Thread: Police Forces
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Old 02-07-2020, 07:33 AM
Gunner Gunner is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
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So, I can only speak to my experience. I currently live in Urban Maryland, but for eight years I lived in Central Arkansas. My family has a long history in law enforcement that I won't bore you with.

The primary reason that I believe you would see very poor retention among most law enforcement agencies is that a good part of the force, sometimes a majority, just doesn't live in the community where they work. For example, if I recall correctly, the last time I checked, something like 60% of the Little Rock (AR) Police Department lives outside the city. I know in my small town, nearly all of the patrol officers lived elsewhere. Only Sergeants and above generally lived in town, and not all of them. I recall that our Chief of Police actually lived in another town, where he had worked his way up the ranks. When he was passed over for the Chief's job in his town, he took the job in our town. Not sure how long he stayed. Law enforcement is one career where at least limited geographic mobility was the norm. It's my experience, that a police officer might work for three or four different departments over a 20-year career and might leave a department for a span of years and then return when a new opportunity becomes available.

Of course, post-Twilight War, this kind of mobility will be unheard of and I could see a 'reshuffling' of officers, as some officers stay and protect the communities they DO live in, but there is also the additional issue that, outside of densely urban areas, alot of officers live in the rural area outside the city/town area where they work and would, I feel, be motivated to "protect the homestead" rather than a community of semi-strangers.

The issue of law enforcement officers also being subject to military reserve/National Guard recall has been covered well by others.
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