rlfj: Blog

One of the interesting things I learned about becoming a police officer is that in many, if not most, jurisdictions there is not a requirement that recruits be given a psychiatric evaluation when applying. In Georgia, for instance, the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council simply requires an applicant to “Undergo a physical examination by a licensed physician to determine any physical, emotional or mental conditions that may adversely affect the ability to exercise the powers or duties of a peace officer.” I have heard similar things from police officers. In some cases, the psych eval is simply the doctor giving you a physical asking “Are you depressed or crazy?” If you answer no, you’re in. That being said, most police officers do not want crazies on the force with them, if for no other reason than for their own safety. As a result, Training Officers are on the lookout for what some call ‘woo-woos’, guys who want to see the lights flash and the sirens go woo-woo.

Are things changing in this regard? Yes, slowly. Psychiatric evaluations cost money, money that police departments often don’t have. Politicians can yap all they want about upgrading standards and increasing training, but that costs money, which the same politicians do not want to pay. Often it takes a YouTube disaster to get them to actually do something.

Important note: For those of you who have purchased a copy of my stories, I appreciate the purchases, as does my wife, who is spending the money!

Well, the guessing is over. Grim is becoming a police officer. Interestingly, at least to me, is how some people are unhappy about this. Cops are bad, cops are evil, cops are [fill in the blank.] Sorry, I disagree. As the saying went when I was a kid, if you don’t like the cops, next time you get robbed, call a hippie. (That probably dates me; I turn 70 in November.)

Several readers have been wishing that Grim goes into politics or law. They are looking for Grim to become a larger-than-life national leader of some sort and solve all sorts of problems facing the country. Sorry, this is a story about a young man trying to figure out his life and find his place in the world, something that all of us have to do at some point.

I need to do a major shout-out to one of my editors. I couldn’t have written Book 3 without the assistance of grynslvr2, a veteran police officer in Texas. Yeah, I know Texas is not Georgia, but as you will learn in Book 3, that isn’t all that important. I repeat, I couldn’t have written this without his constant advice and editing. Any errors are mine and mine alone.

Several readers with military experience sympathized with Grim’s issues finding work. Many of the support jobs in the Army translate to civilian life – medics can become EMTs, Army truck drivers can become civilian truck drivers, electronics technicians can do the same outside of the Army, etc. Combat jobs have a considerably different skill set and do not translate well to civilian life. More than a few readers commented on the limited number of jobs available for an Eleven Bravo.

Several readers did comment that there are considerable educational benefits for post-9/11 veterans, which is quite true, and I mention a number of them. I probably won’t go into that too much more in this story, but it will pop up much later, in the sequels.

Grim has a problem, in that one of the reasons he joined the Army, to figure out what he wanted to do after high school, turned out to be a bust. While many veterans can translate their military service to a civilian career, not all can. My son used his experience as an electrician’s mate on a nuclear carrier to easily move into electrical engineering and computer engineering jobs as a civilian. On the other hand, a nephew who served in Iraq discovered there weren’t a lot of civilian equivalent jobs for a gun bunny in a Marine artillery unit. More on this in the next few chapters.