Public safety
What does a Police Officer do?
Turning up when something has gone wrong, and taking charge of it.
What the day is like
- Outside, in the weather.
- People all day.
- Right or wrong, to a standard.
- No two days alike.
The facts
- Pay
- $77,310 a year, median
- Police and Detectives, May 2025
- Usually needs
- Varies; see the handbook page
- A year or two, often while earning something.
- Jobs
- +3% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks growing slowly
What is good about it
- No two days are the same, if that is what you want from a week.
What people find hard about it
- Hostility and abuse
- Shift work
- Paperwork after every incident
Vetting is thorough, and the job changes how people see you off duty too.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Reporting and monitoring are exposed; the part where a person takes responsibility in the moment is not.
How to find out whether it suits you
Arrange a ride-along, ideally on a Friday night rather than a Tuesday morning.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.