What a police officer really does
You answer the calls nobody else takes, make judgment calls with people who are upset, and then write it all down so it holds up later.
FieldLaw and public service
Preparation (O*NET Job Zone)Medium preparation needed
What the work involves
What fills a typical week for police officers, built from O*NET occupation data.
- Start the shift at briefing, then patrol an assigned area in a car for most of the day.
- Answer calls from dispatch: crashes, disputes, alarms, welfare checks and complaints, many of them not crimes at all.
- Talk with upset, confused or angry people face to face, often several times a shift.
- Decide on the spot whether the facts show a violation, and what the right response is: a warning, a citation, a referral or a report.
- Investigate and diagram traffic crashes and take statements from drivers and witnesses.
- Spend a large share of the shift writing reports that supervisors, prosecutors and courts will read.
- Point people toward community services when the real problem is not a police problem.
What the days are like
What people in the job know
- Most of the job is talking to people who are not having a good day. Conflict Situations: 69% every day; Dealing With Unpleasant, Angry, or Discourteous People: 53% every day (O*NET Work Context)
- You make consequential decisions constantly, and a wrong one can be very hard to undo. Frequency of Decision Making: 66% every day; Consequence of Error: 60% extremely serious (O*NET Work Context)
- Much of your shift is spent sitting in the car, not on foot. In an Enclosed Vehicle: 89% every day; Spend Time Sitting: 40% more than half the time (O*NET Work Context)
- Long weeks are normal. Duration of Typical Work Week: 68% more than 40 hours (O*NET Work Context)
- Reports are a core job, not paperwork on the side. They follow you to court. Task rank 5 'Document incidents in reports' importance 87; task rank 15 'Testify in court as a witness' importance 79 (O*NET)
How people get into it
O*NET places this in Job Zone 3. Respondents report 42% of roles need a high school diploma, 33% an associate's degree and 18% a post secondary certificate. New officers attend a police academy and then ride with a field training officer before working alone.
The Firstday trial, easy to hard
Three simulated tasks with AI coworkers who message you, react to your work and coach with questions. Nobody scores you.
What the trial can't show: This trial does not cover the physical side of policing: driving, first aid, physical fitness, use of force, arrests, or the stress of being in real danger. It contains no tactical or weapons content. It also cannot show the shift work, the weather, or what it feels like to carry the emotional weight of hard calls over years. You act as a probationary officer under a field training officer, and all people and places are fictional.
Reading about it is one thing.
Find out how the work feels to you before you spend on a degree, course or job change. Your first trial is free.
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Job details on this page are built from O*NET OnLine, 33-3051.00. This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.