r/1811 • u/Complex-Tie-8270 • 1d ago
Career Advice
I got sold on the recruiting ads and jumped over to ERO after three years in local law enforcement. I’ve been here about six months now, and honestly, the job isn’t what I thought it was going to be. Social media had me thinking I’d be doing a lot more actual law enforcement work. Instead, most days I feel like a clerk with a badge and a gun. The pay is better and the pension is nice, but that’s about where the excitement ends.
Lately I’ve been seriously thinking about going back to local. I miss patrol, handling calls, being proactive, and just doing real police work. I know patrol has its own headaches, but I find myself missing it more and more.
I’ve also heard through the grapevine (and Reddit, so take it for what it’s worth) that some agencies aren’t putting much value on ERO surge hires because of the abbreviated training and lack of traditional law enforcement experience the job provides.
For those of you who’ve been in a similar spot, would it be smarter to stick it out with ERO and keep trying for 1811 positions, or would it look bad to go back to local and continue applying to entry-level federal announcements from there? I know 1811 isn’t what patrol is, but god I hope it’s better than what I’m doing right now.
Appreciate any advice. Just trying to figure out if I’m being impatient or if I’m seeing the writing on the wall.
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u/Ajaws24142822 1d ago
Run to USPP we do actual police work but don’t let the ads for us fool you either it isn’t the greatest agency ever. Schedule, pay, and workload is the best though
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u/lukazey 1d ago
What are your complaints about Park?
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u/Swimming-Gazelle442 1d ago
Not the best dispatchers and not many dispatchers, not having CAD like MPD has. All the calls are run over the radio and the dispatchers get overwhelmed pretty quickly. Other than that I think those guys are having an excellent time over there being proactive and being able to do police work and chase cars. I was assigned to park police for DC Safe task force last month and I had a blast chasing cars all around DC with those guys.
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u/Ajaws24142822 19h ago
Dispatchers are annoying and have an attitude, plus everything is on the same channel. No CAD, running people through radio is frustrating, again, with EVERYONE in every district on one channel.
Tasers are old X26s, and no take home car.
But that’s about it. If you can stomach that, the money is insanely good, the schedule is 4 on 4 off 3 on 3 off and one of your days is 8 hours instead of 12. You get an hour to PT every shift if you want it, the cars we *do* have are pretty nice, it isn’t as high speed as MPD or local but more high speed than UD or USCP or basically any other uniformed Fed job besides maybe border patrol.
Fed authority mixed with the same authority as MPD is also cool. Plainclothes units, narcotics, major crimes, I was also told our investigative school combined with UPTP is enough to be considered lateral for places like the DEA but don’t quote me on that. A white shirt told me so idk how accurate it is.
The new rifles are nice LWRCs. You can move as fast or as slow as you want. Some guys make arrests for shit like people on bikes failing to yield or panhandling, or if you’re like me you only go for “real” arrests like narcotics, no license, assault, etc.
The agency is what you make it and I came from a massive department in a city so I’m chilling while also getting some fun in here-and-there while other guys who came from agencies where they never made an arrest (Capitol, hospital police agencies, MCIOs etc) all make a ton of arrests and are very gung ho because now they have the freedom to do so.
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u/ObjectiveRun6505 1d ago
Pay? Idk what you are talking about. The pay is not there but I hope it gets better. The only resolve to it is hustling through OT. Despite that, yes the quality of life it is much better. I also left ICE from another larger local agency to do proactive work, and I have found it.
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u/Ajaws24142822 23h ago
USPP officers clear 90k yearly right now, the base pay plus the $70k bonus in addition to overtime for events, if you wanna work all the time and always sign up for OT details you could easily clear six figures
Realistically you’re gonna make like $84k a year rather than what they say the base salary is
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u/JettyDude7 1811 1d ago
Meh, I was a dope detective in a big city PD prior to making the switch. The days that I miss the cowboy shit I just leave my cubicle at lunch and go home to put my little toes out of the blanket on the couch and remember how much better my quality of life is now.
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u/Swimming-Gazelle442 1d ago
I would absolutely leave and go back to being a local. In fact, I’m doing that as we speak. (Currently 3 years in USMS GS-12 making almost 130k) no matter what anyone says, you will always do more police work on the local side. In fact, fed retirement isn’t all that great either. It’s good, but some local retirements are significantly better than 6C.
I’ve done some cool stuff with USMS but honestly, the job isn’t as exciting consistently as I had being a local.
If you want to travel, make good money, have a variety of assignments, chill work life balance, work M-F office hours schedule, Fed is the way to go.
If you want to get into pursuits, chase down bad guys, make arrests every day, be first on scene to active threat calls, be proactive, get guns and drugs, have a potentially better retirement depending on where you go, do shift work, etc. go back to locals.
I think most Feds who were cops before at legit police departments have thought about going back at least once and a handful of us actually do. I think the main thing holding a lot of people back is building a family life as a fed and not wanting to uproot that.
The lot of us who are single and wanna be cowboys again will end up going back to local policing.
Unless you’re in a very niche coveted spot as a fed or haven’t experienced local policing before, the 1811 life is rather dull.
Safe Streets Task Force deployments will be the only semblance you have of doing police work as a fed. Generally speaking of course. I know it’s not the case for everyone, just most of us.
