Jackie Cerri Dream job paper January 22, 2020

My dream job is to work in law enforcement, become a police officer. That could change

if I begin to learn more about the criminal justice field but that is what I want to be right now. I

have been told the job description by many former officers. To be a police officer you need to

protect the citizens of your town and be willing to do anything you’re needed for. As an officer

you need to be ready to be viewed as a bad guy, because in today’s society that is what we think

of the Police. According to an article in the Great Falls Tribune, Police officers began being

viewed as bad people after the Michael Brown incident, or perhaps even earlier. There are bad

officers out there, and they take advantage of their power. But not all officers are bad, some are

actually out there to help people (Slavik, 2015). As an officer, you also need to be willing to do a

lot of weird jobs, like helping people in a time of need, like this article by the Washington post,

an officer helped a mother bring her child home, after he noticed the child was throwing a

tantrum and making his mother very upset. The Metro officer rode the train with them the entire

time, which was 30 minutes. This wasn’t in his job description, but helping people comes with

the job (Klein, 2019). The only thing you need to become an officer is a high school diploma,

but departments do want life experience. So, while you’re passing that time after high school,

they expect you to build your resume. Either going into the military, going to college, both, or

working for a security company of some sort. While you only really need a high school diploma

to get this job, there are certain towns that will pay more if you have military experience or have

a college degree. So, there is an incentive to doing more.

There are a few reasons as to why getting a better education would be good when going

into the Criminal Justice field. The first one, while having “life experience” is good, you also

need to be educated because you are working with different people every day. Getting a degree

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Jackie Cerri Dream job paper January 22, 2020

in sociology, psychology, or criminal justice can help you when you finally start working in the

field. There is also some incentive to getting a better education. In Massachusetts, there

something called “the Quincy bill”. The Quincy bill claims that officers with a higher education

or military experience, will be paid more than someone without a degree. This bill has been

around since the 70’s, but some towns don’t do this, and they pay all of their officers the same

amount. According to a statehouse article, Massachusetts Police chiefs believe that criminal

justice programs at universities are very beneficial to anyone that is in them (providence

publications, 2001). My current classes here at Nichols help me learn more about people and the

Criminal Justice field. I am taking justice studies, and sociology right now. Last semester I took

Criminal law and procedure, psychology, juvenile delinquency, and civil rights. All these classes

help me learn more about my field. After this year I will be going into the military and I will

learn more/different things that will help me in this field, that I wouldn’t necessarily learn in a

college environment.

According to a banking website, police officers are roughly paid the same amount

annually, $50,000. But I live in New Hampshire so the annual salary of officers in that state is

$56,560 (Lisa, 2019). As an officer you can always work overtime, and extra shifts to bring in

some more money, but for me I would spend most of my money on things I needed at the time. I

would set aside an account to save up for retirement, and I would put other money aside for bills.

As a teenager I wasn’t very good with the money I got from working, but as I get older, I want to

handle my money better. I would buy a new car, probably rent an apartment – depending on

where I was living. Then I would probably set aside money for weekly food shopping. After that

the rest of the money would be for whatever I wanted.

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Jackie Cerri Dream job paper January 22, 2020

Bibliography
Klein, A. (2019, July 2019). 'It wasn't in his job description': Metro police officer escorts a mom and her
tantruming autistic child home; The transit officer saw the boy having a meltdown and offered to
ride the train with him and his mother. "The officer ends up riding the metro T. Retrieved from
www.washingtonpost.com:
https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=6b0f4ead-0df8-426d-bd58-
1ad03136a971&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A5
WMR-S0J1-DXKP-J53K-00000-00&pddocid=urn%3AcontentItem%3A5WMR-S0J1-DXKP-J53K-
00000-00&pdcontentcom

Lisa, A. (2019, April 13). Here's how much officers make in every state. Retrieved from
www.gobankingrates.com: https://www.gobankingrates.com/making-money/jobs/police-
officer-salary-state/#27

providence publications. (2001, December 6). AT THE STATEHOUSE - Effectiveness of police officer
education law questioned. Retrieved from www.providencejournal-bulletin.com:
https://advance.lexis.com/document/?pdmfid=1516831&crid=2c867d53-e0d5-4547-b2f6-
7e8d565e915a&pddocfullpath=%2Fshared%2Fdocument%2Fnews%2Furn%3AcontentItem%3A4
4M1-WPX0-0094-6040-00000-00&pddocid=urn%3AcontentItem%3A44M1-WPX0-0094-6040-
00000-00&pdcontentcom

Slavik, K. (2015, May 10). www.greatfallstribune.com. Retrieved from great falls tribune:
https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/life/2015/05/10/police-officers-bad-guys/27102953/