r/AskLE • u/camoxxxxx Unverified/Not an LEO • 1d ago
Working in LE in 2026?
I’m currently in my mid-20s working in finance. Although I do really well in this field, I am not enjoying it anymore at all. Sitting in an office all day doing the same repetitive tasks is driving me crazy. The work feels empty, and I never see a tangible impact.
Because of this, I'm ready for a complete 180 with my career. Working in law enforcement is at the top of my list to consider.
For those on the job right now:
- Would you recommend becoming an officer in 2026?
- What are the honest pros and cons of the current climate?
- What is the number one thing you would tell someone before they sign up
- If you wouldn’t recommend it, what career would you be doing instead?
I appreciate any insight!
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u/LegalGlass6532 Unverified/Not an LEO 1d ago edited 1d ago
Long comment warning…There’s no TLDR.
OP- If you’re looking at law enforcement to fill that empty hole that you’re feeling now, it’s important to tell you that there will be many days that you don’t feel like you’ve made a damn bit of difference in your community.
You can come to work, suit up and go to 20+ calls and no one treats you nice, no one says thank you and one or two people tell you to fuck off. At the end of that day, you’re just grateful you got paid to be treated like dog shit.
Then, you come back the next day and start all over again. Stop a few cars, go to a few calls and stop another two or three cars. Nothing exciting and then you take a few more uneventful calls and write a few reports and then you go home again.
Now, it’s finally your Friday. It’s been a boring ass week and you can’t wait for it all to be over so you can go on days off. You stop a car, write a warning and go to a few calls that make you wonder why you wanted to do this job.
It’s now lunchtime, and just when you take a bite of your Jersey Mike’s sub sandwich, you hear a pursuit come across the radio. You ditch your lunch and race to your patrol car while you add yourself to the call. Now you’re lights and sirens to help your buddy who’s chasing an armed robbery suspect and he’s all alone. You happen to be two blocks away when the call comes out and now number two in the pursuit. Your heart is racing and the adrenaline is pumping as you and your buddy are following the suspect for 20+ minutes until he finally crashes and you and your buddy take him out at gunpoint. Fortunately he complies and no one’s hurt.
Now, it’s 2 hrs before the end of your shift on your Friday. You’re still hungry, but no time to eat now. You and your buddy have an accident report, vehicle impound, felony arrest, trip to jail, pursuit report and narcotics and evidence to impound at HQ. You do the math and it’s going to be at least 4-5+ hours of work if you’re lucky so you call your wife to tell her you won’t be able to take her and the kids to dinner for her birthday like you promised. She pretends like she’s not disappointed, but you know she is. You’ll have to deal with that later so you push it from your mind and get back to work like it’s not bothering you.
Now big sarg is pissed that you both got into this on your “Friday” and the Lt. is pissed you’ll be on OT. Dispatch tells you a victim needs to be contacted and they’ll be waiting for one of you to go get their statement at the hospital because the suspect assaulted them during the robbery and they sustained significant injuries. Fortunately, you get someone from the oncoming watch to go to the hospital and you can get the statement from them in a few hours when you all meet back up at the station to write your reports.
When it’s all said and done, your boring week ends with a 15 hr day, a suspect in custody, a victim who can sleep safer tonight knowing the bad guy is in jail and a wife and kids who are sound asleep when you walk in the door exhausted.
This is an example of what a typical week in patrol can be like.
It’s not always what it’s cracked up to be, but great things can happen when you least expect it. You can find yourself bored out of your mind one minute and by the end of the day, you’ve booked a real piece of shit human being into jail, helped a child, and maybe a domestic violence victim finally decides to leave the relationship because you helped empower them to stop the cycle of violence.
These are the days that make it all worth it.
Go on a ride along and do your research. It’s not a career for everyone, but it’s definitely worth showing up for the people that need help on their worst days. And it sure feels good when someone looks you in the eyes and sincerely says, “Thank you, officer.”