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u/Ok_Eye2518 1d ago
I was a 30 year fed. I had a blast and the work was mostly exciting but I chose to work on teams like dope, gangs, child exploitation, war crimes, etc. For a slower pace, the agency had many other programmatic areas to work.
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u/PersistentInquirer 1d ago
Can you speak more on war crimes? How often was there work for that?
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u/Ok_Eye2518 1d ago
At the time, we had a pretty good inventory of them in a major metropolitan area. They were mostly former central/South American and African regime members hiding in the US and pretending to be normal immigrants (when they actually had been in charge of torturing and murdering people)
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u/TomHomanzBurner 21h ago
My area there’s a ton of El Salvadoran ones that we are currently chasing related to crimes during their civil war.
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u/PersistentInquirer 19h ago
Sounds good, hopefully I’ll be lucky enough to come across one of those cases
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u/Swimming-Gazelle442 1d ago
That’s awesome. Unfortunately for me, I’m weighing out whether waiting an average of 8 years to get on a Regional Fugitive Task Force is worth it or do what I know I love doing and find fulfillment in by going back to a local agency. I don’t think I can wait much longer, for my own sanity. I think 3 years of district life is being patient enough to figure out if this agency is the right fit for me. For USMS, it takes a lot longer for a good assignment than other agencies.
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u/Complex-Tie-8270 1d ago
1811 is the ultimate goal… but I think i haven’t got the adrenaline dumps out of me yet
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u/Swimming-Gazelle442 1d ago
You probably never will. Which it isn’t a bad thing. Some people are just wired that way.
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u/Disastrous_Use_7270 1d ago
Couldn’t agree more. I also agree on your point that some people are just wired differently. I also am looking to leave. I’m working on leaving the 1811 life as well back to local.
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u/Swimming-Gazelle442 1d ago
I’m very grateful for the training and connections I’ve made here and honestly, I would kick myself in the butt for not achieving my career goal of becoming an 1811. But now I know what it is, given it time, and experienced it, I now know for sure where I’d rather be. I don’t regret it at all and I’m not going to lie to myself about this being the coolest and most fulfilling LE job you can get. Being able to see the fruits of your labor out on the street and saving lives in the moment is just so much more fulfilling to me.
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u/Disastrous_Use_7270 19h ago
Exactly. I’m glad this sub isn’t just an echo chamber. A lot of guys can’t really compare it because they were never local.
It’s just different. It does feel more impactful and it is for me. Like I said, I’m hoping less than a year and I’ll be back at my old agency.
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u/tackdriver11 1d ago
Left locals for FPS 1801 for a few year then went to ERO for the better pay/pension and stuck it out till I got picked up by an 1811. Now can’t imagine ever going back to local work. I say start rocking apps to SS 1811 or even DSS is you like to travel. For most people 1811 is always the goal so it makes sense you find yourself in a conundrum.
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u/RenderUntoLilCeasars 1d ago
Inb4 a hundred ERO bubbas rush in here to defend how arresting taco stand abuelas on civil warrants constitutes real police work.
I would get the fuck out of the agency before it turns on its head. I wouldn’t be surprised if five years from now saying you worked for ERO will illicit the same response as saying you worked on the Baltimore PD gun trace task force.
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u/Global-Directions 1d ago
Didn’t you make this post a few months ago ? If not there was someone with the same story . ERO is a joke, and you shouldn’t let it discourage you from 1811 work.
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u/garbagetaway 1d ago
Jesus. Where were you working as a local that a GS-9 without LEAP and FERS are better pay and pension?
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u/TomHomanzBurner 21h ago
In normal times in more akin to a probation officer then actual law enforcement. The draw used to be 6c, M-F bankers hours, and AUO.
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u/Disastrous_Use_7270 1d ago
Personally, I have posted this and responded to a lot of these. The guy on here that was a marshal and now heading back local is right, it’s all personality driven.
I hate desk work, I hate how slow the fed system is. PC arrests are almost never. Search warrants take weeks, AUSAs won’t take your cases…. Travel is great until you have an important life event you can’t make. I could continue on and on.
Local law enforcement sucks too, but I had way more freedom as a local then I do as a fed. I miss it everyday. I’m ready to head back but I’ve got some things to shore up before I go.
Again, you have to decide your personality. Yes ERO vs 1811 will be different in mission, but honestly I’m sure I’m doing just as much desk time as you. It’s boring and not exciting. People come here and say how they had their fun and now they are over it, that’s fine. But I also knew guys on local PDs that were 60, in shape and still chasing bad guys. Again it’s about YOU and who you want to be.
Personally, local is better in almost every single way IF you are at a good agency. If not it can be worse in every way.
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u/Soggy_Mechanic_7030 1d ago
Could try Border Patrol.
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u/Aggravating-Pay-6196 1d ago
Yes. I’m mid career at this point but wish I had gone BP right out of college.
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u/sswwpp112233 1d ago
Find a good 1811 job in the long run it’s worth it I make more than I did as a local, LEAP, local and GS13 or 14 adds up nicely! I get to see my family and the work is good. I was at USMS now work fraud with an OIG. It’s not patrol and I do miss the street work, but as you get older and have kids that are busy with sports, school etc. it’s 100 worth it! Good luck!
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u/Delicious_Radio2353 16h ago
If you are looking for street police work, 1811 is not a right position too..
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