that most never served, I don’t know what the percentage is today.
What percentage of the almost 25 million veterans are cops, do you think?
I don’t know. If you’ve got numbers I’d appreciate seeing them. The only thing I’ve seen is anecdotal. There is this tidbit from the DOJ, however:
In FY 2012 the COPS Hiring Program (CHP) made available $111 million directly to law enforcement agencies to hire and/or rehire career law enforcement officers for the advancement of public safety through an increase in their community policing capacity and crime prevention efforts. Grantees that received 2012 CHP grant funding for new hire positions were required to hire a new officer who is a post-9/11 military veteran.
Under FY 2013 CHP, new hire officer positions are not required to be military veterans, as under FY 2012 CHP. However, as the COPS Office supports the Attorney General’s commitment to hiring military veterans whenever possible, applicants who committed to hiring or rehiring at least one military veteran under CHP received additional consideration for FY 2013 CHP funding.
If one considers the prevalence of the deployment of MRAPS to small town police and county sheriff’s departments it seems reasonable to assume that those said departments would sign up for additional grant money requiring the hire of veterans. For them what’s the downside? Get money and they hire pre-trained supposedly competent individuals. At the least it establishes a hiring preference. It does beg the question if the purchase of MRAPS is as prevalent as we think outside of the FR fishbowl.
I’ve met some who’ve served and some who haven’t. It is a mixed bag. The ultimate question is however: Does the hiring of veterans as cops poses to us a risk as we think MRAPS do? I can only speculate. There are veterans who just need a job; who feel obligated to continue their service in some capacity; or those on a power trip who got off kicking in doors in the sandbox.
We also have to consider the quality of recruits going into the service. We have to examine our own understanding of things. If what we say here on FR is true and patriotic Americans are being purged from the armed forces in favor of PC homosympathizers with a fascistic streak then one could only conclude that there is cause for concern when they enter the military-LEO pipeline.